Bournville - Birmingham?

[lgr]

I don't know if a route like this has run in the past, but I can't remember one in the last eight years of living in Bournville, so I apologise if it has.

I've been thinking about this ever since I was waiting for the 27 the other day and overheard a couple of elderly ladies who were complaining about how they were going to get the 27 and a connecting Bristol Road service to the city from there, as there's no direct route into Birmingham at the moment. You can argue that it's not far from the Bristol Road, but that really does depend on where you live. If you live on the Bunbury Road, it can be around a 20 minute walk or just having to pay for two buses. There are places all over the city that are served by several services into the city, and yet Bournville doesn't even have one.

It's not a particularly huge area, but it is significant in that we have one of the most identifiable tourist attractions in Birmingham in Cadbury World. At the minute, there's only 3 services that serve Bournville - 11, 27, 84 - (4 if you want to be pedantic and class the 11 as two routes), none of which serve the city and only one of which that actually serves Bournville, the 27. The other two only serve the Linden Road for about 4 stops that could actually be classed as part of Bournville between Cotteridge and Selly Oak.

Really, a bus serving the city and Bournville would only need to run around every 20/30 minutes in the daytime, and could also provide a valuable link between Bournville and the QE Hospital (the 84 currently does this, but only every hour and from Linden Road).

Anyway, that's just my two cents. If it's been tried and failed before, then fair enough, but it's just an idea. I was going to email NXWM and ask about it, but I wasn't sure if it would sound like a suggestion that would be made by certain people on the NXWM Facebook page...  :P

[monkeyjoe]

The 84 and 85 ran by midland red (now first) used to provide the connection.

[Phil]

I would agree Igr, the 84 could be made every 20 minuites and replace the 636 from the QE to Town. Its fine for me cause Its about a 5 minuite walk from the Bristol Road to my house, but the only other way to get there is by train or catching the 27 to the Bristol or Pershore Road, or the 50. Only other suggestion I could think of is to bring back that 54Y,

[andy]

The thing that makes it difficult and unattractive to operators is two pronged...the first, and major factor is the convenient, fast and frequent train service, and then you couple this with the major diversion off the main arteries to serve the area properly that would be required. The result is that a bus probably just wouldn't be that well utilised for journeys into the city centre.

[Nathan4775]

solutions to the problem IF THERE POSSIBLE

re-route the 636 to serve bournville
Extended the 84 to Birmingham, Moor Street
Re-Introduced the 85 and forget about extended the 84, but I would extended the 84
or Introduce a new 85 service Between Birmingham & Bournville

[lgr]

^ I actually agree with that. I'm not sure if it would be practical to re-route the 636 so drastically, but there are a couple of ways that the 84 could potentially be re-routed that wouldn't take it particularly far out of its current operating area.

It could take a different route out of Cotteridge, following the 18 on to Northfield Road and taking a right on to the Selly Oak Road just before Kings Norton Boys School. It could then take a left on to Heath Road, thus serving Rowheath Pavillion, take a right at the roundabout and then follow the current 27 route to Linden Road. Or alternatively, follow the 27 to the bottom of Hay Green Lane, instead of following the 27 past Dame Elizabeth Cadbury school, take a right onto Bournville Lane and back to the Linden Road, then follow that to the QE. It could then follow a route into Harborne and the city.

Alternatively, but perhaps less practically, it could follow part of that route and then join Bournville Lane, going via the rail station to Selly Park and perhaps serving part of the Pershore road. But I admit, that is a lot less practical. But really, it wouldn't need to be a frequent service, perhaps doubling the current frequency to every 30 minutes for reliability, and finishing quite early (around 7/8PM?).

It wouldn't even need to run on Sundays. The problem with the rail station is just that it's so far from "actual" Bournville. When I get the train, I need to get the 27 beforehand because it's almost a half an hour walk from my house. What I would say that rail stations such as Duddeston, a largely industrial area that has very little residential housing, has a frequent link to the city through its trains (really you could walk there from the city) is still served very frequently by service 14, even though there are faster ways into Alum Rock.

