Bupa Marathon Diversions

[vinh1000]

http://www.networkwestmidlands.com/ServiceAlterations/RoadworksandEvents/BUPAHalfMarathonBirmingham.aspx

Some interesting diversions
Wonders if there will be any unusual workings that day :D

[Liverpool Street]

Kings Heath is the new Terminus for the Pershore Road for 4hours..

Its the same every year. Always interesting!!!

[trident4370]

Will be nice seeing some BC buses in Kings Heath again!

[Trident 4609]

Will be nice seeing some BC buses in Kings Heath again!

Thought BC already operated journeys on the 50

[trident4370]

I dont count a couple of peak workings a day ;) I mean a regular service :P

[vinh1000]

50 taking so long.. Going through Bordesley then up 14 route :-(

[trident4370]

Just been stood at Pineapple Bridge for about 2 hours spotting and the 35s are in sheer chaos. Not entirely sure how the 45/47s are working they seemed to disappear in Kings Heath and not come back for about 45 minutes, also saw 4445 just appear out of nowhere after 1 and a half hours. I'm sure there's a system but it did seem very strange! Also nice to see the Live info screens giving people false hope with buses due in "4 mins" that didn't turn up for nearly half an hour! The Diamond 27s didn't seem to have a clue where to go either, some taking pineapple road, some using Vicarage Road...  Thank goodness it's over for another year, nothing but an inconvenience...

[Kevin_Brum12]

It seems like the organisation of the diversions has been chaos with wrong and misleading information being given to passengers.

London and Newcastle can have marathons without causing the citys bus network to grind to a halt.  Should we be surprised that Birmingham can't.

[Tony]

It seems like the organisation of the diversions has been chaos with wrong and misleading information being given to passengers.

London and Newcastle can have marathons without causing the citys bus network to grind to a halt.  Should we be surprised that Birmingham can't.

Yes of course London & Newcastle's marathons don't affect bus routes! They just magically get from one side of the route to the other.
What is the wrong & misleading information that has been given out?

This on the NWM website seems to me to be exactly what happened,
http://www.networkwestmidlands.com/ServiceAlterations/RoadworksandEvents/BUPAHalfMarathonBirmingham.aspx
in fact some routes managed to return to normal routes slightly earlier than planned due to sterling work by the Birmingham Council  street cleaners and HTM, a true local Birmingham firm who know Birmingham well, who did all the street signing.

The reason some buses 'disappeared' in Kings Heath is that drivers duties on the 45/47 were changed for the day so that there were no on-road reliefs, all drivers took their bus from garage and returned it at the end of their duty and a different bus came out for the next portion. That would explain why some buses took 45 minutes before returning, as it would have gone to BC and back. This at least meant all buses were on time at the start of the driver's duty even if the bus got delayed with a previous driver

[trident4370]

Thanks Tony, that explains everything I saw this afternoon. Nice to know a fair bit of thought went into the bus operation today.

[Tony]

Thanks Tony, that explains everything I saw this afternoon. Nice to know a fair bit of thought went into the bus operation today.

I was sat in the marathon control room all day with people from the Police, Ambulance, Council, HTM and event organisors so I knew exactly when roads were closing and opening so I could pass this information on to AVL and the on road inspectors to make sure as few buses got delayed as possible. What was impossible to judge was the amount of traffic on the roads that remained open. What a lot of car drivers decided to do was come out of City on the Bristol Road and turn right onto Priory Road. This hasn't happened previous years so was unpredictable and cause bad delays on the southbound A38 because only a few cars got over each change of the lights because Northbound traffic was also heavier due to diversions off the Pershore Road.

As to comments about the 50 diversion above, once digbeth was shut there was no shorter route from Kings Heath into the city available. We did manage to get Bradford Street opened 30 minutes before planned so 50s returned to normal route earlier than expected

[vinh1000]

Thanks Tony, that explains everything I saw this afternoon. Nice to know a fair bit of thought went into the bus operation today.

I was sat in the marathon control room all day with people from the Police, Ambulance, Council, HTM and event organisors so I knew exactly when roads were closing and opening so I could pass this information on to AVL and the on road inspectors to make sure as few buses got delayed as possible. What was impossible to judge was the amount of traffic on the roads that remained open. What a lot of car drivers decided to do was come out of City on the Bristol Road and turn right onto Priory Road. This hasn't happened previous years so was unpredictable and cause bad delays on the southbound A38 because only a few cars got over each change of the lights because Northbound traffic was also heavier due to diversions off the Pershore Road.

As to comments about the 50 diversion above, once digbeth was shut there was no shorter route from Kings Heath into the city available. We did manage to get Bradford Street opened 30 minutes before planned so 50s returned to normal route earlier than expected

TBH it was nice going a different route ;-)