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West Midlands bus route 11, also known as the Birmingham Outer Circle, is a 27-mile route that circumnavigates Birmingham via the A4040. It is operated by National Express West Midlands. Until June 2013, it was the longest urban bus route in Europe. It operates in both clockwise and anti-clockwise directions as routes 11C and 11A. The route is operated by National Express West Midlands. Since bus deregulation in 1986, several companies have competed on sections of this route. Falcon Travel, Serverse Travel, Birmingham Motor Traction, AM PM Travel and Joe's Travel have traversed the entire route. ==History== Route 11 is Europe's second longest urban bus route after Coventry route 360.〔(Number 11 loses its crown of Europe's longest route - to Coventry ) ''Birmingham Mail'' 4 June 2013〕 It first came into existence as two routes in 1923: route 10 ran from King's Heath to the King's Head (Hagley Road) via Cotteridge, and route 11 from Six Ways Erdington to Acocks Green and Moseley. The route was first operated as a complete circuit on 26 April 1926, the idea being to better link the suburbs of Birmingham, as most routes at that time travelled in and out of the city 〔D.Harvey, M. Hanson and P. Drake ''Outer Circle - Birmingham's No.11 Bus Route". Tempus, 2003〕 The route was operated by Birmingham City Transport until the formation of West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive (WMPTE) on 1 October 1969. In 1986, WMPTE's bus operations were taken over by West Midlands Travel who now operate as National Express West Midlands. The route is traversed annually by a cavalcade of vintage buses.〔(Bus Rally Calendar - Showbus - BUSES rally calendar 2009 )〕 Run by the Aston Manor Road Transport Museum, the event began in 1977 and has continued each year since with the exception of 2000, in which it was cancelled due to a national fuel shortage.〔(Transport rally axed due to fuel crisis ) ''Birmingham Evening Mail''〕 The route was upgraded in 2004 by Centro. Over £25 million was spent on CCTV coverage, bus priority measures, new shelters with electronic information displays and new low-floor buses.〔 AM PM Travel began operating on the service in October 2009, increasing the frequency of their route in December.〔(AMPM scraps Solihull, targets Tamworth ) ''Bus & Coach Professional'' 10 December 2009〕 Six re-furbished Volvo Olympians entered onto the new service fitted with Wi-Fi technology. AM PM Travel later ceased operating. In 2012 Joe's Travel began operating on the service using step entrance Dennis Darts, but withdrew its services on 20 May 2014. In September 2014, GRS Travel began operating the service with two buses on route 11C and two on route 11A.〔(Facebook ) GRS Travel〕〔(GRS Travel Route 11 timetable ) Network West Midlands 26 October 2014〕 However, in July 2015 they ceased operation. In March 2015, Social Travel commenced operating eight weekday services on route 11.〔(Weekly service changes ) Network West Midlands 29 March 2015〕〔(Social Travel Route 11 timetable ) Network West Midlands 30 March 2015〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「West Midlands bus route 11」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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