CCT becomes part of WMPTE

Coventry Corporation transferred its buses, bus premises and services to the West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive (WMPTE) on 01 April 1974.  This coincided with the loss of county borough status and the incorporation of Coventry City Council into the new West Midlands Metropolitan County as Coventry Metropolitan Borough Council.  For many people, it felt like being taken over by Birmingham, a city 18 miles away and separated from Coventry by many miles of Warwickshire countryside.  However, the countryside had been swallowed up by Solihull Metropolitan Borough and soon even the Midland Red services into Coventry turned into the blue and white of Birmingham that had become the WMPTE livery.  However, to the younger generation, it must have seemed like a new dawn.