Diamond Bus

Birmingham Coach Company & Diamond Bus

In 1984, Geoff Howle commenced a coach operation trading as the Birmingham Coach Company. Following deregulation of the bus industry in 1986, Howle applied to operate route 16 between Hamstead and Birmingham in competition with West Midlands Travel. Other services subsequently operated included service 120 (now service 12) between Dudley and Birmingham and service 50 between Birmingham and Druids Heath. Service 16 and 50 are still operated by successor Diamond Bus. Buses used were predominately Leyland Nationals.

In 2000, the Birmingham Coach Company changed its name to Diamond Bus to replace many of their existing Leyland Nationals, expanding their network in Birmingham and the Black Country. By 2003, Diamond Bus had become a National Express contractor and opened a depot in Bradford.

Go West Midlands

On 2 December 2005, the Go-Ahead Group purchased Diamond Bus, following this with the purchase of Probus Management, trading as People's Express, in February 2006. The two companies were merged to form Go West Midlands, starting operations under the name Diamond Bus with a fleet of over 100 buses.

In 2006, Diamond relaunched its image by increasing its frequency on route 16, matching that of competitor Travel West Midlands, and also increased frequencies on routes 17, 63, 64, 74 and 87. However, in November 2007, Diamond withdrew its services on routes 17 and 63 and majorly altered its operations on routes 74 and 87, cutting parts of the routes off completely. Diamond also lost many Centro and Staffordshire County Council contracts to other operators.

Rotala Group

In March 2008, Go West Midlands was sold to Rotala, who also owned Central Connect and North Birmingham Busways. Rotala originally kept the Diamond business separate from Central Connect and Ludlows (purchased later), instead switching a number of routes between the three operators. From November 2011, Central Connect was re-branded as Blue Diamond.

Red Diamond & Black Diamond

In July 2008, new buses were put into service in Redditch on routes 57 and 58, branded as Red Diamond. Since then, a number of routes in North Worcestershire were re-branded as Red Diamond, alongside the launch of new routes in competition with First Midland Red in Redditch. At the same time, new buses were allocated to a number of Black Country routes, branded as Black Diamond. First Midland Red subsequently sold both its Redditch and Kidderminster depots to Diamond Bus.

After Rotala purchased Diamond Bus in 2008, the Diamond Bus operation was expanded to include the operations of four companies operating in the same region which were already owned by Rotala. It took many of the Arriva Midland routes such as 36 Walsall to Alumwell and 28E from Wolverhampton to Willenhall in April 2017.

Birmingham Motor Traction

Birmingham Motor Traction operated a number of services in Birmingham with a varied fleet of buses, mostly Dennis Darts in a dark blue and white livery, although many buses ran in dealer all-white. They operated a number of services under contract to the West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive. It was purchased by Rotala in 2007.

Central Buses

Central Buses was a bus company based in Birmingham, England. In February 2018, Central Buses was purchased by Rotala, with its 23 services and 31 buses merged into Diamond. Operations of Central Buses ceased at the conclusion of services on 24 February 2018.

Hanson's

Hanson's was a family-owned bus company operating services in the West Midlands and Worcestershire. Hanson's Local Buses was formed in the 1980s by Margaret Hanson as a coach operator. Following deregulation of the bus industry in 1986, Hanson's diversified into operating bus services. In July 2017, Hanson's was purchased by Rotala.