On the 20th March, a new exhibition from Burmese artist Htein Lin – titled ‘Escape’ – is set to open at the Ikon gallery. The exhibition mainly features work produced by the artist whilst he was a political prisoner in Myanmar, alongside more recent work including a series of paintings depicting cities in the UK. As part of this series, Ikon has commissioned a new piece from Htein Lin to depict his interpretation of Birmingham as a person who has not visited the city (See Above). Not only does the painting, titled ‘How do you find Birmingham?’, provide an interesting perspective into how Birmingham presents itself to the rest of the world, it is also refreshing to see the city being portrayed in a positive light by a non-Brummie.
The thing that stood out to me most, as someone who works in transport, is Htein Lin’s choice of bus colour. He gets the colour of the tram correct, but chooses to paint all of the buses in a bright red – typical of a classic cartoon bus. Given the colour scheme and general colourfulness of the rest of the piece, it is unsurprising that he would have avoided painting grey buses into his vibrant depiction of Brum. Nevertheless, I think there is something to be said about the power that a colourful bus can have not only on a city’s perception from the outside, but also on how locals perceive their home.

Many moons before the aesthetic scourge commonly known as the grey National Express bus came to dominate our roads, Birmingham was home to a variety of colourful bus liveries. The cream and navy Birmingham Corporation buses drove alongside the blue Metrobuses and the iconic Midland Reds.
As time goes on, and as bus operators in Birmingham were whittled down to the few currently remaining, this colour is also being drained from our buses. In the pursuit of a sleek modern look, the simple joy of a colourful bus – a concept instilled in us since childhood (when has a bus in a kid’s book ever been grey?) – has been taken from us.
How anyone can see a red bus and think that it would look better in grey (grey!!) of all colours is beyond me. It is bad enough that the buses don’t turn up on time – nevermind the fact that when they do turn up, they look like a fridge knocked on its side. If other places can have pretty buses, then why can’t we?

Maybe, though, things are about to change.

Transport has always been a manifesto-filler when it comes to elections, whether it be a local councillor pledging to fix potholes or a parliamentary party promising to finally finish HS2, if someone is running for any sort of authoritative office in this country, you can guarantee transport will be mentioned. The 2024 mayoral elections were no different. Here in the West Midlands, Richard Parker ran on two main policies. 1. He is not a Tory (a very sound argument), and 2. If elected, he will ‘bring the buses back under public control’. What exactly does that mean, though, and what does it mean for the colour of our buses?

The planned franchising of our bus network promises to reinvest profits, plan routes for the benefit of people rather than companies, and take steps towards integrating all transport in the West Midlands under one ticketing system. In addition to all that good stuff, it also promises to introduce consistent branding across the bus network (As a side note, if you’re interested in having your say in the way the buses should be run, the public consultation on franchising is still open here).

Given that Richard Parker ran fairly heavily on the promise of bringing buses back under public control, you would think that the combined authority would want to make a big deal of our shiny new public buses. What could be a better and more visible way to celebrate their victory than to rebrand the network, changing the colour of all the buses to something a bit more lively, a bit less Tory austerity and a bit more ‘power to the people’? All I’m saying is that red is the colour of the Labour Party, and who would say no to bringing some colour back to a city which seems to be obsessed with synonymising itself with the colour grey?

Htein Lin’s painting depicts an almost utopian version of the city we love, showing a vibrant, thriving, happy Birmingham; the franchising of our buses, no matter how small an act it seems, holds a great importance when it comes to realising this idealised version of Birmingham. Like it or not, the transport network of a city is one of the main things that people take away from a place when they visit. Do we really want to disappoint the Htein Lins of the world when they find out that our buses are grey?

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The Image at the top of this article is Htein Lin’s painting, “How Do You Find Birmingham?”. Find out more about Htein Lin’s Solo Exhibition at the Ikon Gallery here.

Have your say about the way the buses should be run here.