Peak-time only X900/X957

[:D]

This bus service would save commuters about 20+ minutes from journey time. This express services will only replace one or two busy bus service in peak time.

For X900 and X957, there will be only 5 bus stops from the city to Sheldon. The bus stops are Moor St, Digbeth, Hay Mills, Swan Centre (This can be dropped), and Sheldon.

X900 will continue as normal like the 900 after Sheldon Wheatsheaf. If this bus service proves to be popular enough, it could skip some of bus stops in Coventry including Meriden.

X957 could stay express after turning right at Wheatsheaf if the traffic on Hobs Moat is not bad enough in peak time and only stopping at Land Rover and Hospital.

[Sh4318]

@:D I see your point, but ultimately, I think these proposed routes would be losing a fighting battle against train services (11-15 mins to Solihull, 20-33 mins to Coventry), I'm not really sure the buses could compete with those times. The 900, 957 began to cover all stops between Swan Island - Wheatsheaf to retain the 7/8 minute frequency for services to Birmingham, when the 58 was rerouted from Sheldon, Arden Oak to Solihull, and the 59 was introduced, because these routes, combined with the 60 offer a 7/8 minute frequency to Swan Island only. Introducing the X900, X957 (if in place of the 900, 957) would reduce the frequency to Sheldon, Wheatsheaf to only every 15 minutes (service 60) at peak times (am I making any sense?)

[Justin Tyme]

If there are enough passengers to to warrant it, then why not?  However, do loadings on existing 900s and 957s indicate that the demand is there?

Perhaps the idea to provide something similar to the X51.  If only there were underpasses or flyovers at Hay Mills, Small Heath mosque and the Watering Hole island...

[JPC]

If there is any "X900" to compete with rail it will have to be a very limited stopping fast route...

• Only serving B'ham City centre stops, Swan, Wheatsheaf, Holyhead Road, Coventry City Centre stops.
• Birmingham International missed out so the end to end journey time shortens to about 50 minutes.
• Example start up trial with a few trips per day at 0730, 1000, 1500 and 1630 from Coventry, returning in the other direction 50 mins later (on top of existing service).
• Ran by CV so these express buses are easily spotted/identified within Birmingham. ;)

Whilst most travellers fares are capped at no more than £4 for their daysaver NX will unlikely generate profit on such a service so this idea will indefinitely remain in the pipe dream bin. :(

[Stuharris 6360]

Personally i think that the problem with peak hour X services would be they would have to compete with Rail services, a while ago i suggested an X9 between Stourbridge & Birmingham which could work, but only between say Halesowen and Birmingham.

The train service between Stourbridge (and even Lye ) & Birmingham is to frequent and quick to ever be threatened by an express type bus service.

[:D]

Personally i think that the problem with peak hour X services would be they would have to compete with Rail services, a while ago i suggested an X9 between Stourbridge & Birmingham which could work, but only between say Halesowen and Birmingham.

The train service between Stourbridge (and even Lye ) & Birmingham is to frequent and quick to ever be threatened by an express type bus service.

They don't have to compete with rail services. Take a look at how well the X51 is doing, this is what I would like to replicate to X900 and X957. Personally, X957 and X900 should be only used as a relief service during peak time.

Let's see what happens during peak time for Coventry road buses:

Town: The 58, 59, 60, 900 and 957 gets filled to full with people going to anywhere in East Birmingham.

Small Heath: Lot of passengers on 58, 59 and 60 gets off and these bus services is now half full leaving Small Heath into Hay Mills.

900 and 957 is still full upon arriving at Hay Mills. Some of passengers wanting to use either 900 and 957 will have to be turned away (Personally, I haven't seen this to happen) or face discomfort standing on the bus for most of the journey.

58, 59 and 60 will be still half-full throughout its journey.

So, what I'm proposing is that making some of selected 900 and 957 an express service which would mean those passengers getting off between Hay Mills and Sheldon would have to use 58, 59 or 60. This wouldn't harm passengers as almost all of them are using a travelcard anyway.

[Sh4318]

@:D you do realise the 58, 59 don't serve Sheldon

[:D]

@:D you do realise the 58, 59 don't serve Sheldon

Yes I realise, I thought that would still satisfy condition "between Hay mills and Sheldon"? In any programming language, it does. I think I'll need to take a break from programming.

