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On the 27 route and that bridge in Bournville, there is a solution available there that would provide minimal disruption. Send the buses prior to the bridge down Franklin Way to Mary Vale Road. Go over the bridge at Mary Vale Road. Then turn Victoria Road into a one-way street northbound, back to Bournville Lane, continue journey.

For the return, from Bournville Lane turn Lea House Road into a one-way street southbound, send buses down there to Mary Vale Road, then a reverse of the outbound route. Profile the corners either end at Victoria Road and Lea House Road to discourage parking and allow the bus a wider turn in.

That's just if you want to maintain the route as close as possible to Bournville station if the bus cannot get under the bridge. The one-way streets would probably make travelling around those roads easier for the residents as well, as there's a minimal amount of disruption involved.

I don't think the roads mentioned could reliably accommodate buses of any type even if those modifications were made. 

I also think there is an issue with Franklin Way being privately owned which rules out bus use. I might be wrong with this but I vaguely recall a period of a few days back in the late noughties where the 27 had to divert during the daytime. It initially used Mary Vale Road - Franklin Way - Bournville Lane but was stopped from doing this by then owners Cadbury. It had to use the full length of Mary Vale instead and turn right onto Linden Rd. 

I was flicking through the 1986 WMPTE fleet list booklet just now and there's a section on routes that had been registered by WMT in the spring for October. It was organised by garage and in the YW section it shows the following:

77 Northfield to Kings Heath
78 Cotteridge to Kings Heath

I'm assuming that the 78 became the retained and extended 27 and I know there was an old 77 that went from Kings Heath to Longbridge but can anyone shed more light on what these routes were intended to be? It also shows the 49 running from Solihull to Rubery and not Northfield, was this part of the mix too?

Also, were there any other routes/changes that were registered but didn't happen in the end (either WMT or MRW)?

The route 27 will have a bit of an issue in the coming years. The bridge at Bourneville station is a triange 9' 9, in which a 10' 6(?) Omnilink can fit under nicely. However, since Omnilinks are getting replaced relatively fast (presumably all withdrawn by late-2025 ) and all new electrics seem to be too tall for that bridge. It may require a re-routing of that portion of the 27 because the adjacent Mary Vale Rd looks to be too impractical for any NX bus.

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).

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.

For a brief period in Autumn 1993 it was even longer, running through to Frankley and interworking with a shortened 49 route.

61E Tessall Lane seen in Northfield this afternoon. 

How does the 2's new route work? Is it a one  way loop or does it come back on itself?

It sounds confusing and if they was so bothered about keeping Glenavon Road served they should have left the 27. Also has Glenavon Road ever had Deckers serve it before now?

I'm surprised that the 27's section of route was incorporated into the 2, sure they could extended the 19 from Maypole to YW depot...

The 69 served Glenavon Road for many years and this was mainly double decker.

https://www.stagecoachbus.com/service-updates/serviceupdatesarticle?SituationId=ID-12/07/2023-10:05:04:988

Route 46 is getting a timetable/route change, and a 46A variant between QE and Hawkeley introduced at the request of TfWM.

Bustimes shows one of the changes as being a rerouting in Northfield. It will now run along the stretch of the Bristol Rd next to the shopping centre which is an improvement. Perhaps the shorter workings will help the reliability too. 

63E to Northfield seen in Longbridge this afternoon. 

Quite interesting to see how many routes there used to be, compared to now. Sad sign of the times really.

Some routes I don't even remember looking at that 2009 map. Like, what was the 86 for example?

This looks like an 86 that was following parts of the old MRW 86 between Woodgate Valley and Northfield. The old 86 had long since gone, having been seen off by WMTs 44 in the mid 90s. I know Patterson's had a version of the 86 for a time but this seems too late for that one so answers on a postcard.

Like a lot of routes, it was convoluted as it came about through stitching together of 2 or more to create one very long one. The Weoley Castle to Kings Heath section was previously the 2, and the Kings Heath to Yardley Yew Tree part replaced the already long 164 route if I recall correctly. That part was later extended from Yew Tree to Heartlands, before the Solihull to Heartlands part was split off and renumbered the 169 (later the 73).

And in September 1993 it had an additional section of route stitched on from Weoley Castle to Frankley where it interworked with the 49 at Holly Hill (it was cut back to Northfield a couple of months later before reverting back to Weoley Castle as before). A truly mammoth route.

If it's still going to interwork with the 48, then doubles, surely?

Interworking with the 48 so based on the current pattern, mainly doubles with some single decks appearing from time to time.

Not sure they'd use the motorway. Apparently stagecoach aren't allowed to use the motorway runing dead to and from Rugby as well.
They could go dead via Oldbury, Wolverhampton Road, Barnes Hill and Northfield to Bromsgrove.
I guess they will already be running dead to operate that 04:57am 20A and Bromsgrove is only a little bit further from there.

In terms of the difference between YW and WB in getting to Bromsgrove (and avoiding the motorway), there's probably only a couple of miles in it. 

The new timetable for the 20 is now on Bus Times.

Any ideas if the 27 is going to run between Northfield and Cofton on a Sunday as it currently doesn't?

No - the tender for the Sunday 27 sees it terminating at Northfield. 

This change is great news and will make a big difference to people in North Worcs. NXWM fares have been very much welcomed and can only have helped in attracting passengers.

I wonder whether the route will have a couple of one way systems in place in Rednal as the original X20 did and whether it will still call at Longbridge Station?