Tracline 65

File:Tracline 65 bus 8109.jpg

A Tracline 65 MCW Metrobus (fleet number 8109; registration A109WVP) at the City Centre end of the route, in 1986

Tracline 65 in Birmingham, England, was a bus route which included the first guided busway in the United Kingdom

The existing number 65 bus route was upgraded as part of an experiment to improve bus services, by the West Midlands PTE. A 600-metre section of concrete-edged guideway was installed on Streetly Road in the Short Heath area of the city's Erdington district, at the northern terminal of the route. Located in a central reservation once used by Birmingham Corporation trams, it was segregated from the carriageway used by other vehicular traffic. At the southern end of the trackway, buses used ordinary roads to reach the city centre.

Fourteen MCW Metrobus Mark II buses were acquired and fitted with guide wheels, which ran along the guideway's concrete edges. The vehicles were painted in a distinct livery, unique to Tracline 65, being silver with black and red detailing. Operation began in 1984 and ended in 1987. After the trial ended all fourteen buses had their guide wheels removed and were used for normal services, with the last withdrawn on 26 April 2008. One of them, fleet number 8110, is preserved at Aston Manor Road Transport Museum.

File:8110 Tracline 65 metrobus.jpg

A preserved MCW Metrobus (fleet number 8110; registration A110WVP), in Tracline 65 livery, but without guide wheels, at Aston Manor Road Transport Museum's former depot in Birmingham

External links

• History and pictures
• Film of the service in operation
• Colour picture of a Tracline bus showing guide wheel, just ahead of the front road wheel.