Night Buses

[Tony]

Well when the first night service starts in A pril let's see how well it's used

What route is that or are we having our leg pulled Tony?  rumour was at Walsall when I drove there (you can check) was the 51 going to be 24 hr.

Someone else has revealed which route it is in another thread. It is the 97 service with sponsorship from the NEC & Airport on what I believe to be a 3 year trial. Three years should be long enough to see if people actually will use a night service

The VOSA site has this registration down as commencing 24th March, so will it begin operating to the airport from this date, with night journeys being added in April, or will the whole thing just wait until April to start?

Interestingly, this would also appear to coincide with the arrivals of the hybrids to Wolverhampton, as presumably BC will need a few extra buses to keep the route operating 24 hours a day.  ::)

While this extension appears to be funded purposely for staff working at the airport through the night, it will be interesting to see how well it is used, certainly people in the Bordesley Green, Stechford and Chelmsley Wood areas can have a good night out in the city centre now without worrying about the cost of a taxi home!

Why would BC need extra buses? They have 160 in the garage between Midnight and 5am

[Stu]

Yes that's true, but the vast majority of those will have already done a whole day's service. I suppose it would depend on how frequent the night service would be, but it surely wouldn't hurt to have a few spares to keep the service continually rolling, as buses still need to be presumably cleaned and maintained during these 'out-of-service' hours.

[Tony]

Yes that's true, but the vast majority of those will have already done a whole day's service. I suppose it would depend on how frequent the night service would be, but it surely wouldn't hurt to have a few spares to keep the service continually rolling, as buses still need to be presumably cleaned and maintained during these 'out-of-service' hours.

Over 100 of those will have been in the garage between 8pm and Midnight. Certainly don't need any extra buses just for night services

[Stu]

Ok fair enough, it just seemed a coincidence that's all.

Maybe the night journeys will start out with single deckers, like the Urban 2s, to start with then?

[jrwxyz]

I think the 97 at night will work if there's enough advertisement, but it'll be a struggle as only people already in the city centre or in east Birmingham will benefit. With no connecting buses it'll be fighting to get the numbers of Brummies onto it for going to the airport.

Why couldn't Birmingham Central run other routes throughout the night as well? Such as the 9, 61, 45, 50, 2, 6, 37, 900, etc, going around the main routes in the southern half of the city (not sure which are the busy ones in the north) I'm sure I read that in Manchester only one garage does the Stagecoach routes at night.

Would it be possible to have them on a circular route? - for example, the 6 would go to Solihull then go onto the 37 back to Birmingham and at the same time there would be a  37 going to Solihull and then going back to B'ham on the 6. The Pershore/Bristol Roads, Alcester/Yardley Wood Roads could all do the same.

[ilovetea4370]

As much as I'd like to see an improved south Birmingham service, of all the routes does the 2 really warrant a night bus?!

[jrwxyz]

I'm sure the 5N used to loop around Haslucks Green way and then the Yardley Wood Road. Other routes could do this. And I know enough people around there who would want a night bus. Maybe not the full 2 route around Yardley Wood though.

[ilovetea4370]

Just because it used to doesn't mean it was used enough to keep it going ;) Whenever I caught 2's and 3's in the late evening, the loadings were B6 friendly!

[Dylan4579]

Diamond already do quite a lot of night work, maybe they could just extend hours

[Discodave]

Diamond already do quite a lot of night work, maybe they could just extend hours

With non screened buses and a cash bag no chance any drivers would be stupid enough to do it and it failed for them before.

[Westy]

I think the 97 at night will work if there's enough advertisement, but it'll be a struggle as only people already in the city centre or in east Birmingham will benefit. With no connecting buses it'll be fighting to get the numbers of Brummies onto it for going to the airport.

Why couldn't Birmingham Central run other routes throughout the night as well? Such as the 9, 61, 45, 50, 2, 6, 37, 900, etc, going around the main routes in the southern half of the city (not sure which are the busy ones in the north) I'm sure I read that in Manchester only one garage does the Stagecoach routes at night.

Would it be possible to have them on a circular route? - for example, the 6 would go to Solihull then go onto the 37 back to Birmingham and at the same time there would be a  37 going to Solihull and then going back to B'ham on the 6. The Pershore/Bristol Roads, Alcester/Yardley Wood Roads could all do the same.

Didn't the old Midland Red West do night circular journeys at one point?

Somebody did!

[busfan2847]

Didn't the old Midland Red West do night circular journeys at one point?

Somebody did!

Yes Midland Red West did run them briefly after deregulations.

Cannot remember the route number, my local one, at that time, was out via Alcester Rd South to Maypole then across to Kings Norton Green and back in on Pershore Rd

[Kevin]

Didn't the old Midland Red West do night circular journeys at one point?

Somebody did!

subsidised by centro, but yeah they did
pretty much covered the entire city with 10 routes every night

[sonic84]

Night buses is always a funny one.  For the main routes the first buses are running at 4/5 in the morning which is the perfect time for the clubbers leaving town.

It would perhaps only need some additional early sunday morning services on the main corridors to satisfy demand.

[busfan2847]

Night buses is always a funny one.  For the main routes the first buses are running at 4/5 in the morning which is the perfect time for the clubbers leaving town.

It would perhaps only need some additional early sunday morning services on the main corridors to satisfy demand.

Yes, back before deregulation the last daytime bus from City was 11pm and the first night service was 12 midnight (usually full especially Friday and Saturday).

After deregulation many services had their last bus pushed back to 12 midnight making the 1am bus the first night service. After that it was a downhill spiral to no night bus services!