Transport for West Midlands are offering free bus travel between Monday 9th December and Friday 13 December 2024 from 7pm onwards on the region's buses to encourage new bus users without negatively impacting commuters. With late night shopping, Christmas socials and festive activities being in full swing it is hoped that the buses will reduce congestion in towns and city centres whilst promoting bus use within the region.

To celebrate this initiative we looked into bus access to Christmas markets in the West Midlands on a Friday evening. Using Christmas market locations from National Express West Midlands, bus data and OS Highways road data from DataCutter and a boundary based on TfWM’s bus travel area, we used TRACC to calculate the areas with access to a Christmas market within 60 minutes by bus. Go to https://www.tfwm.org.uk/plan-y... to find out more about the bus travel area and the operators taking part in this.

Surely that free bus journey means you can have an extra festive drink?