Messages

For me bring the old service numbers back, it was logical to me any way,
0 to 199 to city,  200s Brierley hill services, 300s Walsall , 400s West Bromwich , 500s Wolverhampton  think i have got that right , i forget what 600s were for, odds and sods maybe 

A few years ago I would of agreed with you, but it started in Walsall will most of the 3xx services being renumbered which was at least 12 years ago now

I think the way to look at this is "complement, not compete" 

You make a great point here, there are very few routes that have competing operators on now, the 50 the only real one and with the 4/4H/4M becoming a co-ordinated timetable your term "complement, not compete" is now a reality.

Now looking at the new timetable on Diamond it says National Express only running 4,4M and Diamond only running 4H but the new timetable on National Express shows that they are running all 3 services but doesn't show anything for Diamond so don't know what to believe.

When the 16 became a joint timetable NX didn't show the Diamond journeys for them either

96Wasn't that the 966?

Yes

Personally I don't. As a regular user of the route 67, I would hate to suffer through nechells. Birchfield road is bad enough.

You could still use the 67, my proposed 66A wouldn't replace it except Farnborough Road

That's how it was originally.  It replaced the 366 between Mere Green and Aldridge (which had also served Walsall as the 6 does now) hence that was all stops. However the rest was mostly covered by other services at the time so ran limited stop over most of those sections. After Mere Green, it stopped at Four Oaks Station and Tamworth Road (for Sutton Park) and the High Street I think before serving Sutton itself.  I know it served Erdington but I'm trying to think where it went from there.

From Erdington it went 'Limited Stop' via Wood End Road, Kingsbury Road, Chester Road, Collector Road, Chelmsley Wood and then to Airport

I wondered if incorporating the FD service into the main network could be possible. Maybe:
X13A City - Fort Dunlop - Spitfire Island - Collector Road - Parkfield Drive - X13 route to Chelmsley.
Or 66A City - Star City as the short trips do then to Fort Dunlop.

The FD only appears on the digital flags in the City Centre as well I think at present. Outside of the City Centre it isn't mentioned I don't think.

I like your idea of the 66A replacing the FD, but I would extend it further to Castle Vale via Farnborough Road. The 67 could then go back to terminate at Castle Vale High Street.

The 'Midland Red' 144 to go back to running through to Birmingham - although I doubt it would  happen.   

Not viable anymore

Forgot about that one, but I agree the 3 should be extended back to either AG or at least Shirley Town Centre, since it's been shortened it does feel more of a pointless route.

How can it be a pointless route ?
It was running the same route when it was a 12 in 1990 and a similar route to the original 13.

Crimson/Blueson and red/white blue/white are just variations on a theme, so I'm not sure why those would be considered seperate liveries.

While grey might be considered 'dull' or 'boring', there's at least a chance of finally having some consistency in the next couple of years.

I've mentioned before how some of the recent repaints into the grey livery look quite smart, and I still believe they do, and hopefully they will stay that way for some time.

I agree, the grey looks to be more hard wearing, The original platinums (6701-6758) are still looking good and they are around 8 years old

1800 AG - PB

Another one !

Maybe electrics for the 8A/8C at PB to replace the oldest Scanias then.

Can't put double deckers on the 8A/8C due to a low bridge on Highgate Road

4/4A definitely needs them

Yes I agree, but I think Electrics will go to YW and possibly transferring Platinums to AG, but that is only a guess

Could the electric buses use summer road, as the height of an electric is 4.2 metres. Would the 28 be a candidate to go double deck?

Absolutely no way, when the new electrics arrive they will eventually and hopefully be used on routes that frequently have single deckers on them like 2, 3, 7, 33, 65, 67 and 907

Currently in service but known not to be tracking properly are

AG: 2206; 2222; 2229
BC: 4872; 4899; 6835; 6837; 6840; 6847; 6861; 6876; 7533
CV: E070; E101; E112; E127; E129; E143; E146; E149; E152; E154
PB: 1918; 4809; 4810; 4857; 4858; 6804; 6961; 7508; 7510
PN: 829; 866; 4833; 6925
WA: 803; 809; 6717; 6732; 6734; H1008
WB: 6982; 6984
WN: 835; 5411; 5413
YW: 1928; 6904

PB 4811 not tracking on the 907 yesterday afternoon (starts as school bus 814, I was surprised it showed up), it's also on the 907 this morning still not tracking