Central Buses

Central Buses is a bus company based in Birmingham, West Midlands County, England, and operating services in the Birmingham and neighbouring Black Country and Warwickshire area's. Founded in 2003, the company has a fleet of 24 buses.

Many of the current services operated by Central Buses are operated on behalf of the West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive (known as Centro). These services are often not commercially viable on their own and as such require subsidy to operate a service which can serve as a vital link for the local communities in which it operates. All of the buses have been equipped to use prepaid fare cards.

Company history
Central Buses was founded in 2003 by Geoff Cross, who at the time was just 17 years of age. The company started operating on service 7 (Birmingham - Perry Common via Witton) on 15 September with buses in the companies distinctive red and grey livery. The company quickly grew, expanding operations onto services 26, 34, 50 and 451 across the West Midlands area.

Later, a separate arm of the company was created. Centrad was created under the CEN Group brand, which Central Buses also joined. This supplies cheaper electronic equipment to the bus industry. In turn, this has allowed Central Buses to be one of the most technologically advanced bus companies in the Midlands.

Bus Services Changes
9 June 2013


 * Service 28–Timetable Revised. Following passenger feedback, we have extended our operating period throughout the afternoon aswell as introducing a Saturday service


 * Service 76–Service Withdrawn. Revised 88 service will replace the section of route between Old Oscott and Kingstanding. National Express 934 service will replace the route between Kingstanding and Walsall. Thank you to all of our customers for your support since we started operating this service in October 2011


 * Service 78–Timetable & Route Revised. Following passenger feedback, we have increased the weekday timetable so that the service runs at intervals of every 30 minutes. The route will be extended in the Streetly area via Bakers Lane to terminate at Parson & Clerk


 * Service 88/88A–Timetable & Route Revised. Off peak journeys will now operate between Kingstanding & Erdington via Old Oscott and Finchley Road as Service 88A due to low patronage in the Streetly area. Peak time journeys will continue to operate along the existing 88 route between Streetly and Erdington at revised times.