[Tony]

Personally i think that the problem with peak hour X services would be they would have to compete with Rail services, a while ago i suggested an X9 between Stourbridge & Birmingham which could work, but only between say Halesowen and Birmingham.

The train service between Stourbridge (and even Lye ) & Birmingham is to frequent and quick to ever be threatened by an express type bus service.

They don't have to compete with rail services. Take a look at how well the X51 is doing, this is what I would like to replicate to X900 and X957. Personally, X957 and X900 should be only used as a relief service during peak time.

Let's see what happens during peak time for Coventry road buses:

Town: The 58, 59, 60, 900 and 957 gets filled to full with people going to anywhere in East Birmingham.

Small Heath: Lot of passengers on 58, 59 and 60 gets off and these bus services is now half full leaving Small Heath into Hay Mills.

900 and 957 is still full upon arriving at Hay Mills. Some of passengers wanting to use either 900 and 957 will have to be turned away (Personally, I haven't seen this to happen) or face discomfort standing on the bus for most of the journey.

58, 59 and 60 will be still half-full throughout its journey.

So, what I'm proposing is that making some of selected 900 and 957 an express service which would mean those passengers getting off between Hay Mills and Sheldon would have to use 58, 59 or 60. This wouldn't harm passengers as almost all of them are using a travelcard anyway.

But it could harm passenger numbers, as you say the 60 can already leave city full, so you want to make people between Hay Mills & Sheldon have a slower journey on an already full bus. I would be very upset if I lived by one of the stops currently served by the 900/957 and suddenly found I had to travel through Small Heath all stops on a bus I may not get a seat on!

[:D]

Personally i think that the problem with peak hour X services would be they would have to compete with Rail services, a while ago i suggested an X9 between Stourbridge & Birmingham which could work, but only between say Halesowen and Birmingham.

The train service between Stourbridge (and even Lye ) & Birmingham is to frequent and quick to ever be threatened by an express type bus service.

They don't have to compete with rail services. Take a look at how well the X51 is doing, this is what I would like to replicate to X900 and X957. Personally, X957 and X900 should be only used as a relief service during peak time.

Let's see what happens during peak time for Coventry road buses:

Town: The 58, 59, 60, 900 and 957 gets filled to full with people going to anywhere in East Birmingham.

Small Heath: Lot of passengers on 58, 59 and 60 gets off and these bus services is now half full leaving Small Heath into Hay Mills.

900 and 957 is still full upon arriving at Hay Mills. Some of passengers wanting to use either 900 and 957 will have to be turned away (Personally, I haven't seen this to happen) or face discomfort standing on the bus for most of the journey.

58, 59 and 60 will be still half-full throughout its journey.

So, what I'm proposing is that making some of selected 900 and 957 an express service which would mean those passengers getting off between Hay Mills and Sheldon would have to use 58, 59 or 60. This wouldn't harm passengers as almost all of them are using a travelcard anyway.

But it could harm passenger numbers, as you say the 60 can already leave city full, so you want to make people between Hay Mills & Sheldon have a slower journey on an already full bus. I would be very upset if I lived by one of the stops currently served by the 900/957 and suddenly found I had to travel through Small Heath all stops on a bus I may not get a seat on!

No, I'm saying that people living between Hay Mills and Sheldon can take an express bus to closest X900/X957 bus stop to where they live and use 58, 59, or 60 depending on where they live.

Let's say a passenger wants to go bus stop near Sunnymead road. He can take X900/X957 to Swan Centre and then take either 58 or 60 to the bus stop. Time saved using express bus to Swan centre would be about 5-10 minutes which should be enough to wait for either 58, 60, 900 and 957. I think in this case, it would be quicker for them.

This proposed bus service only runs 1 or 2 buses in peak time. It wouldn't take anything much away from original 900 and 957.

[Tony]

Personally i think that the problem with peak hour X services would be they would have to compete with Rail services, a while ago i suggested an X9 between Stourbridge & Birmingham which could work, but only between say Halesowen and Birmingham.

The train service between Stourbridge (and even Lye ) & Birmingham is to frequent and quick to ever be threatened by an express type bus service.

