Messages

Saturday 18th

4020 - 82
4566 - 28

Sunday 19th

819 - 49
4648 - 37

Didn't we see another B7TL Wright Eclipse Gemini on the 37? I thought it wasn't that unusual

No I think it was the same one coming back around. I posted it in case it is, not sure with Sunday allocations in that area

It's not unusual to see any one of AG's vehicles on the 37 really other than a President.

Is that any day, or just Sundays?

Any day from what I've seen

The 51 used to be every 10 minutes on Sundays, and the 33 every 15, then they reduced the 51 frequency and upped the 33 frequency to every 12 minutes, to create a co-ordinated frequency, I can understand the 33 frequency being lowered, as it isn't as busy a route as the 51, but the 51 is a heavily used service, even on Sundays, I guess they're trying to keep the 33 & 51 co-ordinated

I don't understand why they do that, to me it's kind of like when they coordinated the 62 and 63 to longbridge, the 63 was far more well used than the 62, as is the case with the 33 and 51. If anything I would have thought they'd up the 33 frequency to match a 10 minute 51 frequency, after all Pheasey is the centre of the universe and could do with a few more buses.....

Just a thought, but anyone remember what the 951 used to be like? First stop Scott arms, then extra stops added at tower hill, cliveden road and Newtown. Pardon me for being pessimistic but... Extra stop now added onto the X51? Genuinely hope it doesn't all go tits up, and doubt it will because the loadings have always been good on it, no matter what day or time of day, but ...

Awful news for the firm.   Despite all of the competition rhetoric, the industry does have a knack though of helping each other and pulling through in times of crisis.  Strathcylde Buses suffered a similar fire at one of its depots (Larkhill?) in the early 1990's and operators across Scotland assisted by loaning vehicles.

So, if any spare NXWM vehicles are seen heading down the M5 in the next few days we know where they are going!

It is good to see that sort of thing happens, it's the same with the trains, Chiltern will help Virgin out and vice versa in times of need despite the fierce competition between the two

Something for the bank holiday weekend sorted then

47xx bus on the Private Hire - cg service
99% of the time it is a scania omnilink

Seen some Enviros on it recently, can usuaully see it parked up down the hill on Avenue Road when I'm coming round the corner on the 66 from work (~17:45)

Right, so the same situation this morning, two X51s turn up, get on the first one, same two buses, same driver, and he appears to have got the message to go via Newton Street. Any chance someone can now tell him he also needs to stop at the new "unload only stop"?

.....dammit

Tonnes of changes I would have made, alas I haven't been on me computer for a while and typing it all out on me phone would be a bit of a ballache.

So, I didn't expect to have time this evening, so now look a bit of a tit for saying that, but never mind..... Here goes:

• A service linking Perry Barr and West Brom (Oxhill Road, Island Road etc)
• A better serivce along Rocky Lane, perhaps replace the part of the 424 north of Perry Barr with an extension to the 651.
• A link from Perry Barr to Star City, possibly with the 46, and the section Perry Barr - Victoria Road can be covered by an increased frequency on the southern part of the 424 (which seems like it should be so much busier than it is considering the route).
• A link from Perry Barr to Perry Common, possibly a joint 10 min frequency with the 907/107 along the College Road, and then on to either Erdington or up to New Oscott and Streetly
• Extend all 28 services to Scott Arms, and get rid of the random evening/sunday extension to Small Heath, if there was call for that service it would run all day, perhaps say as a 98 (ok that number's taken) from the city cente via small heath, ward end, castle brom, chester road to erdington
• Get rid of the 638, it's just the 28 with a litte loop in castle vale. Maybe replace it with a service from Erdington via Holly Lane, Tyburn Road, Castle Vale to Minworth (recognise it? 68?)
• Currently there is no link from Old Oscott to Perry Barr, you have to walk quite a way to the 997 stop. I'd suggest extend the 52 (ok, 952) from Perry Beeches through Old Oscott and shady lane possibly to Kingstanding Circle. The loop of the 52 can be replaced with a local service from Perry Barr - Aldridge Road - Perry Beeches (Thornbridge Avenue) - Booths Farm - Calshot road - Scott Arms
• Reintroduce the link from Handsworth via Lozells Road and Victoria Road to Aston, then on to Star City and possibly on to Erdington.
• Cut the 66 to city - Erdington only, possibly with a link through to the Markets in the city. The rest can be a separate routes (Erdington - Kingstanding and Erdington - Sutton)
• A service from the city to the Banners Gate area, either extending the 88 through Erdington (not such a great idea) or re-routing the 935.
• Some sort of link from the Perry Common / New Oscott / Kingstanding area to No Hope Hospital (like the 68 used to)
• Renumber the 966 (because the number makes no sense now, it's definitely not an express service anymore) to 70, extend it to Sutton and route via Kingsbury road like it used to, and run it effectively as a joint frequency with the 71 between Sutton / Castle Brom / Chelmsley Wood / Solihull (bit extreme I know, was just having fun with that one if I'm honest, I also though originally to incorporate the 72 aswell but then they extended that to the city centre)
• Possibly a bit controversial given the whole renumbering issues, but I'm not a fan of all the 9xx buses in north Birmingham, to me "9" means express but in the case of the 907/952 it only means missing out a handful of bus stops, and I'm not convinced it's sped anything up. renumber them back to 107/52.
  

