Messages

There isn't much demand because years of not having night buses has normalised the idea of taxis in Brum. There's just as much nightlife in Brum as there is in Manchester, and those people clearly still have to get home somehow. I don't quite know how it's worked over the years up there but I think  the constant presence of night buses has ensured they're used.

London is a different beast. I've travelled night buses around London that have been pretty empty save for a few bored youths and yet still running every 20 minutes

01:00 Service 9 I use after work was always full

I think it was stated in another topic here about the 242 / 228 that TGB were looking to operate some services commercially during the school hoilidays. Otherwise as there would be no school services, TGB would have a lot of buses and drivers sat around doing nothing for the next six weeks.  ::)

Plus I imagine a lot of their private hire work has dried up.

I'd also hazard a guess that they may be in receipt of bus operator grant money from the Government as well, so there may be little risk for them to operate a commercial service just for a few weeks. (That's just a guess by the way, I'm not stating that as a fact)

In a way I salute them for showing a bit of initiative and trying something different for a change, and you never know, if this new service enjoys some success, it could lead somewhere.

@Stu Green Bus tried this in Halesowen with journeys on the 192 & its 22 and failed so interesting times ahead

The 61, 63, X62, X64, used to stop at the same stop as the 144. It used to be the 76 towards Solihull on the flag at the other stop, 76 no longer goes that way now. So presumably any agreement was overcome over a decade ago.

Midland Red West had to legally put thier bus stop flag on the lampost to comply with the agreement at the stop its only been recently removed

I noticed something peculiar the other day.

On the Bristol Road at Selly Oak, there are two bus stops on the "to City" side just after the triangle junction of the A4040, A38 and B384 (next to Frankie and Benny's). Both of these stops have flags with the same services on them (61 and 63). One of them was in the current red/white style, whereas the other one is in the older dark blue style.

Looking on Google Maps, the first stop used to be flagged for the 144 (stop SP) with the second one flagged for 61/63 (stop SQ).

When I go past it next (hopefully tomorrow), I'll try to see if the new stop has SQ on it, which would suggest it got put in the wrong place. Other than that I wouldn't have a clue as to why that's happened.

Long standing agreement between Midland Red & Birmingham City Transport & thier successors had to be overcome to allow all buses to stop at the same stop on Bristol Rd.

Or they could be adventurous and extend a 9 to kinver, has kinver ever had a connection to Birmingham

WMPTE 130 ran hourly from Kinver to Birmingham