Birmingham Central Garage

[winston]

@Winston the 99 won't be curtailed, quite the opposite. Word is when it moves it'll be extended to Hasbury.

@AndrewLee I think that pretty much confirms where it is intended to move too. I guess we can look forward to more changes to the 244 then which currently serves Hasbury/Hayley Green.

The proposed change may coincide with Dudley Review later this year, date tbc

[Mike K]

@Winston the 99 won't be curtailed, quite the opposite. Word is when it moves it'll be extended to Hasbury.

@AndrewLee I think that pretty much confirms where it is intended to move too. I guess we can look forward to more changes to the 244 then which currently serves Hasbury/Hayley Green.

The proposed change may coincide with Dudley Review later this year, date tbc

This is all very interesting. If the 99 moves to PE, and with PE reportedly already at capacity, then it does raise the question of whether this will be a move around of some vehicles / routes between garages, with BC picking up another route (or at least part of a route) in return. Operationally it would allow for the elimination of a vehicle type at BC. In terms of dead mileage alone, I can't see there being any benefit in moving the 99 to PE, as every board would need to run dead to and from Halesowen from PE, and currently some of the boards start and finish at Birmingham city centre.

I shall await developments with interest.

[winston]

@Winston the 99 won't be curtailed, quite the opposite. Word is when it moves it'll be extended to Hasbury.

@AndrewLee I think that pretty much confirms where it is intended to move too. I guess we can look forward to more changes to the 244 then which currently serves Hasbury/Hayley Green.

The proposed change may coincide with Dudley Review later this year, date tbc

This is all very interesting. If the 99 moves to PE, and with PE reportedly already at capacity, then it does raise the question of whether this will be a move around of some vehicles / routes between garages, with BC picking up another route (or at least part of a route) in return. Operationally it would allow for the elimination of a vehicle type at BC. In terms of dead mileage alone, I can't see there being any benefit in moving the 99 to PE, as every board would need to run dead to and from Halesowen from PE, and currently some of the boards start and finish at Birmingham city centre.

I shall await developments with interest.

@Mike K re- Pensnett being at capacity, I was thinking, there are currently 5 withdrawn Mercs still parked in the main depot yard + withdrawn fire damaged Trident 4355. Shift those vehicles elsewhere (or even in the Pensnett reserve fleet yard) and you'd have space for 6 more operational vehicles, the E200's are also shorter than Mercs being 10.8M long.

[Trident 4609]

Some drivers believe it's a done deal. Pensnett being the obvious choice. The 126 coming to BC has been mooted but I think one bloke made an off hand comment and its spread like wildfire and people are taking it as gospel.

Surely BC garage wouldn't have capacity for the 126 and WN don't need to loose any routes (as has excess capacity). If the 99 does indeed move to Pensnett, I still think they'd struggle to accommodate another route & additional buses without something else being moved elsewhere or they'd have to consider using the extra land for parking

The rumour of splitting up of the 126 (WN operating Wolves to Dudley and Brum to Dudley operating from BC) is also something I've heard coming from drivers I know at WN.

[Mike K]

@Winston the 99 won't be curtailed, quite the opposite. Word is when it moves it'll be extended to Hasbury.

@AndrewLee I think that pretty much confirms where it is intended to move too. I guess we can look forward to more changes to the 244 then which currently serves Hasbury/Hayley Green.

The proposed change may coincide with Dudley Review later this year, date tbc

This is all very interesting. If the 99 moves to PE, and with PE reportedly already at capacity, then it does raise the question of whether this will be a move around of some vehicles / routes between garages, with BC picking up another route (or at least part of a route) in return. Operationally it would allow for the elimination of a vehicle type at BC. In terms of dead mileage alone, I can't see there being any benefit in moving the 99 to PE, as every board would need to run dead to and from Halesowen from PE, and currently some of the boards start and finish at Birmingham city centre.

I shall await developments with interest.

@Mike K re- Pensnett being at capacity, I was thinking, there are currently 5 withdrawn Mercs still parked in the main depot yard + withdrawn fire damaged Trident 4355. Shift those vehicles elsewhere (or even in the Pensnett reserve fleet yard) and you'd have space for 6 more operational vehicles, the E200's are also shorter than Mercs being 10.8M long.

Valid points @Winston - it could just be a case of consolidating vehicle types at as few garages as possible if PE can absorb the additonal capacity. One thing I would say is that the 99 can be unreliable at times - I personally am against constantly extending routes; in the long run it only has a detrimental effect on reliability. Not so many years back the 626/636 was the 'Harborne Hopper' - soon it will be the magical mysery tour of the city centre, the University / QE and most of west Birmingham and the Black Country. Operated by oversizsed hair dryers.

