Messages

86, 85A (Sundays)

The 86 is generally hourly, slightly more frequent at peak times, and the peak vehicle requirement (PVR) is probably 4. That said, bustimes shows that 6 buses in all have run on the 86 today.

On Sundays 2 buses are required on the 86, and the service interworks with a Rugby town service (1 to Hillmorton).  The Sunday 85A requires 1 bus.

The Rugby cross-town service that will become electric (4, Brownsover - Cawston  Grange) has a PVR of around 6 buses - and bustimes shows 6 buses in all have run on the 4 today - if I have counted correctly 🤞.

Think when I asked a similiar question, TfWm wouldnt get their cut or something?

Or it wouldn't be economic for NX.  I  think that was the reason given for NX Outer Zones replacing 'nBus + all NX buses' earlier this year.

Are all the SC depots in Warwickshire having battery chargers fitted? How is this work progressing?

According to a Warwickshire CC report Leamington and Nuneaton are being done, and it appears that Leamington is ahead on the work.

The report doesn't mention Rugby garage, but as the electric allocation will be rather smaller, perhaps major work is not necessary?

I don't think Stratford (an outstation of Leamington) is being done as no services operated from there will be electrified under the current schemes.

I know this is a bit late to be saying but why did first just decide not to go from Worcester directly to Birmingham anymore? Was it just too costly/took too much time or is there a deeper meaning?

And, simply, First were losing money on the Birmingham section of the 144.

According to the NXWM website, NX Outer Zones day is currently £5. This includes Rugby.

That's what the NXWM website says, but I don't believe it's that straightforward.

The NXC website says the £6 ticket is required to get to Rugby (remember this notice?), so I doubt that an NXC driver would accept a £5 ticket beyond the TfWM boundary on a Rugby service.  And if starting in Rugby, I reckon that only the £6 day ticket would be available to purchase.

If an NXC member of staff reading this can confirm what the situation is, that would be great.

Slightly confused here. The NX website says the Outer Zone day ticket is £5 & the map shows Rugby, Leamington, Nuneaton, Coleshill, Lichfield, Cannock & Bromsgrove as the out of area locations.

https://nxbus.co.uk/west-midlands/tickets-prices/single-trips-day-tickets

Has the price been reduced from £6 or do the good people of Coventry have to pay more than the rest of the West Midlands to travel outside the nbus area (ie to Rugby)?

Cheers ... Richard

Ah ... just clocked the fact that Rugby is shaded blue, but there is no mention on the NXWM website that there is a price difference, just on the Coventry one

Well, yes, could be better!

I can only guess that NX expect hardly anyone from the NXWM area to want a day ticket to travel to Rugby.  I have done it two or three times, but not since NX Outer Zones ticket was brought in.  The next time I do it I will pay by contactless so I expect travel that day to be capped at £6.

I would love to know if anyone has bought an NX Outer Zones - Rugby day ticket on a Wolverhampton, Walsall or Pensnett bus!

There were also the L and M, Solihull - Monkspath - Shirley.

I have to say Solihull doesn't need a bus station, as the town centre stops are close enough together and on a buses-only road.

Chelmsley Wood Interchange looks like it could have been made a bus station, but it seems to work well enough as it is.

There are too many bus services in Birmingham city centre to make a centrally-located bus station possible.  There's no point in having an off-centre bus station.

does anybody remember the old 187 (Dorridge to Birmingham) or
151 Dorridge to Yardley Wood
182 Dorridge to Acocks Green

or may
183 /184 Dorridge to Solihull which later became 185 / 186 Dorridge To Cranmore Boulevard

just asking ??

Yes - going back to the late 1970s and early 1980s.  For a while Jumbo Fleetlines from Yardley Wood Garage were common on the 152 Yardley Wood Station - Knowle via Solihull and Widney Manor.

I didn't think it was that old, is it one of the oldest bus routes up there with the 9?

There are a number of bus routes that are older.

To give a little bit of history, horse bus routes started in Birmingham in the early 1830s, and during Victorian times most main roads in the city had regular services.

Trams started to appear in the 1870s, and during the 1880s steam tramways were started on most main roads.  Horse buses were then confined to a few other routes.

During the 1900s Birmingham's tramways were converted to electric, mainly (eventually entirely) run by the Corporation.  After an unsuccessful start in the early 1900s, motor buses appeared in 1912 and quickly replaced the horse buses.  They were used on less important routes until the mid 1920s, when they started to be used to open up new services such as the 8, 11 and 16.

Electric trams were dominant in Birmingham until the 1930s, by which time the motor bus had developed to become the tram's equal or better.  From the late 1930s trams were gradually replaced by buses when tram tracks wore out and were due for renewal or replacement.  The last trams were withdrawn in 1953.

So ... while the 50 is "only" 75 years old, it replaced trams which in one form or another had run over much of the route since 1884.

Photos of the first electric double deck (an ADL Enviro 400 EV) and single deck (Yutong E12) at Leamington depot are now on the Coventry & Warwickshire Bus Pics Facebook page.

So now we know what the double decks will be.

Thanks for cheering me up!

I've started walking to/from Sparkhill Job Centre to get to and from work, as the 15 minute walk is quicker than sitting in traffic on the 2 or 3.

I sympathise.  I've done the diversion once, on a 6 in August, and that took a long time.  I'm lucky that I don't have to do do it every day.

Every time a major road is closed, buses always seem to suffer the most.  What can be done?

Answers on a postcard to the West Midlands Mayor I suppose.

Stratford road diversion has been extended to September 16

I'm afraid the Causeway One.Network website, which has a map showing roadworks, reckons the Stratford Road closure will be until 1600 on 23 September.

[including 31 double deckers]

There is more information on the Warwickshire County Council website about Stagecoach electric buses for Warwickshire:-
https://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/news/article/5533/27-all-electric-buses-on-their-way-as-zero-emission-scheme-is-approved

Two items of interest:

• Stagecoach are providing 64.8% of the funding for the Warwickshire scheme (using 27 buses) which was announced a few months ago.
• Stagecoach are getting a further 64 electric buses (including 31 double deckers ) from the Coventry all-electric bus city scheme for commercial services between Warwickshire and Coventry.  The services involved are the 56, 57, 148, 86, X17, X18 and U1/U2.

There are bus stops of this kind in Blossomfield Road, Solihull. There is a two-way cycle lane along this road.

I agree that they are accidents waiting to happen.  I cannot believe that people making decisions on them think it is acceptable to expect bus passengers to have to look out for bikes when getting on a bus.

And they are not going attract anyone to using the bus.