Service changes June 2025

[Stu]

The only reason the 20A is better is because its a one bus trip to selly oak.

That is just your opinion, how do you know where residents of Cofton Hackett travel to by bus?

[ellspurs]

Who is 'they' and how could it be applied ?

"They" being the residents of Cofton Hackett that fall within the on-demand service area, given it is within the Bromsgrove council district.

[tombzy]

That is just your opinion, how do you know where residents of Cofton Hackett travel to by bus?

Im comparing the 3 bus routes that run through there. 
Thats the only main negative i see for the bus users of cofton hackett

[Stu]

I just noticed allegedly 219 people signed this.
Well if all of these people actually used this bus daily or even regularly maybe it wouldn't be being chopped off in the first place. No doubt some people sign stuff like this to feel they are doing something good maybe.
https://www.change.org/p/save-cofton-hackett-s-vital-bus-service

Plus they still have the hourly 145 to Longbridge during the daytime where they can connect to other bus & rail services.

Just read the petition page. I'm a bit suspicious really as to whether this has been started by someone who genuinely uses buses there.

Why call the operator 'Travel West Midlands'? They haven't gone by that name for many years!

Plus they say "the proposed cuts will leave us with no regular bus service, sparking concerns for our daily commutes and appointments"

Which is not true, as Cofton Hackett is also served by Diamond's 145/145A services. Combined together, they go hourly to Longbridge and Rubery through most of the day time. I accept that those services don't run early mornings, late evenings or on Sundays though.

The 20A is also only hourly. Someone commented on my website article:
You cannot view this attachment.
"Infrequent"?

National Express West Midlands must be scratching their heads as to where these "Many people in the area use the service" are, because their own data says "use of the service in Cofton Hackett was 'very minimal'". 

If the demand was truly there, I'm sure they would have found a way to incorporate Cofton Hackett into the new route, or extended some 45 or 47 journeys down there.

But as I mentioned in a previous reply, even Diamond want to withdraw the 145/145A services due to lack of use, perhaps not due to passenger demand in Cofton Hackett, but it tells a story about demand for buses in that part of Worcestershire.

[Westy]

What is the minimum amount of passengers per journey, to 'break even', or make the service worth operating?

As I've said before, on my old route, TfWm said only 31 people caught the service per week!

Probably didnt help with the service chopping & changing every few weeks!

[SO6597]

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.

[ellspurs]

What is the minimum amount of passengers per journey, to 'break even', or make the service worth operating?

As I've said before, on my old route, TfWm said only 31 people caught the service per week!

Probably didnt help with the service chopping & changing every few weeks!

I recall someone saying (may have been Simon) that to break even with operating costs and the other shizzle, revenue needed to be around £50/hour. This was a couple of years ago, so that figure has got to have shot up since then.

Recent analysis for Banga's route 5 was done by iMarkeh here at roughly about £34 per journey, although reimbursement rates would differ.

[tombzy]

Whats funny is that the 145/145A make up the same frequency as the 20A. Only potential benefit for locals that i see is that the 20A runs sundays & bank holidays unlike 145/145A and runs from just before 5am mon - fri.

[Gareth]

Just read the petition page. I'm a bit suspicious really as to whether this has been started by someone who genuinely uses buses there.

Why call the operator 'Travel West Midlands'? They haven't gone by that name for many years.

That's very normal. And a lot depends on the age of the person involved. I know people who still say Travel West Midlands or even West Midlands Travel.
Back in the early 2000s my grandmother would still refer to TWM services as corporation buses and the blue Arriva 110 as the Midland Red

[keyy927]

i wonder if the objection is more to do with the fact that they're now required to change in longbridge. i know a couple of people from cofton hackett, and the ones i know usually go to northfield or the QE. obviously both will be served by the X20, but not from cofton. 

it is now also easier to get into birmingham, using the X20 from the top of lickey road, but i'm guessing it's the convenience of it all.

the 45/47 were originally curtailed, not because of low passenger usage, but because the residents didn't like the amount of buses - thank you sajid javid. i find it weird that they now want that bus service back, although i do wonder why nxwm don't run both up lickey road, then the 47 up lowhill lane and the 45 up groveley lane - especially considering the bus bay in cofton hackett would open up a lane on either side of lickey road - outside an old people's home/school, right off longbridge island and straight past traffic lights is a diabolical terminus and everyone knows it, especially when there are 4+ buses parked there. 

[keyy927]

X20 will be allocated any bus like every other route, let's just hope they don't go limp mode in Bromsgrove. X20/X21/X22 are labelled as X routes as they skip this stop going into city "Lee Bank, opp Bexhill Grove" and this stop leaving city "Lee Bank, adj Bexhill Grove", where as the 80 stops at them.

wait so they're allocated X branding because they skip... 1 stop? the X20 used to skip most stops between longbridge and northfield and now skips 0 of them, not very X of it.

[MasterPlan]

wait so they're allocated X branding because they skip... 1 stop? the X20 used to skip most stops between longbridge and northfield and now skips 0 of them, not very X of it.

No. The X20 and X22 were originally non-stop between City Centre and School of Eductation stop at the Uni. X21 wasn't though and should've always been 21.
But it's all immaterial now.

[ellspurs]

The X is just there to make it look cool for the university students.

[Steve3229vp]

The X is just there to make it look cool for the university students.

The arguement could be made (not by me) that the reason they were numbered X20, X21, X22 was because of routes 20, 21, 22 which run Bearwood to Oldbury which TfWM or NX deem too close for any confusion

[keyy927]

No. The X20 and X22 were originally non-stop between City Centre and School of Eductation stop at the Uni. X21 wasn't though and should've always been 21.
But it's all immaterial now.

i don't remember them being truly nonstop but i do remember there only being a few stops that they had between those two areas. the X20 was all very limited stop between the QE and longbridge technology park.

now it stops at every stop, they might as well have been called the 20.