[winston]

Valid points @Winston - it could just be a case of consolidating vehicle types at as few garages as possible if PE can absorb the additonal capacity. One thing I would say is that the 99 can be unreliable at times - I personally am against constantly extending routes; in the long run it only has a detrimental effect on reliability. Not so many years back the 626/636 was the 'Harborne Hopper' - soon it will be the magical mysery tour of the city centre, the University / QE and most of west Birmingham and the Black Country. Operated by oversizsed hair dryers.

@Mike K Yes I remember the 626 & 636 & the 636 & 637.

I guess if PE are also replacing Mercs on the 243/244 with shorter E200's, they will also re-gain approx 1.2M of garage space per bus due to those being shorter, in addition to shifting the 6 withdrawn buses.

[dw1308]

4903 was on the 97 this morning, saw it on greenlands road @ 8:45......would that be classed as a noteworthy working

Yes, Winston

[James4368]

4903 was on the 97 this morning, saw it on greenlands road @ 8:45......would that be classed as a noteworthy working

this is a unusual working working on 97
as normal allocation is tridents :)

but you do have this to help with any noteworthy workings in near future

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/tZHoQDUm1HwOAZvQhE50A5A/htmlview

[Stuharris 6360]

Valid points @Winston - it could just be a case of consolidating vehicle types at as few garages as possible if PE can absorb the additonal capacity. One thing I would say is that the 99 can be unreliable at times - I personally am against constantly extending routes; in the long run it only has a detrimental effect on reliability. Not so many years back the 626/636 was the 'Harborne Hopper' - soon it will be the magical mysery tour of the city centre, the University / QE and most of west Birmingham and the Black Country. Operated by oversizsed hair dryers.

@Mike K Yes I remember the 626 & 636 & the 636 & 637.

I guess if PE are also replacing Mercs on the 243/244 with shorter E200's, they will also re-gain approx 1.2M of garage space per bus due to those being shorter, in addition to shifting the 6 withdrawn buses.

The 99 at PE would also virtually eradicate other vehicle type from operating the route, at the moment if an E200 breaks down, BC have a problem because normally the spare E200s are being used on other routes hence the use of B7rles of late. PE will have more spare E200s so you should normally see at least one spare at the garage.

[pb2012]

@Winston the 99 won't be curtailed, quite the opposite. Word is when it moves it'll be extended to Hasbury.

@AndrewLee I think that pretty much confirms where it is intended to move too. I guess we can look forward to more changes to the 244 then which currently serves Hasbury/Hayley Green.

The proposed change may coincide with Dudley Review later this year, date tbc

This is all very interesting. If the 99 moves to PE, and with PE reportedly already at capacity, then it does raise the question of whether this will be a move around of some vehicles / routes between garages, with BC picking up another route (or at least part of a route) in return. Operationally it would allow for the elimination of a vehicle type at BC. In terms of dead mileage alone, I can't see there being any benefit in moving the 99 to PE, as every board would need to run dead to and from Halesowen from PE, and currently some of the boards start and finish at Birmingham city centre.

I shall await developments with interest.

@Mike K re- Pensnett being at capacity, I was thinking, there are currently 5 withdrawn Mercs still parked in the main depot yard + withdrawn fire damaged Trident 4355. Shift those vehicles elsewhere (or even in the Pensnett reserve fleet yard) and you'd have space for 6 more operational vehicles, the E200's are also shorter than Mercs being 10.8M long.

Valid points @Winston - it could just be a case of consolidating vehicle types at as few garages as possible if PE can absorb the additonal capacity. One thing I would say is that the 99 can be unreliable at times - I personally am against constantly extending routes; in the long run it only has a detrimental effect on reliability. Not so many years back the 626/636 was the 'Harborne Hopper' - soon it will be the magical mysery tour of the city centre, the University / QE and most of west Birmingham and the Black Country. Operated by oversizsed hair dryers.

Perhaps the 141 will move the other way taking the remaining 7 e400's left to BC after the other 22 go to PB?

[karl724223]

Doubt the 99 would come to pn as we don't get travelling time to relief points so we would not have reliefs over halesowen if it was extended to merry hill but I doubt that as well which way would it go meaning more buses on the route???

[Liverpool Street]

What I've heard is:

Something from the farm going to Wolvo.

126 from Wolvo to BC.

99 extended to hasbury and from BC to the Farm.

Someone work out what could go from PN to WN?

[Sayeed]

What I've heard is:

Something from the farm going to Wolvo.

126 from Wolvo to BC.

99 extended to hasbury and from BC to the Farm.

Someone work out what could go from PN to WN?

X96?

[Tara4352]

What I've heard is:

Something from the farm going to Wolvo.

126 from Wolvo to BC.

99 extended to hasbury and from BC to the Farm.

Someone work out what could go from PN to WN?

X96?

141

[Ashley 60171]

What I've heard is:

Something from the farm going to Wolvo.

126 from Wolvo to BC.

99 extended to hasbury and from BC to the Farm.

Someone work out what could go from PN to WN?

X96?

141

What about the 205 which you could interwork with 27/27A? No increase in dead mileage there and the frequencies are the same