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Also, from the Bearwood changes mentioned earlier, how much traffic is removed from Bearwood bus station, and this makes the new terminus of those routes far less accessible for interchange to Hagley Road services requiring quite a walk compared to Bearwood bus station?

It's a shame that the bus station will have lost 4 routes in a such short space of time. Not so long ago you could see a wide variety of buses using the facility and it was a good place to while away an hour or so. 

Quite a radical change for the 27 and it must be the first time Broad Lane and Warstock Road have seen service buses.

The Shirley changes make sense, Delrene Road is wider than the existing route's roads and missing out Union Road and the retail park will aid reliability.

There was a Centro tendered 618 that covered Broad Lane (and maybe Warstock Rd) back in the early 1990s so it's certainly been a while.

How many times has the 48 changed beyond the QE now? There was the extension to Bartley Green to replace the then 21, the ridiculous section through most of south Birmingham in the 2018 changes, the current extension to Northfield to cover the 76 and now a further extension to cover West Heath and Hawkesley again. Was there also one to Northfield via Black Haynes Road at some point or have I imagined that? And on top of that it's also interworked at the QE with the 84 and the 20/20A.

I think it's covered the Swarthmore/Black Haynes section on two separate occasions now? It's the flexible friend of the South Bham network!

Fitting that the announcement of the 46/A withdrawal is mired in confusion - much like the chequered history of the route itself. A curious episode from start to finish!

Did the 61 and 27 not swap routes in this area previously?

Yes, they did. 

I think the 48 is being extended to Hawkesley to replace the 46/46A - not too sure of the frequency of the extension - and the 27 is being switched with the 61 on the section of route mentioned.

The text explaining these changes needs a complete rewrite, it's all over the place.
 

48E to Londonderry seen in Northfield this morning.

Seems a bit of a strange one to me why it doesn't serve the hospital entrance given that it turns into Hospital Way and is within about 30 seconds of the QE main entrance stops.

Does anybody know why the new 48 timetable has included 3 minute layovers at Uni Station on each trip? I could understand layover times at the hospital entrance maybe with its previous route, but sitting at Uni Station for 3 mins will end up blocking the X20/X21/X22.

The 48 timetable had layover time built in at the QE when it went to Northfield via Bournville/Cotteridge/Hawkesley (albeit at the QE stop itself rather than the Uni station). 

I wouldn't be shocked for the 46 to be changed again once it's tender comes to an end

As far as the QE to Northfield part of the route is concerned, now that the X20 is in the picture 4 buses per hour seems excessive.

I can see the 46 being replaced by a tweaked X20 serving Weoley Castle Square, an extended 48 or rerouted 27 to cover Northfield to Hawkesley (back to the future whatever happens there) and an extended 169 to cover the Kings Heath - Brandwood section.

It's not as if a regular service hasn't been given time to get established in Cofton Hackett - almost 30 years of TWM/NXWM trying different options. I can't recall seeing any more than 5 people on a bus serving the area over that period of time.

New flags are appearing on Shenley Lane and Bell Hill towards Northfield  - one for the 48 and another for 46/46A/48/X20. 

4287 seen by Asda on Barnes Hill late morning.

4623 seen in Rednal this lunchtime - X20 route learning. 

Looking at the timetable, the rednal shorts will terminate at Leach Green Lane stop so I presume it will allow a 30 minute frequency to the top end of the lickey road to cover the whole road (like the current 20A) and saves people a walk up the hill!

I regularly get off the 20A at Edgewood Road and it still has a number of people going further. It's just a shame Cofton Hackett as is losing the service.

I think the first paragraph is the likely answer to the original query about why the X20 isn't going straight into Edgewood Road. I guess it simplifies it for passengers if there's a consistent service over that part of Lickey Road.

Regarding the short journeys, I remember when the 98 was introduced, it used the u-turn straight after the stop opposite Leach Green Lane on its outbound journey but was subsequently adjusted to go down to the island at the bottom of the hill, serving the stop just after the old tram terminus and the stop on the other side of the road between the former amusement arcade and Hare and Hounds which lies just beyond the aforementioned turning point. I wonder if a similar tweak will be made once the route is up and running. There seems to be adequate time throughout the day for this to happen (around 10 minutes or so). 

I also wonder if there will be some form of limited evening interworking with the 45/47? On first glance it's looks like a couple of short journeys are at Rednal for 25/30 minutes.

Now that the timetable has released I can finally talk about the X20 route more, as I didn't wanna be the one to leak the route 🤣. Let me know if you've got any questions about it, I can try and answer them.

It looks like journeys to Bromsgrove will do a u-turn at the Hare and Hounds. 

Will the Rednal shorts do the same or will they turn around at Rednal Island so they can pick up passengers from the stop outside the H + H currently served by the 20A?