It would be good to think that this marks a return to the more optimistic days of public transport. When Powell and Pressburger were making their famous film, for instance, the multi-talented architect Oliver Hill was building the thin copper-sheathed concrete barrel vault of his Newbury Park bus station in Ilford, East London: a classic, now a listed building. Plenty of other bus stations and depots of the time used the technology of the day to great effect. But after the 1960s, the effort seemed to fizzle out: why ennoble the humble bus, when the car was king?

The car is still king, and will not give up its crown without a fight. But on the evidence of Walsall - a fine new piece of civic architecture by architects from the rising generation - it is possible to offer an alternative that is anything but second-rate. If you believe that it is better to tempt people out of their cars than force them to do so, then towns and cities up and down the country are going to have to start thinking similarly lofty thoughts.