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I always wondered if deckers could fit in the tunnels...

Years ago one iteration of the Bristol Road limited stop service (64 or 964 possibly?) used to use the tunnels inbound to St Chad's circus from Bristol Street. This was double-deck operated, before the days of the X62/X64.

I think there are limited options to re-route the 27. Mary Vale Rd is definitely too narrow between Pershore Rd and the bridge over the railway line/canal (Kev's 55 struggles to get through at times) and a previous proposal back in 2009 to use Umberslade/Raddlebarn/Sycamore Rd met with protests from residents so was never pursued (the area round by Bournville green is far busier now than it was back then anyway).

Agreed. That turn from Umberslade Road into Raddlebarn Road (and vice versa) would also be a real challenge these days in a full-sized single deck with parking as it is. Re-routing the 27 away from the Bournville Lane bridge would also mean it missing out on key stops such as Bournville Station / the Cadburys Bournville works stops.

Yes I saw that on the Brownhills Website, why when he saw the Bridge, did he /she continue to proceed, it clearly isn't big enough for a Double Decker

The same as for most road traffic accidents - lack of concentration / human error

Out of curiosity, why was it withdrawn from the Plough and Harrow in favour of the Middleway, and why was the evening Star City journies cut

If I remember correctly the Plough and Harrow section was omitted due to delays caused by traffic. That stretch of Hagley Road, Monument Road and Plough and Harrow Road down to the lights can all be bottlenecks.

The Ailsa's had the Vultron blinds fitted as they had front mounted engines, meaning drivers had to leave the cab by an exterior offside cab door and walk around the outside of the bus. Vultron system was still relatively new technology and expensive, so retro fitting the entire fleet was impractical.

Those early electronic number blinds were actually very poor in terms of readability compared to the roller blinds. This photo (not mine) illustrates that:

https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Nsz4ULjIHf8/VkB4xKb_iFI/AAAAAAAAOCE/NnpR0A1236M/s1600/JOV-740P.Wmpte.jpg

No, it wasn't laziness.

Walsall services changed route numbers while passengers remained on the buses and the agreement was so the driver didn't have to leave the cab or lean over passengers on the seats underneath the route numbers

This also tended to be the case with roller blinds in more recent years on Birmingham routes that inter-worked; for example the 22/23. Whilst the side number tracks would be changed (the driver only needed to lean over the luggage rack) the rear ones would be left blank. 

https://nxbus.co.uk/west-midlands/service-updates/eid-disruption

There was a thing on there Monday saying that "special Eid services were in place" for 14/94/95/97 but that was only for Monday/Tuesday. That link above has appeared since then.

Thanks - yes, that link shows disruptions to the 23 and 24 throughout the day today so that probably explains it. 

There was a crash on the A38 near to the Uni could have caused chaos around that area

I don't think that was the issue, traffic along the 23/24 routes was fine, the 24 I caught was on time and journeys that did operate before and after the "missing" ones were running roughly to time. There were only around 8 buses tracking on each route on Bustimes, compared to around 11-12 normally. 

I'm wondering if there are driver shortages due to Eid. 

There seem to be big gaps in service on both the 23 and 24 today. This may be due in part to some buses not tracking but there have definitely been a number of journeys missing. A work colleague who uses the 24 from said 2 journeys failed to show from the Quinton Road West terminus. I gave up on the 23 as Bustimes showed a 29 minute gap and in the end caught 6844 on the 24 which was absolutely rammed. This was another short working to the Square Peg, and was taken out of service, despite the fact it should have run the outbound journey from town at 08.33. No idea what the issue is today. 

In the old roller blind era, did any of these Birmingham City Centre short workings 'exist' & if so, how were they displayed?

Was a generic 'City Centre' displayed & the drivers told the passengers what's what?

These short workings are in the main buses into the city centre finishing at the terminus and not continuing round a city centre loop. Going back many years the blinds on some routes were specific to the terminal point (e.g. City Navigation Street, City Paradise Circus), but most then moved to the genetic 'City Centre'. Where buses did a loop round the city centre, but were finishing at the terminus and not continuing round the loop to do the outbound journey, the driver would tend to set the blinds to 'Not in Service' (or for those of us old enough to remember, 'SPECIAL') when close the the city centre, to avoid people boarding for the outbound journey.

6874 on a 23E Corporation St Square Peg. I guess with the temporary terminus change, these workings will replace journeys that would previously have run to New St Station.  

Very small change that doesn't seem to have been advertised on the website:

Outbound 23 now stops at Kempsey House. Good for connecting with the X22.

Looks like it's been timed with the city centre changes and I can only assume stop announcements would have been updated to reflect this fact (haven't had a chance to go on one yet).

I hadn't realised until today that the 23/24 have reverted to their old Square Peg city centre terminus / timing point, instead of New St Station. 

For one that never left the West Midlands county, the 900 when it ran Hasbury - Birmingham - Coventry was another long route.

Stagecoach is going to start running a football special service for villa home games "AV82" between new street and VP starting the next game against wolves.
 
https://x.com/AVFCSupport/status/1773326673611735498?s=20

Very nice choice of service number I must say. I like it. 

The predecessor to the current 76, the 69 was a very long route, particularly at the point it ran Weoley Castle to Heartlands Hospital via most of south Birmingham and the moon.