The West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive (WMPTE) formed on Wednesday 1st October 1969, to form a fully co-ordinated and integrated public transport system within the West Midlands Metropolitan County area. Initially the fleet was made up from vehicles of the former Birmingham City Transport (1,310 buses), Walsall Corporation (222 buses and 46 trolleybuses), Wolverhampton Corporation (288 buses) and West Bromwich Corporation (120 buses).
On Monday 3rd December 1973, the Birmingham and Black Country operations of Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus Company Limited (BMMO—Midland “Red” Motor Services) passed to West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive (WMPTE). To operate these services 1,396 members of staff and 413 buses taken from eight BMMO depots across the West Midlands County transferred to WMPTE at this time. These were made up of the following types:
† BMMO S17 fleet number 5705 (registration number DHA705C) received heavy accident damage shortly before the transfer. On paper it transferred to West Midland PTE at Sutton Coldfield depot, but in reality it was stored and never operated. It was officially withdrawn by West Midlands PTE in April 1974, and sold for scrap in July 1975.