Cross City Routes

[lgr]

I was just wondering why cross city routes like the old 66/A routes (Star City - Ladywood) no longer run, and now all routes serving the city terminate there? Is it purely due to reliability issues?

I never got a chance to use them myself, but some of them sounded quite interesting (apparently the old 44/46 ran between Shenley Fields and Perry Barr?). Any nostalgia would be pretty interesting to read!

[nx4737]

I remember seeing Cross City branded Mercs in Erdington a couple of years back, any idea what route that'd have been?

[Stu]

I remember seeing Cross City branded Mercs in Erdington a couple of years back, any idea what route that'd have been?

That probably would have been the 66, it used to go to Ladywood, but was curtailed to the city centre a couple of years ago now.

[Roy]

When I first arrived in the West Midlands in 1970, WMPTE had just taken over from BCT, but all Birmingham city routes still used ex-BCT standards and Fleetlines.  In those days, only the out of city destination was displayed (e.g. Rednal 62, Rubery 63), with a small display underneath proclaiming "To City" and "From City".  Most services terminated in the City Centre.  However, there were a few cross-city routes and these operated as one number in one direction, and another number in the opposite direction.  For instance, I think that the 90 ran from Hall Green (Baldwins Lane) to Pheasey, while the 91 ran from Pheasey to Hall Green.  There were also two services along the Hagley Road - the 6 to Sandon Road and the 7 to Portland Road - and these started from Perry Common.  In the opposite direction, buses ran from Sandon Road or Portland Road to Perry Common as service 5.
There may have been others, and I'm sure somebody will correct anything here that is wrong.  I seem to recall that the 16 to Hamstead was a cross-city route, with journeys in the opposite direction being either a 15 or a 17, while the 33 to Kingstanding operated back as a 34 to Quinton during peak hours only.     

[4504]

I thin it is due to reliability issues, plus the fact that more buses are required for cross city routes, and sometimes not a lot of people use it past the city centre

I was just wondering why cross city routes like the old 66/A routes (Star City - Ladywood) no longer run, and now all routes serving the city terminate there? Is it purely due to reliability issues?

I never got a chance to use them myself, but some of them sounded quite interesting (apparently the old 44/46 ran between Shenley Fields and Perry Barr?). Any nostalgia would be pretty interesting to read!