North B'ham Bus review ... what changes would you have made ?

[Kevin]

Tonnes of changes I would have made, alas I haven't been on me computer for a while and typing it all out on me phone would be a bit of a ballache.

The 68 was always rammed when i saw it at school and peak times, then since PB took over it seemed to be wayyy too frequent, i think every 20 minutes would be ideal. I think an independant like Central buses could make a good go of the former 68 route

Route 68 does seem to be missed/was popular, but surely it didn't make a profit for NXWM otherwise it wouldn't have been retained

Dont quote me on this but think reliability problems killed it off.

I don't think anyone would try to argue against the 68 being impressively unreliable, but the reason so many people caught it was because it was so useful (plus the occasional extra like me who caught it just because it was a merc). I genuinely am surprised that along some parts of the route there still isn't any reasonable replacement for it

[Kevin]

Tonnes of changes I would have made, alas I haven't been on me computer for a while and typing it all out on me phone would be a bit of a ballache.

So, I didn't expect to have time this evening, so now look a bit of a tit for saying that, but never mind..... Here goes:

• A service linking Perry Barr and West Brom (Oxhill Road, Island Road etc)
• A better serivce along Rocky Lane, perhaps replace the part of the 424 north of Perry Barr with an extension to the 651.
• A link from Perry Barr to Star City, possibly with the 46, and the section Perry Barr - Victoria Road can be covered by an increased frequency on the southern part of the 424 (which seems like it should be so much busier than it is considering the route).
• A link from Perry Barr to Perry Common, possibly a joint 10 min frequency with the 907/107 along the College Road, and then on to either Erdington or up to New Oscott and Streetly
• Extend all 28 services to Scott Arms, and get rid of the random evening/sunday extension to Small Heath, if there was call for that service it would run all day, perhaps say as a 98 (ok that number's taken) from the city cente via small heath, ward end, castle brom, chester road to erdington
• Get rid of the 638, it's just the 28 with a litte loop in castle vale. Maybe replace it with a service from Erdington via Holly Lane, Tyburn Road, Castle Vale to Minworth (recognise it? 68?)
• Currently there is no link from Old Oscott to Perry Barr, you have to walk quite a way to the 997 stop. I'd suggest extend the 52 (ok, 952) from Perry Beeches through Old Oscott and shady lane possibly to Kingstanding Circle. The loop of the 52 can be replaced with a local service from Perry Barr - Aldridge Road - Perry Beeches (Thornbridge Avenue) - Booths Farm - Calshot road - Scott Arms
• Reintroduce the link from Handsworth via Lozells Road and Victoria Road to Aston, then on to Star City and possibly on to Erdington.
• Cut the 66 to city - Erdington only, possibly with a link through to the Markets in the city. The rest can be a separate routes (Erdington - Kingstanding and Erdington - Sutton)
• A service from the city to the Banners Gate area, either extending the 88 through Erdington (not such a great idea) or re-routing the 935.
• Some sort of link from the Perry Common / New Oscott / Kingstanding area to No Hope Hospital (like the 68 used to)
• Renumber the 966 (because the number makes no sense now, it's definitely not an express service anymore) to 70, extend it to Sutton and route via Kingsbury road like it used to, and run it effectively as a joint frequency with the 71 between Sutton / Castle Brom / Chelmsley Wood / Solihull (bit extreme I know, was just having fun with that one if I'm honest, I also though originally to incorporate the 72 aswell but then they extended that to the city centre)
• Possibly a bit controversial given the whole renumbering issues, but I'm not a fan of all the 9xx buses in north Birmingham, to me "9" means express but in the case of the 907/952 it only means missing out a handful of bus stops, and I'm not convinced it's sped anything up. renumber them back to 107/52.
  

So yeah, criticise at your will, they are just suggestions from a regular user of most of the network involved