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I have just seen London's proposal for the "Superloop" express bus network. I believe it is separate buses rather than one bus but it just got me thinking about the outer circle 11A/C. The journey I make tends to take 55-60 minutes on the bus, whereas the car journey takes 18 (via a quicker route). I know that taking the 11 for me is always unappealing due to the long nature of the route. With its curtailing due to reliability issues too, I know some passengers are unhappy with changing at Acocks Green. I am curious as to how popular an express circular route would be. The route would not necessarily be the same, but instead more directly link key areas like Acocks Green, Kings Heath, Selly Oak, Perry Barr, Erdington etc. Surely this would be attractive to passengers who could easily travel around outskirts without having to go via city centre or go on the excessively long circular journey. After all, not everyone travels from the city centre! The 11 is obviously very useful and the stops between areas are well-used, but an X11A or X11C (horrible numbers!) would surely benefit people who want to make a more direct journey between outer areas.

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Trying to blame NXWM now...

Acocks Green Village stops outside Morrisons now have new style flags. The WM Bus logo is much bigger than the previous design and it looks a lot better too. Not sure it beats the network west midlands style though...

Earlier today 6E to Camp Hill, changed mid journey.

Tram 23 and 37 now in full blue WMM livery

So you think National Express shouldn't be trying to attract extra passengers onto those routes?

Personally, I don't understand why they have to be grey? The buses can still have those features without being grey... it's easy to advertise free wifi on the side of a bus, and make it clear, but making a bus grey may not mean anything to a lot of people. They're painting buses crimson, but adding platinum buses, so what is the ultimate goal? To have a crimson and grey fleet? The hybrids were advertised by being green at first, but once they became a normal sight, they got painted into crimson. And this is what I think should happen with the platinums.

Personally I think they should have platinum buses but in the standard crimson livery. Realistically no one cares what the bus looks like, they care about the features. They could easily advertise more comfortable seats and wifi on the side of the bus, but since they have the intention of having all buses in a common livery, this is just making it more difficult to reach that goal. The hybrids were green at first to advertise their eco-friendliness but now they're crimson, and this would make sense for the platinums. Unless they want a whole fleet of grey buses... which is unlikely considering they've added another red livery. Before, they would have stood out, but soon it's going to be the crimson buses that stand out!

A number of double decks continue to be used on the 4, 4A and 6, however it does get frustrating to see rammed full single-decks on those routes closely followed by half-empty double-decks.

The 4 is really struggling between Solihull and Acocks Green, and I've regularly been on buses at 6:00 PM where there is no room to get on, and people have to wait for 30 minutes for the next bus. And then I see a double decker going towards Solihull nearly empty...

Sorry if this sounds like silly question, or has already been answered before, but why do the buses have screens which show CCTV footage of the passengers? They used to display the time but they stopped that. Would it not be more useful to show next stop information, or go back to showing the time? Considering it's behind the driver, and everyone can already see the bus, isn't it pointless? Surely they should make use of the equipment they already have, and it seems a waste for the screen to always be on yet showing something unnecessary.

does anybody know what bus service will be stopping at the new bus stops at the side of moor street station

97 moving to the new stop from 28th according to NX website, not sure if any other services will be moving later

Is the 4 serving Olton Station now?! The stop at Olton Station towards Solihull has the 4 & 58 on the flag

No, one Saturday morning journey starts from that stop

It has been stated several times that since the Wolverhampton review, where route numbers started to be simplified, this was actually a request from a lot of passengers at the time, and one thing they wanted was a simpler local network, with easy to remember route numbers.

In the South Birmingham consultation it said:

All our research shows that the top three things our customers want, in order, are:
1. Frequency (how often buses arrive)
2. Journey time (how long the bus takes to get there)
3. Price (value for money)
Our proposals are in line with local policy and strategy. Transforming Bus Travel proposed a substantial overhaul
of the network guided by:
1. Simplicity (fewer routes and more logical numbers)
2. High frequency routes to key centres
3. Complementary routes with lower frequencies for local and customised travel needs

So clearly not many passengers cared about simplicity? I understand why they are doing it but people's main priorities weren't listened to. Obviously this isn't the Dudley consultation but simplification did take place on that consultation too.

For exactly the same reason, any new passenger with the same problems who wants to go from Birmingham to Sparkbrook, can remember that they can catch a 2,3,4,5 or 6, than a random collection of numbers

Yes, but you can still have consecutive numbers without repeating? To have 4 number 6's is ludicrous, it just causes unnecessary confusion? It makes sense, but why is it any more beneficial to use lower numbers, as opposed to 127 etc? It is much more distinctive for passengers to have more memorable numbers rather than close together low numbers. And also, you generally aren't going to get many tourists in Sparkbrook, so isn't it much easier to keep the numbers as they are because locals already know them as they are.

Also, what is the point in having A or B after a number? It leads passengers to think that they run practically the same route, when some do but others don't. Can't they just use consecutive numbers like they're so keen on doing? 45 and 47 run very similar routes but have different numbers, but 4 and 4A go to completely different destinations, yet they sound as if they are nearly the same.

I noticed yesterday that the number 4 did a short journey from Solihull to Acocks Green but rather than saying 4E it just said short journey underneath? Wouldn't it just be clearer to say E?

I'm angry at the way the 4 has almost halved the service from Acocks Green to Olton and Solihull, my local bus. I hope there'll be protests.

Exactly the same here!! On Sunday by 5:00 PM the service between Solihull and Birmingham is every 30 minutes, which is utterly useless for me. Considering 3-4 buses can sail past sometimes before one is empty enough for me to board, I really don't understand why the corridor has had a reduce in frequency. The worst time is when college students are trying to come home...