Buses to "out-of-town" shopping centres

[Stu]

Something that keeps cropping up on my 'West Midlands Bus Users' Facebook page is the subject of having buses serve big 'out-of-town' retail developments.

A 'certain individual' keeps suggesting that there should be more buses from Birmingham city centre to the Merry Hill shopping centre, as well as buses from there to Star City and the Fort Shopping Centre.

I just wanted to retain my own sanity by asking the more knowledgeable persons on this forum what their own opinions are.

My opinion is currently that with the Bullring Shopping Centre and other plethora of major retail outlets in Birmingham city centre, with the exception of those that actually work at other shopping centres, if one was stood in Birmingham city centre, why travel all the way to Merry Hill, Star City or the Fort?

I'm not a major shop-friendly person myself, but living in Acocks Green, if I had any desire to go out shopping, I'd prefer to either jump on the 37 to Solihull for the Touchwood centre, or go into town to the Bull Ring and city centre shops. I have no desire to travel all the way to Merry Hill or the Fort by bus!

At the present time, pending any outcome from the North Birmingham bus review (and the opinions of those who travel in those areas), only the 66 serves the Star City development, and the 966 serves the Fort. And the only bus from the city centre to Merry Hill is the 141 (though our 'certain individual' is seemingly obsessed with the idea of extending the 82 from Bearwood to Merry Hill being a good one!).

Is there really any demand for services to these retail areas?

[D10]

Interesting post Stu, I agree with most of your views.

With regard to The Fort, I would think that if you were travelling by bus, you may as well go to a Town Centre instead like Birmingham and Sutton where you have far wider variety of shops, plus other facilities like cafes, libraries, hairdressers etc.

The people who I know that go to The Fort only go because of the car parking, and so I doubt that many of these car drivers would switch to bus, as it would still never be as convenient to them.

There have been other failed attempts before to serve The Fort by bus, remember the Outer Circle extension?

Merry Hill only has better bus services (except to Brum), because it has destroyed the neighbouring town centres and so it has now become the main shopping destination in the area by default.

[Steveminor]

My thoughts are that, yes people do go to these retail parks but not frequently enough to warrant a full & frequent service, unfortunately most people don't look at the costs of running a full service 52 weeks a year for people who may only visit once or twice in a year.
The possible exception being merry hill. But when it comes to buses between Brum & Merry Hill, well you only need to look at the number of people getting off the train @ cradley Heath to see that that link doesn't need any more buses.

My view is that it's the same as anywhere, the odd occasion that someone needs to go somewhere and there isn't a direct bus then they complain & petition that there should be one.
The last company to run a service following a public petition was Grosvernors S9 to Earlswood after receiving over 300 signed residents pleading for a bus. When he finally withdrew he hadn't even carried 100 people & that was after 2 months.

[Discodave]

Unless parking at out of town centres starts costing more than the bus the call will not be there for buses to serve out of town centres.  As stated Merry Hill is an exception as from Dudley originally it has killed off basically everything and all the major shops are there. Dudley is only pound shops and payday loan places just a sign of the times.

[Justin Tyme]

You often feel second class travelling to a retail park by bus.  But don't forget that some employees use the bus to get to work.  I realised this several years ago when I caught an earlyish Sunday morning 6 to Solihull.  This passes a couple of retail parks at Marshall Lake and a lot of passengers in shop uniforms alighted there.

[fleetline6477]

Also when Merry Hill Centre opened there was a network of minibus services operated by Merry Hill Minibuses which eventually became Travel Merry Hill.

Can anybody remember what these original routes were. I seem to remember a 368 to Wordsley and a 412 to The Straits??

[Tomjusttom]

Also when Merry Hill Centre opened there was a network of minibus services operated by Merry Hill Minibuses which eventually became Travel Merry Hill.

Can anybody remember what these original routes were. I seem to remember a 368 to Wordsley and a 412 to The Straits??

412 Dudley to The Straits via Merry Hill and Dudley
83 Wolverhampton to Merry Hill
368 Dudley to Wordsley via Merry Hill
610 Halesowen to Wordsley via Merry Hill
93 Wall Heath to Priory Estate
741/817 Dudley to Merry Hill (replaced by 222)
131 Dudley to Balfour Road via Halesowen and Dudley
(1999) 243 Dudley to Timbertree
264/265 Dudley to Kingswinford to Dudley
242 Kinver to Stourbridge
123 Bearwood to Merry Hill
236/7 (Dudley) - Gornal - Merry Hill - Cradley Heath - (Bearwood) (bracketed places were various extensions
261 Wall Heath to Dudley (1 trip this way only)
212 Brierley Hill to Halesowen
270 merry hill to Bilston (part was replaced by 222)

These were some of the PE/MH routes prior to branding as TWM

[sonic84]

These are the second set of services operated by Travel Merry Hill / Merry Hill Minibuses.

The actually used to be several smaller services which were amalgamated. 

The couple I can remember;

1   Hayley Green - Merry Hill Centre
31 Merry Hill Centre - Balfour Road
This was later merged to the 131 running Hayley Green - Balfour Road via Halesowen and Merry Hill.  This was later extended to Dudley using the current 244 route.

6   Ashwood Park - Merry Hill Centre
10 Merry Hill Centre - Halesowen

This was later merged to become the 610 running Halesowen - Ashwood Park.

I'm sure someone might remember all the original routes

[Bob]

Did Travel Merry Hill hang on to a Fleetline after TWM's last ones went? Im sure i remember one

[Tomjusttom]

Did Travel Merry Hill hang on to a Fleetline after TWM's last ones went? Im sure i remember one

Monorail replacement bus. Got replaced by metros iirc

[Bob]

Monorail replacement bus? Did it ever get used in normal service?

[Gareth]

Did Travel Merry Hill hang on to a Fleetline after TWM's last ones went? Im sure i remember one

I think 6898 was used and possibly 6965? Re registered with a BOK-T reg plate (?)

[Bob]

it was 6960

[John]

it was 6960

http://www.flickr.com/photos/44483738@N05/4421177196/

[Gareth]

Thanks John and Bob  :)