They don't have to compete with rail services. Take a look at how well the X51 is doing, this is what I would like to replicate to X900 and X957. Personally, X957 and X900 should be only used as a relief service during peak time.

Let's see what happens during peak time for Coventry road buses:

Town: The 58, 59, 60, 900 and 957 gets filled to full with people going to anywhere in East Birmingham.

Small Heath: Lot of passengers on 58, 59 and 60 gets off and these bus services is now half full leaving Small Heath into Hay Mills.

900 and 957 is still full upon arriving at Hay Mills. Some of passengers wanting to use either 900 and 957 will have to be turned away (Personally, I haven't seen this to happen) or face discomfort standing on the bus for most of the journey.

58, 59 and 60 will be still half-full throughout its journey.

So, what I'm proposing is that making some of selected 900 and 957 an express service which would mean those passengers getting off between Hay Mills and Sheldon would have to use 58, 59 or 60. This wouldn't harm passengers as almost all of them are using a travelcard anyway.

But it could harm passenger numbers, as you say the 60 can already leave city full, so you want to make people between Hay Mills & Sheldon have a slower journey on an already full bus. I would be very upset if I lived by one of the stops currently served by the 900/957 and suddenly found I had to travel through Small Heath all stops on a bus I may not get a seat on!

No, I'm saying that people living between Hay Mills and Sheldon can take an express bus to closest X900/X957 bus stop to where they live and use 58, 59, or 60 depending on where they live.

Let's say a passenger wants to go bus stop near Sunnymead road. He can take X900/X957 to Swan Centre and then take either 58 or 60 to the bus stop. Time saved using express bus to Swan centre would be about 5-10 minutes which should be enough to wait for either 58, 60, 900 and 957. I think in this case, it would be quicker for them.

This proposed bus service only runs 1 or 2 buses in peak time. It wouldn't take anything much away from original 900 and 957.

One of the biggest thing for putting people off using public transport is having to change. Even on trains changing puts people off. I suspect the time saving of an X900 or X957 would be 2 or 3 minutes over the current 900/957 right down to the Wheatsheaf, so small nobody would notice, It certainly wouldn't save 5 minutes between Hay Mills and The Swan, remember the 900 and 957 don't stop at every stop on that part of the route anyway, they only stop at 3 of the 5 stops.

[Sh4318]

@:D why should they have to change buses when they already have a perfectly adequate service that drops them where they want. I think these ideas would be feasible if the proposed services didn't replace their current alternatives, and they didn't have the train to "compete" with

[dw1308]

Personally as somebody who has to use the 957 to get to my parents house the idea of an X957 that only stops at land rover and the hospital after the wheatsheaf is totally unrealistic and totally un workable as the 957 provides a 15 min frequency when combined with the 73 going up old lode lane, while I understand the basic principle and I understand the time savings along the coventry road but to completley cut out most of the stops into solihull will mean an aweful lot of residents in solihull being forced to pack themselves onto already packed services in the morning and evening.

[makkacdt]

same for me, I depend on the 957 from town in to work everyday, I do 12-14 hour shifts, I don't fancy walking from the land rover down to the greville every day, in my opinion the 957 is fast enough as it is, I cant see any way of making it faster, its simple if im late ill get the train to Solihull and jump on the 966/s1 job done,

[Ben]

X900 will continue as normal like the 900 after Sheldon Wheatsheaf. If this bus service proves to be popular enough, it could skip some of bus stops in Coventry including Meriden.

This would be a complete step backwards, at least for NXWM. (I defend the current 900 somewhat selfishly though). I repeat what I have said in other posts regarding the 900, removing the needless concept of 'Limited stop' has actually helped the service flourish.

If you are adamant of having a semi-express style service between Birmingham and Coventry, an X900 operated by Travel De Courcey, comparable to the Coventry-Leicester X6, might be a suitable alternative.
I am surprised though  that AM-PM didn't have the tenacity to do anything similar when they used to operate additional 900's, but in hindsight, I don't think they had the capability to, whereas De Courcey might.


Edit: Having re-read the thread similar ideas have been suggested already minus the specifics. De Courcey would be a good candidate if there was demand for such a service in any form. Perhaps because I like the idea of keeping this express separate to avoid compromising on existing service provision.