So yeah, criticise at your will, they are just suggestions from a regular user of most of the network involved

I suppose any decrease on the frequency of the 51 on a sunday is due to the introduction of the recent X51 sunday workings as most shoppers will use this service as an alternative. An evening service on the X51 would be ideal or even just having it running later lets say until 9pm by then most workers or shoppers have returned home.

But even still, every time I get the 51 on a sunday it's rammed, makes absolutely no sense to reducing it

I think its also a shame to reduce the 51 frequency on a sunday I think it should be increased rather than decreased. its a very busy and well looked after corridor but I just think it needs more services adding as its always getting busier!

Not going to lie, dissapointed with a fair bit of the review, but this one takes the piss, actually quite angry with that

Regarding the new stop on the X51, at Perry Avenue (the Alexander stadium).
I actually would have thought if they were going to put a new stop in it would have been the stop before at Rocky Lane, seems to make more sense to me and still by the stadium

I personally do not see why they are introducing an extra stop. Peak journeys often leave people behind in Birmingham (PM) or at Tower Hill (AM), so surely this additional stop is just going to see people left at Alexander Stadium (although there's plenty of alternatives), or worse see travellers for Walsall left in Birmingham when there is the 952 alternative for the Alexander Stadium/Tower Hill.

The Additional stop is to help 51 out on Sundays when events on at Alexandra Stadium. I Agree with the commnets Peak Hour (AM) will be unaable to stop

I'll be honest they could quite easily put on more X51 short workings, to my knowledge there's only one atm, in the am peak

Something I always wondered about, this... Why Pheasey gets so much attention, Why they insist on making Doe Bank a part of a through route (they tried with the 997a to kingstanding circle, and now the 934A, soon the be another version of the 997) when the 34 did a good enough job, Why when the 651 was introduced it didn't just terminate at the Asda, etc...
Me mate (who isn't as much of a bus nut as me) is always ribbing me for having much better connections by bus than me, despite living on a smaller esate

19:20, someone trying not to be seen photographing / filming the x51 I was on and the 67 bendi behind us, corner of Corporation st and Newton st just outside the Boston Tea Party

Regarding the new stop on the X51, at Perry Avenue (the Alexander stadium).
I actually would have thought if they were going to put a new stop in it would have been the stop before at Rocky Lane, seems to make more sense to me and still by the stadium

Tonnes of changes I would have made, alas I haven't been on me computer for a while and typing it all out on me phone would be a bit of a ballache.

The 68 was always rammed when i saw it at school and peak times, then since PB took over it seemed to be wayyy too frequent, i think every 20 minutes would be ideal. I think an independant like Central buses could make a good go of the former 68 route

Route 68 does seem to be missed/was popular, but surely it didn't make a profit for NXWM otherwise it wouldn't have been retained

Dont quote me on this but think reliability problems killed it off.

I don't think anyone would try to argue against the 68 being impressively unreliable, but the reason so many people caught it was because it was so useful (plus the occasional extra like me who caught it just because it was a merc). I genuinely am surprised that along some parts of the route there still isn't any reasonable replacement for it