National Express West Midlands route X1

National Express West Midlands route X1 is a bus route running between Birmingham and Coventry.

History of route
Originally operated by Midland Red as service number 159, the service transferred to WMPTE on 3 December 1973. On 26 January 1986 the service was extended from Birmingham via Halesowen to Hasbury, relaunched as a flagship Timesaver service and re-numbered 900. In 1988 the extension to the route was reverted back presumably because of the unreliability of such routes which traverse through a large busy city centre. (The Birmingham to Hasbury section became routes 19 & 19S which have since been withdrawn on 27 Apr 2008). The 900 journey time was then 60 minutes end to end, in recent years however as a result of additional routing, more stopping places and congestion the end to end journey time has increased by around 40% which has made the service less attractive for those travelling between the two cities. Along with the withdrawal of the Hasbury section and the extended time on the 900 service, it has not shown good interest in the people who used them. The latest alteration was to reduce it to every 30 minutes during the daytimes of Monday - Saturday. A 15 minute Monday - Friday peak time frequency. Finally the extension from Sheldon of service 58 during Monday - Saturday daytime was to fill the 30 minute gap between Birmingham Airport and Birmingham City Centre, in effect still providing 4 buses per hour during the off peak. To add to this: The Timesaver brand has also been phased out. National Express West Midlands currently has a maximum single fare of £1.70 on the route. The route was rerouted as X1 in December 2016.

Current route

 * Birmingham, Moor Street Queensway.
 * Digbeth
 * Small Heath Highway (non-stop)
 * Yardley, Swan Centre
 * Sheldon, Wheatsheaf
 * Elmdon
 * Birmingham International Railway Station
 * Birmingham Airport
 * Stonebridge
 * Meriden
 * Millisons Wood
 * A45, Birmingham Road
 * Parkhill Drive Turning Circle
 * Allesley Village, Birmingham Road
 * Holyhead Road (A4114)
 * Coventry, Pool Meadow Bus Station

When necessary, service X1 is sometimes diverted down to Birmingham Airport.