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From my little tour of North Brum and Walsall today:

4733 (toothpaste enviro) - 10/10A
Unidentified E400's on 301 and 302 (saw one on each)
4126 (possibly, was a bit rushed) - 89
1699 - 5 (been a while since I've seen a merc there)

Tridents are usual on the 89 Mon-Sat

Fair enough, only ever seen Eclipses

From my little tour of North Brum and Walsall today:

4733 (toothpaste enviro) - 10/10A
Unidentified E400's on 301 and 302 (saw one on each)
4126 (possibly, was a bit rushed) - 89
1699 - 5 (been a while since I've seen a merc there)

My view is, yes it will cause traffic chaos, especially on Bath Row and Holloway Circus. But, when else could they do it? Schools are on holiday so less traffic in general, better than taking half a year to do it with only night closures

Can that fascinating essay on industrial relations have its own thread, please.

Back to the tunnel closures that are going to cripple the city centre for workers in it and those travelling further afield.  I fully expect that by 0715 on Day One the tailbacks on the Expressway will have brought the M6 to a standstill in both directions.

The Toll Road should be brought under HA control and made free during this period, for starters, to give the north-east side a fighting chance of keeping moving.

Personally quite enjoying the prospect of the M6 being clogged up, will give car drivers another chance to moan

4733 looking suited to the X51!! Very nice.

I dunno man, toothpaste on the X51 looks wrong to me

The back window has rounded corners on b7tl whereas a rectangle on tridents
Tridents higher and less noisy
Front more squashed up
Two rows of seats in front of staircase upstairs
More vents at the back
And yes if you get used to these features you can tell the differences a mile off

But.... (apologies here) majority of them are only noticeable from the side / back / inside.... not the front, which apparenty is only "a bit squashed up", so how can anyone tell from anything more than "just the other side of the traffic lights"?

They are ALX400 bodied B7TL's not tridents. Tbh i can tell the difference between the 2 from a mile off

Pray do tell me how, because from 50 yards I struggle (unless there's no other traffic and I can hear the bus itself)

Add me to the list of people wanting to see NX buy some Citaros

Possibility for you (as 1 minute to get from the bus to the platform at international is never going to work). Get the 07:45, get off at Tile Hill, you've got 10 minutes to catch the 360A, gets you to University at half 8

How was Redditch Kevin????

Was a joke, but never mind

As the 56 mentioned above is only an evening and Sunday service, I'm assuming it must be another one and not BC56?

isn't the BC56 effectively an evening / sunday version of the 59?

And yeah, pretty sure the 935a is technically registered as a 56a?

BC56 isn't like the 59 apart from it being City to Kingshurst.

It runs from City, via Saltley, Ward End, Castle Bromwich and Shard End onto Kingshurst. Interworks with the 90 on evenings and Sundays.

Having all these duplicating service numbers is confusing on a discussion / forum covering the whole network.

What I meant was.... it covers that section shad end to kingshurst when the 59 doesnt. Always struck me as a peculiar route anyway, I know it's probably a hangover from the time when there used to be loads of such evening/sunday routes that cover various daytime services. It was a practice that never made sense to me but thankfully it has (for the most part) now gone

From the timetable it appears that the new 150 will run from Redditch direct to the Alexandra Hospital via Woodrow (as opposed to Headless Cross, Crabbs Cross and Oakenshaw),and then run as per the 178 route from the Alexandra Hospital to Birmingham.

So still round the wrekin then... brilliant

Thinking about it the 002 carries impressive loads between Bartley Green and Halesowen as well, and so perhaps there could be a competitor on this section of the route.  After all Diamond have a monopoly on it with the 002 and the 202 at the moment.

God forbid Diamond should have any sort of monopoly

As the 56 mentioned above is only an evening and Sunday service, I'm assuming it must be another one and not BC56?

isn't the BC56 effectively an evening / sunday version of the 59?

And yeah, pretty sure the 935a is technically registered as a 56a?

Something needs to be done with the X64 since it appears to be dying a slow death at the moment.

I would say to curtail it at New Street station since this is where the majority of Bristol Road users associate with being the first last stop for the corridor.  This might help improve reliability without impacting on passenger numbers.

It then needs to either become a proper limited stop service calling at a few key places up to Selly Oak... (New Street, O2 Academy, Belgrave Middleway, Priory Road Interchange, University, Selly Oak Station, Selly Oak), or it needs to become an all stops.

I would suggest curtailing the route at Merrits Brook or Newman College, since for anyone living in the Frankley area the 61 is a quicker route into Birmingham anyway.

Finally the frequency should be increased to every 20 minutes again, or introduce short journeys to Weoley Castle creating a 15 minute frequency between Weoley Castle and Birmingham New Street.

Lets face it I dont think anyone is going to argue the X64 needs to become just a 64 from the city centre to weoley castle / bartley green. The job of being an express route belongs to a route that covers the whole length of the Bristol Road (ie an X63) or services through to Bromsgrove

Means increased passenger traffic on the buses then.

Unlikely, they'll all get the train Snow Hill to the Hawthorns and use the tram from there, it's only a few stops really affected