[D10]

There used to be WM Buses minibus route that I can remember in the nineties which I think was numbered 44. It travelled down the Pershore Road then cut through Selly Park and came out by Cadbury's. YourBus also ran a route, possibly the 53Y? That also served this area.

Like the 84/85 though they disappeared leaving the area with this whole situation of no direct route to the City.

[lgr]

And really, very few people use service 84 as it is. It only takes just over 20 minutes to do the whole route, and provides a much faster link from
Hawkesley to Bournville (10 minutes compared to the 30+ minutes on the 27). Bournville is served every 20 minutes by the 27, an 84 extension could bring that down to around 12 and provide an actual link between Bournville and the QE.

As for the 636, an extension of the 84 could link provide a joint 12 minute frequency from the QE to the city, or the 636 could be diverted away from the hospital as it's a fairly long route as it is, and from my experiences has a lot of reliability issues. But that would require an extended 84 to operate every 20 minutes to uphold the current 636 frequency.

It's just an idea, and of course could face issues of profitability, but I really do think that the area needs some kind of link with the city. I just wanted to check it wasn't a "Reiss" style idea!

[4504]

I don't really know Bournville that well, but wouldn't it be possible for one or both of the express routes to pass through Bournville, then Cotteridge then from Cotteridge to a different part of the Bristol Road.
I think the 44 was withdrawn because it wasn't that busy

[Ossie]

Slightly off topic, but this thread reminded me of the old days back under BCT when Selly Oak depot ran single-decker Leyland Tigers on route 27 through the back of Bournville .... ah, the nostalgia ....  :) :) :)

http://www.skylineaviation.co.uk/buses/bham.html

[Nathan4775]

Personally i'd;

Introduce a half hourly 85 service operated by YW that operates from Birmingham - Hawksley via 636 route to harborne then to Bournville then to Hawksley allowing interworks with the 84 to make that possible i'd increase the 84 frequency to 30 minutes or reduce the 85 frequency to 1hr  ;D

[Stu]

It was suggested elsewhere here that the 636 could be curtailed at QE Hospital, then just extend the 84 from the QE along the old 636 route into Birmingham, and maybe introduce short 84E from the City to the QE or even Selly Oak, as the whole route wouldn't need an increased frequency.

That would solve the problem of the B6LEs currently being used on the 636 being unsuitable for the new emission requirements, as well as improving the 636's reliability issues. Then Bournville gets a direct link to the city centre.

[Nathan4775]

It was suggested elsewhere here that the 636 could be curtailed at QE Hospital, then just extend the 84 from the QE along the old 636 route into Birmingham, and maybe introduce short 84E from the City to the QE or even Selly Oak, as the whole route wouldn't need an increased frequency.

That would solve the problem of the B6LEs currently being used on the 636 being unsuitable for the new emission requirements, as well as improving the 636's reliability issues. Then Bournville gets a direct link to the city centre.

Thats quite a good idea to be fair  8), wish I had came up with that

[MW]

It was suggested elsewhere here that the 636 could be curtailed at QE Hospital, then just extend the 84 from the QE along the old 636 route into Birmingham, and maybe introduce short 84E from the City to the QE or even Selly Oak, as the whole route wouldn't need an increased frequency.

That would solve the problem of the B6LEs currently being used on the 636 being unsuitable for the new emission requirements, as well as improving the 636's reliability issues. Then Bournville gets a direct link to the city centre.

Copyright Me lol

[Tony]

It was suggested elsewhere here that the 636 could be curtailed at QE Hospital, then just extend the 84 from the QE along the old 636 route into Birmingham, and maybe introduce short 84E from the City to the QE or even Selly Oak, as the whole route wouldn't need an increased frequency.

That would solve the problem of the B6LEs currently being used on the 636 being unsuitable for the new emission requirements, as well as improving the 636's reliability issues. Then Bournville gets a direct link to the city centre.

Copyright Me lol

Apart from one thing, where would the buses come from that would be needed for the extra PVR on the 84