SPRINT and CROSS CITY - What service numbers could be used

[GoldenSquid]

Cross city routes work in smaller city's, I don't see them working at all in Birmingham with the amount of traffic on the whole network. I've seen the 50 come in groups of 5 into Birmingham and that's without it being a cross city route, or imagine worse than that.

[BBS]

Cross city routes work in smaller city's, I don't see them working at all in Birmingham with the amount of traffic on the whole network. I've seen the 50 come in groups of 5 into Birmingham and that's without it being a cross city route, or imagine worse than that.

The outer circle is probably the worst, around 3 coming together all the time 

[Stu]

Cross city routes work in smaller city's, I don't see them working at all in Birmingham with the amount of traffic on the whole network. I've seen the 50 come in groups of 5 into Birmingham and that's without it being a cross city route, or imagine worse than that.

The convoluted road layout of one-way systems in Birmingham city centre now doesn't really seem suited to allowing the 'smooth' operation of cross-city bus services, in my opinion.

It would appear that the Sprint route from Walsall to Solihull/Airport will likely just use James Watt Queensway and Moor Street Queensway in both directions to 'join' the 51 and X1/X2 services together.

[GoldenSquid]

The convoluted road layout of one-way systems in Birmingham city centre now doesn't really seem suited to allowing the 'smooth' operation of cross-city bus services, in my opinion.

It would appear that the Sprint route from Walsall to Solihull/Airport will likely just use James Watt Queensway and Moor Street Queensway in both directions to 'join' the 51 and X1/X2 services together.

As Sprint has a lot of dedicated bus lanes, I feel like that project would just about work. But the 50/82/7 merge won't work as well.

[18WilliamsLi]

As Sprint has a lot of dedicated bus lanes, I feel like that project would just about work. But the 50/82/7 merge won't work as well.

The 82 will probably go

[Steve3229vp]

The 82 will probably go

What do you mean ?

[18WilliamsLi]

What do you mean ?

It will go completely 

[Stu]

It will go completely

No it won't, are you not paying attention to this topic?

[Celestial Toymaker]

back in the day somebody thought the 999 was a good service Solihull to NEC ltd stop express, it lost money, as it was basically just pick up at one end set down at the other, it was withdrawn in a big cull that saw the 182, 183, 184, 153 all go (among others)#
i do not see how having a ltd stop express sprint bus on the same route as say the 51 & X51, its likely to be more expensive and surely your diluting the available customers on one road, i cannot see a future for the sprint bus and i think in the end the Tram will over stretch itself

[Steve3229vp]

back in the day somebody thought the 999 was a good service Solihull to NEC ltd stop express, it lost money, as it was basically just pick up at one end set down at the other, it was withdrawn in a big cull that saw the 182, 183, 184, 153 all go (among others)#
i do not see how having a ltd stop express sprint bus on the same route as say the 51 & X51, its likely to be more expensive and surely your diluting the available customers on one road, i cannot see a future for the sprint bus and i think in the end the Tram will over stretch itself

It won't be a separate service, the new sprint service will replace both the 51 and X2

[Lynx1103]

Just wondering when is now the predicted date for the sprint to start.

[Owen]

I just seen a map of sprint. kind of on the 126, 63, X14 bus routes, I hope if this does go ahead it will not be replacing theses services, route wise or vehicle wise. But will aid them, if there's enough seats.

I think passengers would rather be sat on a spacious (2007/11) e400 on the 126 than a new cramped 'tram articulated bus' with less seats than a scania. Never mind the idea of platinums coming off the X14 for 'tram style buses' to passengers. the new ADL Evs work well/green enough don't they? If they wanted to try something different a wright Electroliner would be a fair choice ...

I remember the bendi buses retired early... but however ,, A takeaway is the seating arrangements in the old bendis was a lot better than these 'trams' are going to be.

[LiamsTransport1]

I just seen a map of sprint. kind of on the 126, 63, X14 bus routes, I hope if this does go ahead it will not be replacing theses services, route wise or vehicle wise. But will aid them, if there's enough seats.

Someone do correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the sprint routes joining together existing services? For example the X2 and 51 joining together to create one Sprint route?

[cardew]

Purely crystal ball gazing: Belfast style Van Hool artics will be ordered for the Walsall-Airport-Solihull route, WMCA have invested in too much publicity for this not to happen, lots of resources will initially be needed to combat fare dodging. Cross-city 50/82/87 will be introduced using (electric?) deckers as a test-bed to see if traffic delays on such long routes impact reliability (I suspect they will) if not, other proposed cross-city routes will be rolled out. The expense of changes to infrastructure or other factors will prove too expensive to use artics on some or possibly all of these new routes. All this will take several years. I'll update this in 2026.

[ellspurs]

Other than I maintain that each route should be numbered '25', it has been announced today (or well it has been reported today) that the next four routes have been funded.

https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/black-country/huge-70m-upgrade-buses-across-27781215

https://www.wmca.org.uk/news/cross-city-bus-route-network-to-make-services-quicker-and-easier-for-passengers/