New route?

[Mike360]

It would be good to have a route linking Northfield to Merry Hill through areas such as Longbridge, Rubery to connect to the Black Country and Halesowen.
I wondered what anyone else thinks about a route suggestion like this one.

[ilovetea4370]

Personally I think the 002 should be extended to Northfield!

[Mike360]

Yes the 002 extending to Northfield would be good.

[Stu]

The question to be asked when making any route suggestions such as these is, is there sufficient demand for such a service?

As a veteran of many silly route suggestions that have been made on the NXWM Facebook page (not saying this is a silly one or otherwise!), one has to ask that if a suggestion was commercially viable, then would it not be in operation already?

Also worth considering is that people can make all the suggestions they like in this forum, but I don't think Tony is in any capacity to forward any onto the people who ultimately make the decisions. It's nice to have some sensible discussions on the subject, but lets not think we can change the current network here.

[Tony]

I am in a position where I can forward any sensible ones on. I have made one myself to the relevant person about the X31 withdrawal which will be looked at (and it is not NXWM running the X31 or extending off-peak X51 to Cannock as I know the answer to those two!).

What I am not going to pass on are ones that have been tried in the past and proven nowhere near commercial or ones that replace other operators withdrawn services as these are clearly not commercially viable either.

It is highly unlikely a brand new route that requires peak buses is going to be viable, but one where buses already being used in the peak and currently return to garage or ones where a service can be split are possibilities. Reductions in main road services like the 9 to less than 'a frequent service*' as suggested by a couple of people are not going to get looked at either.

* A frequent service is legally one registered to run every 10 minutes or more frequently

[winston]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I seem to remember Ludlows introduced a new route 003 which went in that general direction, I don't recall it lasting that long.

It would be good to have a route linking Northfield to Merry Hill through areas such as Longbridge, Rubery to connect to the Black Country and Halesowen.
I wondered what anyone else thinks about a route suggestion like this one.

[Nathan4775]

I thought the 003 worked in the Halesowen Area

[KayP]

I stand by my opinion to change the terminus of the 58 to Sheldon, Arden Oak, withdraw the 59 and bring back the 54, making the 54, 55 and 58 frequency every 15 minutes, and re-introduce a Sunday service on the 58 (every 20 minutes) so the 58 and 60 can run every 7/8 minutes Monday - Saturdays and every 10 minutes on Sundays. I liked it the way it was until they introduced the 59 and changed the 58

[Tony]

Why would you want to send the 58 back to the Arden Oak. Any passengers between the Wheatsheaf and Swan have a 8 minute frequency express bus to Birmingham (900/957), the 58 would just be a duplicate. It was actually my idea to send it to Solihull to cover the area that was left without any buses at all by the withdrawal of the 42

[KayP]

Because I think it was fine the way it was

Why would you want to send the 58 back to the Arden Oak. Any passengers between the Wheatsheaf and Swan have a 8 minute frequency express bus to Birmingham (900/957), the 58 would just be a duplicate. It was actually my idea to send it to Solihull to cover the area that was left without any buses at all by the withdrawal of the 42

[Tony]

no-one used it for being the 58! That is why it could have been withdrawn altogether as it was a few years back before it was tried again.

The only people who used it could just as easily use the 60, 900 or 957. What would you say to all those people, mostly pensioners now on the 58 route between Solihull and where it joins the Coventry Road who you propose taking there service off just to duplicate other services that are already 10 min frequency or better?

[KayP]

Then extend it to B'ham Int Airport and make 900 and 957 express from Birmingham - B'ham Airport. Personally I'd make the 73 cover the old 42 route then make it go the normal route. I thought this page was for personal opinions anyway?!

no-one used it for being the 58! That is why it could have been withdrawn altogether as it was a few years back before it was tried again.

The only people who used it could just as easily use the 60, 900 or 957. What would you say to all those people, mostly pensioners now on the 58 route between Solihull and where it joins the Coventry Road who you propose taking there service off just to duplicate other services that are already 10 min frequency or better?

[Tony]

It is, that is why I am asking you how you would cover that area of Olton that you would leave without a bus?

All you suggestions seem to be things NXWM have tried which have failed though. The 58 ran to the Airport for a couple of years, but again, no-one used it.

The reason the 58 was moved is because the 42 was losing a lot of money so had to be withdrawn. By covering the area south of the Coventry Road by diverting the 73, and the area north of the Coventry Road with the 58 it meant 4 buses were saved off the 42 route and only two additional ones were used on the extension of the 58 putting the area back into profit. What you have to remember when making suggestions for new routes is additional buses cost a lot of money and will very rarely be profitable. Arriva have found this out with both the X31 and X60 which they tried and are both now being withdrawn again. The knack to being good at new routes is to provide them at minimal cost

[KayP]

Oh yeah, I suppose that makes sense  ::)

It is, that is why I am asking you how you would cover that area of Olton that you would leave without a bus?

All you suggestions seem to be things NXWM have tried which have failed though. The 58 ran to the Airport for a couple of years, but again, no-one used it.

The reason the 58 was moved is because the 42 was losing a lot of money so had to be withdrawn. By covering the area south of the Coventry Road by diverting the 73, and the area north of the Coventry Road with the 58 it meant 4 buses were saved off the 42 route and only two additional ones were used on the extension of the 58 putting the area back into profit. What you have to remember when making suggestions for new routes is additional buses cost a lot of money and will very rarely be profitable. Arriva have found this out with both the X31 and X60 which they tried and are both now being withdrawn again. The knack to being good at new routes is to provide them at minimal cost

[KayP]

How about the 90 to B'ham Int. Airport? It's not very busy to Chelmsley Wood as I remember, maybe an extension could bump up customers + I know there are other services like the 757 etc that run services close by Coleshill by aren't very frequent, so maybe this could prove profitable