Night Buses

[Mike360]

This may have been discussed elsewhere on the forum but I was wondering what people think about night buses and if they should be bought back?
What routes should have night buses and what prices would people be happy to pay for on night buses?
I think there should be night buses on the 50 and 61 night buses as these are main routes.
What is everyone's opinions?

[Isle of Stroma]

Um, yes - but...

Quite honestly, they're a social necessity. Unfortunately, they're also a social nightmare. I very much doubt they'll make a return on a commercial basis.

However, last year there nearly was a 24 hour service on one major corridor - until third party funding failed to materialise ;-)

[MW]

They ran services till 4am on New Years Eve 2011/New Years Day 2012.

No idea on if they went well or not.

A night bus service isn't really required. Unless they were ran by the withdrawn Mercs or B10Ls which won't be much of a loss, I wouldn't support them as they'd ruin buses even more.

[Gareth]

They ran services till 4am on New Years Eve 2011/New Years Day 2012.

No idea on if they went well or not.

A night bus service isn't really required. Unless they were ran by the withdrawn Mercs or B10Ls which won't be much of a loss, I wouldn't support them as they'd ruin buses even more.

As a former user of the old Night buses, they were in no better or worse condition than any other daytime service bus. The use of withdrawn buses wouldn't be practical.

[Badger]

I would like to see night buses return, but with a conductor/police officer (two for double deckers, or no double deckers at all). They are useful, but do have an unsafe feel to them. As to which services should be night ran I'm not sure, and which are needed would probably differ depending on the time of year anyway.

[Lukeee]

Would be good to bring them back for friday and saturday nights and just keep them operated by single decks if possible.

[ilovetea4370]

I agree with Luke, I think double decks might be a bit risky, but I do think it could be useful having night buses.

[windy miller]

I'm not an advocate of 'Night Services' as such but I think some consideration could be made for city centre late night clubs/and pub extentions ect-if all 'Last Bus' services were to be,say,1am instead of the present 11.30pm this might help to keep more vehicles out of the city centre and maybe attract more nightlife visitors who wouldn't have to worry about Taxi fares. When the night services did run the services only ran to the city boundaries anyway. some outlying areas never had a night service-sutton coldfield being one example.I expect there were others-?

[Gareth]

I'm sure there was a 104N? Along with services to Walsall, Solihull, Chelmsley Wood. I think to Wolverhampton as well, but not 100% sure.

[PM]

Would they be used though? When diamond operated a network it was not well used although if it was with NXWM would things be different? Yes, probably providing there was sufficient publicity although tbh people on a night out would far rather use a taxi....or is that just me?

[monkeyjoe]

From Memory they had:-

94N  / 914N to chemsley wood.
51N to Walsall.
37N to Solihull
104N to Sutton Coldfield
9N to Halesowen.

They are past city boundaries I think?

[Stu]

Before they all finally bit the dust, the night services would run to and from Broad Street. They were operated by Diamond, and I think they got withdrawn because of lack of use.

[windy miller]

Ok,how about a saturdays only night service available to 1am? people in a 'local' group would prefer a taxi-of course-IF the fare is shared say,4 ways-yes, but what if an individual living in eg. Dorridge had to pay for a taxi home?-plus the fact that he's probably convinced he is still 'safe' to drive after a 'few' drinks, so he uses his own transport... ::)

[richie]

the 9 service runs for 21 hrs

[windy miller]

Richie-the 9 service? is that the stourbridge service??- is there any reason why the 9 should be any different to all the others?-  its not my side of town so I can't comment.