Solihull Gateway

[Matt.N0056]

I would have thought it might be more useful to have all bus services terminating at the station only and not serving the town centre during the course of the works. Passengers who only transfer onto other services, can change there instead of the town centre. Then perhaps have a free shuttle bus, just running between the station and town centre, for the shoppers and workers.
(I also would have thought, in the interests of public health, that the short 5-10min walk from the station interchange to the town centre could be promoted as a bit of exercise!)

Just thinking that myself! Maybe just the lower frequency services serving the town centre.

[Steveminor]

You are joking aren't you!!!
We saw a little while ago (when the sewer collapse in poplar rd closed the town to all buses) people don't want to walk to their bus & the amount of complaints to solihull council that week was immense. The free shuttle bus idea would just increase costs to the scheme & who would pay the extra cost ?  I think they've got most of it right but I would have the 6/49/76 turn right out of herbert rd & straight out of town rather than looping the whole of solihull.

[Isle of Stroma]

I would have thought it might be more useful to have all bus services terminating at the station only and not serving the town centre during the course of the works.

Not a good idea, pax loadings for the town centre by far outweigh those for the station.

(I also would have thought, in the interests of public health, that the short 5-10min walk from the station interchange to the town centre could be promoted as a bit of exercise!)

Great idea. Let's pursue it, close the heart of Birmingham & Coventry centres to public transport, that'll work.

Oh, wait.....

[Justin Tyme]

... I would have the 6/49/76 turn right out of herbert rd & straight out of town rather than looping the whole of solihull.

I agree!  This happened a few years back and seemed to work OK.  I can't see the big loop doing anything for reliability.

[Steveminor]

It's evening peak the problems will come. Church hill rd gets very congested as does new rd.  Not to mention trying to get down warwick rd & lode lane.

[Stu]

You are joking aren't you!!!
We saw a little while ago (when the sewer collapse in poplar rd closed the town to all buses) people don't want to walk to their bus & the amount of complaints to solihull council that week was immense. The free shuttle bus idea would just increase costs to the scheme & who would pay the extra cost ?  I think they've got most of it right but I would have the 6/49/76 turn right out of herbert rd & straight out of town rather than looping the whole of solihull.

It was just a thought! Ok, maybe the shuttle bus wouldn't be free then, passes and day tickets can be accepted, and a 'short-hop' cash fee of a £1?

Good point about the 6, 49 & 76 though, the website also fails to go into detail about how the other services entering Solihull will be affected, while Station Road and Poplar Road are one-way, namely the 5, 37, 58, 71, 72, 957 which normally travel 'westerly' through the town towards the station.

It seems that whichever way they do it, passengers are going to be inconvenienced somehow. I'll be interested to see the diversion details for all services when they get published closer to the date, but I still do think that passengers who otherwise change services at the town centre will end up having to change at the station instead, as long as services like the 31, 58, 73 and 966 can temporarily terminate there.

[Liberator9]

You are joking aren't you!!!
We saw a little while ago (when the sewer collapse in poplar rd closed the town to all buses) people don't want to walk to their bus & the amount of complaints to solihull council that week was immense. The free shuttle bus idea would just increase costs to the scheme & who would pay the extra cost ?  I think they've got most of it right but I would have the 6/49/76 turn right out of herbert rd & straight out of town rather than looping the whole of solihull.

@Steveminor

Very sensible idea - certainly is more sensible to send them down Herbert, drop passengers off there/load them and then set back off towards QE/Bham/Northfield. I use the S2 every weekday and the Church Hill Road is a nightmare in the evening peak. It's not designed for a high frequency of buses and is narrow. Solihull School causes heavy traffic in the evening/morning peaks - the routes are going to be ruined timewise.

I might email Centro suggesting this to avoid a situation of three major routes running unreliability for a long period of time potentially.

[Matt.N0056]

nxwm site:

http://nxbus.co.uk/west-midlands/information/service-changes/solihull-gateway-project-from-monday-2nd-march-2015

[Steveminor]

Details now on nwm website http://www.networkwestmidlands.com/gateway/gateway.aspx
However as always with centro it isn't quite right as they state service 71e on Sundays will run to stand f at solihull station. However the route isn't registered to run to the station on a Sunday with buses only taking their lunch break there.

[Rob H]

Recorded Some Solihull Gateway Bus Diversion Action from today. Link is below

[John]

The drivers of 2 957s this morning didn't realise that Poplar Road was one way. The one that I was on, 4947 got to the right turn into Poplar Road, and stopped there for a few minutes thinking what to do. He had to Carry on past Morrisions, and turned around at the Island with the Solihull Bypass on the Warwick Road. As we were heading back to the Town Centre, we passed 4941 which did a u-turn in the cut through opposite the Petrol Station next to Morrisions

[Rob H]

Here is some more Diversion Action from this morning

[Rob H]

Stage 2 of Solihull Gateway starts on Sunday 19th April

[Liberator9]

Thanks for posting @Rob2832  - will have to have a look for next week. Nice videos of the diversion action by the way - good watch  :)

[Rob H]

Thanks for posting @Rob2832  - will have to have a look for next week. Nice videos of the diversion action by the way - good watch  :)

Thank You @Liberator9 I'm hoping to do another video that week. :)