National Express West Midlands route 529

National Express West Midlands route 529 is a bus route in the West Midlands, United Kingdom.

The route links the two busy towns of Walsall and Wolverhampton quickly and directly (compared to service 333 which goes through several estates along the way). Other methods of transport between the two towns are by using London Midland rail service. This option is quicker.

Despite this, the quickest bus route from Walsall to Wolverhampton involves passengers boarding service 334 or 339 (operated by National Express West Midlands, A2Z Travel, Finesse Coaches & Golden-Line Buses) to Darlaston and then switching onto a National Express West Midlands service 79 to Wolverhampton. If the 79 was ready to board in Darlaston, the journey would only be timetabled to take 40 minutes, compared to the 42 minutes the 529 route takes.

The service is operated using Alexander Dennis Tridents, however, due to a change of allocation on service 997, 7 Volvo B7TL/Geminis are now freed up and are being used on the service.

On a Sunday, A2Z Travel operate the service alongside National Express West Midlands.

The 23:40 bus from Walsall is numbered service 529E and terminates in Willenhall.

Incidents/Events

 * In 1997, the route became the first bus route in the country to be operated using buses running only on compressed natural gas, using a fleet of 14 Volvo B10L low floor buses.
 * Whenever London Midland has to suspend its rail service shuttle between Wolverhampton and Walsall they usually advise passengers to use the 529 bus service instead of providing any rail replacement bus or coach themselves.

Future
With proposals to build a Midland Metro extension linking Wolverhampton and Walsall, the frequency of the route is at risk of being less frequent.