If you had the chance to modify or add any service, what would you do?

[Busboy105]

No it's not. My question was what journies would it provide that are not currently available

Looking at it now, not much really. The only way would be to curtail the 16,23,24 but that would do more harm than good.

[Lukeee]

Zaks used to run the station link service round the city centre but was short lived

[Kevin]

Do you think that Birmingham needs a city centre circular service like Manchester does? I know there are quite a few services that serves a large portion of town like the 16,23,24 but a whole city centre circular service could be a good idea. I only thought of one so far and it will go like this:
It will start at the markets, then serve Moor Street Station, Priory Queensway, Colmore Row, Paradise Circus, Birmingham Town Hall, down the Suffolk Street Queensway to Navigation Street where it will serve New Street Station and Grand Central and back to Markets via Station Street, Dudley Street and Pershore Street.

This route will probably come into place after the part between Parade and Broad Street reopens to traffic. Also it could extend the route to serve the new Curzon Street Station when it opens.

As a standalone thing, no
Although I'm convinced that something should be made of better connecting bits of the city centre, now that it's spilling beyond it's usual limits. Places such as Gosta Green/Aston Uni/City Uni and Jewellery Quarter are more or less considered city centre now and either an extension of existing services into those areas or a proper minibus network such as in Manchester would be beneficial. Hell I've said it before I've always thought a complete carve up of the 8A/C could be included to aid inner city areas

[Kevin]

Regarding Wythall.
Currently the 150 runs essentially requiring 3 buses to provide an hourly frequency (ok, interworking with the Worcester service etc, but the Redditch - Brum section is just over an hour so definitely more than 2 buses)
With the same number of vehicles Diamond could easily extend a 50 every half hour to Redditch, and would surely benefit them with the amount of dead mileage and driver changeovers the 50 currently requires

[Busboy105]

As a standalone thing, no
Although I'm convinced that something should be made of better connecting bits of the city centre, now that it's spilling beyond it's usual limits. Places such as Gosta Green/Aston Uni/City Uni and Jewellery Quarter are more or less considered city centre now and either an extension of existing services into those areas or a proper minibus network such as in Manchester would be beneficial. Hell I've said it before I've always thought a complete carve up of the 8A/C could be included to aid inner city areas

What's wrong with the current route of the 8A/C?

[Jack]

Increase the (full) 997 to every 20 minutes during the day. Reason being the Aldridge to Pheasey section is busy quite a lot and what doesn't help is Aldridge only has 2 services to Birmingham, people generally pick the 997 over the 937 because they don't want to be snaking along side roads off Erdington Road. The fastest route between Aldridge and Birmingham is the 936, but that's fruitless...
Bring back the 997E...
I'd also reroute the 997 to continue along Aldridge Road instead of serving Old Oscott... pretty much adding 10-15 minutes on the journey time and it is always empty going around there. Ok leaving Shady Lane without a bus service but only a few stops with few people who could easily walk to Aldridge Road and Kings Road either end. There's the 89 service but I'd reroute it by going right onto Old Oscott Lane instead of left onto Old Oscott Hill and then onto Dyas Road following normal line of route. Dyas Road has a bus service (28) and could use it to get a bus to Birmingham either end. Would save quite some journey time serving back streets.

I've heard the 89 is rumoured withdrawal because of low usage...

[Busboy105]

Increase the (full) 997 to every 20 minutes during the day. Reason being the Aldridge to Pheasey section is busy quite a lot and what doesn't help is Aldridge only has 2 services to Birmingham, people generally pick the 997 over the 937 because they don't want to be snaking along side roads off Erdington Road. The fastest route between Aldridge and Birmingham is the 936, but that's fruitless...
Bring back the 997E...
I'd also reroute the 997 to continue along Aldridge Road instead of serving Old Oscott... pretty much adding 10-15 minutes on the journey time and it is always empty going around there. Ok leaving Shady Lane without a bus service but only a few stops with few people who could easily walk to Aldridge Road and Kings Road either end. There's the 89 service but I'd reroute it by going right onto Old Oscott Lane instead of left onto Old Oscott Hill and then onto Dyas Road following normal line of route. Dyas Road has a bus service (28) and could use it to get a bus to Birmingham either end. Would save quite some journey time serving back streets.

I've heard the 89 is rumoured withdrawal because of low usage...

Why was the 936 changed to peak times only?

[Jack]

Why was the 936 changed to peak times only?

56 withdrawal and the 937 introduction.

[Busboy105]

56 withdrawal and the 937 introduction.

Wasn't the 936 introduced to replace the 56?

[Kevin]

Wasn't the 936 introduced to replace the 56?

Nope. 936 introduced in competition. Then beat the 56. Then NXWM "graciously" introduced the 937 to cover the loss of the 56, and cut back the competing 936 to peaks only

[Busboy105]

Nope. 936 introduced in competition. Then beat the 56. Then NXWM "graciously" introduced the 937 to cover the loss of the 56, and cut back the competing 936 to peaks only

Ok thanks.

[Westy]

If the 'rumours' are true about Arriva's Cannock depot(see that thread, save repeating it here!), one of the 936 / 937 could be extended to Cannock, recreating in part the old 156?

[MasterPlan]

I've heard the 89 is rumoured withdrawal because of low usage...

Where have you heard this?

[metrocity]

Where have you heard this?

The words "heard" and "rumoured" in the same sentence usually implies it won't happen...

[Busboy105]

I have two changes that I would like to see..
The first change is something that I don't know why we don't have it. The Fort Shopping Centre is one of the biggest shopping centres in Birmingham yet doesn't have a service that links it to the city centre.(Before anyone asks, the FD service doesn't serve the Fort.)
So here's my change.
I would extend the 38 to the city centre and upgrade the frequency to every 20/30 minutes. This change gives a new link from the City Centre to the Fort and Castle Vale  (I know the 67 is already a good link between the city centre and Castle Vale).  in the sense that employees that live on the other side of town don't have to take any bus to Erdington and then the current 38 or the 96 to the Fort.

The second change that I would like to see is a Bearwood-West Bromwich service via Smethwick.
There's 3 ways that I would want to do this:
1. There will be a new 15 service that will run between Birmingham and West Bromwich via Five Ways, Bearwood (via Sandon Road), Smethwick Blue Gates and Rolfe Street Station, The Hawthorns and West Bromwich.
2. There will be a new 83 service that will run between Bearwood and West Bromwich. It will follow the route that the first proposed route will take after Bearwood the only difference is that the 83 will serve Bearwood Bus Station and the upper part of Bearwood Road.
3. Extend the 61 from the Booth Street Metro Stop back to Bearwood extending to West Bromwich as the route mentioned above. This one is the third choice for a reason because I'm pretty sure the reason why the 61 was pegged back to Booth Street was because of low usage.