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Messages - Midland 2541

#1
Quote from: Stu on November 19, 2024, 06:57:52 PMCome on, please have a little patience!
As annoying as the repetition is, there's a valid point there. 

We're now at the 6 weeks mark until these changes will kick in, and we currently know... next to nothing.

These are likely to be fairly major changes too, not just some tweaks to timetables, and people do rely on these services; services that may well be unrecognisable come January. 

The fact that even just the changes to the services can't or haven't been published yet, and even if it is with a disclaimer ("The timetables and operator have not been finalised yet, please check back later for up to date timetables." or something in that vein.), reflects extremely poorly on TfWM. 

And this is a problem TfWM have had before - the January 2023 changes were almost ridiculous in how short notice and how poor quality the information provision was - so for them to make the same mistake again would be emblematic of a far greater problem in the system... 
#2
Quote from: Rachvince53 on October 24, 2024, 11:38:12 AMThere were also night services in Wolverhampton at one time I believe.
901-904 were the Wolverhampton night buses. Not too sure when they started, but they ended around early 2006.

Until roughly the same era (2005-2008), Birmingham still had a not insubstantial night network too. Last ones were gone by around 2008 though.
#3
34A came in in October 2015 as a frequency boost (iirc, they were all every 20 minutes, so combined to be every 5 minutes between Walsall and Darlaston) along the Darlaston corridor, and ran a loop of Rough Hay, which was: 

Willenhall Street, Stafford Road, Hall Street, Hall Street East, Willenhall Street, Rough Hay Road and St Lawrence Way into Darlaston

Both the 34A and 38 went in July 2016 - the 34A not being replaced, whilst the 38 was replaced by the 39 being rerouted to serve the hospital, alongside the 75 being extended to Darlaston (which was suggested to go down Kings Hill Road to actually replace the 38, but never did, following the 79 to Darlaston instead.)

Bilston to Stowlawn being tacked onto the 39 came a bit later - initially the 39 did still continue to run to Wolverhampton after the July 2016 changes, but I believe that was withdrawn in September 2016, with it being extended in 2017 sometime. 

The Thandi 37 only came in later (early 2017 rings a bell), and led to a completely unsustainable 9 buses an hour on a route that even in the days gone by only sustained 4-5 buses an hour, as NX ran their 37, Thandi theirs and Sandwell Travel continued on with the 333X until 2018.

Sandwell Travel pulled off in 2018, when they closed up (I believe it was after one of their Caetano Darts lost a wheel on the Black Country Route, but that might be my memory playing up.), and NX would pull off in the same year, leaving Thandi to run the route in the daytime, whilst NX had the evenings and Sundays. 

Thandi shut up shop themselves in 2021, and NX took over the 37 as Willenhall to Darlaston initially, for about a month, before it was extended back to Walsall. 

#4
Quote from: BlackCountryBusSpotter on September 26, 2024, 06:24:35 PMI assume the Planned 37 would have replaced the 38 and maybe a 337 which I believe ran to Willenhall but ran via the other way of Stroud Aveune
The map on the first print showed it as replacing the 38, yes. 

It never ran this route though. 

The 337 was just Walsall to Darlaston via Pleck, and was bought in to compete with Travel A2Z's 338 (itself a short working to Darlaston only) during the late 2000s, and lasted until 2009, when it was renumbered to 333E. 

The only things that have served the other part of Stroud Avenue are services terminating in Lodge Farm - so the Sunday evening 37s until Jan 2023, the 9 between 2010 and 2014, and the 331/332 in their last forms.
#5
Quote from: BlackCountryBusSpotter on September 26, 2024, 04:50:36 PMThe 37 is just an old 333E they should have numbered the 37 to the 33
It was originally - the consultation document from earlier in 2016 explicitly calls it the 33, not the 37. Exactly when in the process it changed to 37, I'm not sure.

This didn't happen, in the same way that the planned route of the 37 via the Manor Hospital (which made it as far as being printed onto Centro issued timetables of the time, though it never ran that route) didn't happen.
#6
28, 28E came about in July 2011, replacing parts of the 369 (between Willenhall and New Invention) and the 528 (between Ashmore Park and Wolverhampton, though the section via New Cross Hospital was new, the 528 having previously gone down Thorneycroft Road and Cannock Road into Wolverhampton, rather than through Heath Town.).

Initially, the 28E was numbered that because it was a short working of the 28 on evenings & Sundays to New Invention only. After a while, the 28 having changed route in Wood End slightly so as to serve Wood End Road, rather than Bellamy Lane as it did upon starting, with the 28E staying via Bellamy Lane. It started under Midland, passing to Arriva when Arriva acquired Midland.

October 2014 saw the 28E extended to Willenhall along the 326's route, putting a bus back down Lane Head for the first time since the 342 went at the 2011 Review - the 326 Sunday service being withdrawn in 2007 - and now interworking with the 27 (Wolverhampton to Dudley via Sedgley and Gornal Wood) 

The 28 would be withdrawn in July 2016, replaced by the 69 being rerouted along its route between Wolverhampton and Ashmore Park. The 28E would soldier on a little bit longer, surviving long enough to pass to Diamond in April 2017 when Arriva pulled out of Wednesfield, being withdrawn on 22nd October 2017, and replaced by the 69 running Sundays; the evening journeys being dropped entirely.

As for vehicles on there, it was mostly Arriva's fleet of mini Pointer Darts and SB120/Cadets, though the 21xx E200s did appear when Wednesfield had them, and some of Wednesfield's oddballs occasionally escaped onto there (I had B10BLE 3618 on there one time in September 2015, and a DLA got on there at least once around the same time) 

The 40 started at the same time as the 28, and at least according to Centro literature of the time, replaced the 333 and 340 (the 340 between Walsall and Stroud Avenue, and the 333 between there and Wolverhampton). 

Originally, the route ran down Stringes Lane into Willenhall, but was rerouted along Clarkes Lane and Shepwell Green into Willenhall around 2014; the section via Deansfield being dropped at the same time iirc. The 40 would be withdrawn in July 2016, and replaced by the 37 running over the original 333 route (via Darlaston) and an increased 41. 
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