Hopes and expectations on the buses in 2017

[Tony]

Not to sure to be honest...

Precisely. To buy enough land to build a bus station big enough to take all of Birmingham's buses would be impossible

[CL]

I'm with MW on this one. City Centre has changed vastly in just under half a decade; this has seen road transport being rerouted along main roads like Corporation Street, going towards Stephenson Street, to make way for the Metro... Adding even more road restrictions would make car drivers suffer, indeed.

I could see the appeal of restricting cars from Moor Street, but I can't see that happening, especially when the Bullring car park is situated there. Also, even the notion of removing cars from Colmore Row is a giant crock of s**t. Snow Hill Queensway and surrounding areas is already a nightmare at rush hour, as it is - not helped with the tram extension running through the City Centre; causing bottlenecks around Colmore Circus, and resulting in reputable standstill traffic from Livery Street. I doubt restricting cars from other viable route options out of city centre (i.e. Colmore Row) would prove popular; especially if that meant causing delays on services, which now appears to be the only service to go in/out of city via this particular route *ahem* 101 *ahem*.

TL;DR - I believe that even more road restrictions will cause problems for private car users in the City Centre, as well as having a knock-on effect to the bus network.

Plenty of recent changes have seen private transport modes to "draw the short straw", imo. And I'm sure it is for the best. I think it is unfortunate that our city, albeit dubbed the UK's second largest city, has quite a small City Centre compared to others. Withdrawing options to car drivers could increase the chances of them switching to use public transport, but could equally get public transport users to switch to private transport; as a result of unreliability caused by the changes that have seen the domino effect on buses.

Long story short, I don't think there should be much more drastic changes made in the City Centre (which quite a number of you have suggested) that would see car users restricted from more main roads, as this will most certainly lead to knock on effects for everyone involved.

[Stu]

Precisely. To buy enough land to build a bus station big enough to take all of Birmingham's buses would be impossible

And you'd end up demolishing most of the city centre to accomodate it!  :D

[BU07 LGO]

I'm in favour of more restrictions on the roads. If there was less room for private conveyances and more room for buses to have quicker journeys, more people would use the bus as reliability would be up

If I had my way, Moor Street would have the entire inside Lane in both directions fully bus and taxi only, Priory would be bus and taxi only all the way up, Lower Bull Street would be bus and taxi only, all down Colmore Row from Livery Street to the lights where the buses turn right and Upper Dean Street.

When I say buses and taxis only, I mean when Hackney Carriages, not those pesky Uber cars!!

In dudley I would have a bus lane all the way from the Hospital to Queens Cross, the entrance to Foster Street in Stourbridge (and the lane on the ring road leading up to it), the entire inside lane from Halesowen bus station round to the island at the bottom of Mucklow Hill/bottom of Manor Way, both directions on Brierley Hill High Street from the five ways lights to the lights at the police station, plus Mill Street heading High Street bound.

Why should taxis get priority? They're taking up as much room as any other car plus are making a healthy profit, especially those black cabs that you seem to favour

[Lukeee]

All these ideas of restricting bits of the City Centre so that cars can't go there can f*** off as far as I'm concerned. As much as I'm interested in buses, if the powers that he want any form of restriction, they can build a bus station somewhere in the City Centre and have everything terminate there.

Why should car drivers have to suffer? Equally entitled to the road as buses. Frankly, the restrictions at the moment are ridiculous too. And as for making bus lanes to make life harder for cars so those people use buses, have you seen the amount of tramps using the buses? With the behaviour of some of the passengers on buses, I think I'll stick to my car.

Agree with this, car drivers shouldn't suffer at the expense of bus users. Personally I would feel removing bus lanes outside of the city centre would maybe ease traffic congestion for the majority as it gives traffic an extra lane and would only slightly delay running times of buses. However this unlikely to happen as the council can make a fair whack of money from bus lane fines  8)

[BigDaddyCool]

I would suggest

18 - Yardley Wood - Bartley Green (no change)
18A - Yardley Wood - Weoley Castle Square (using the current 48 route to / from Northfield / Weoley Castle)
48 - West Bromwich - Weoley Castle

[don]

1) More Platinum routes centred on Coventry
2) A load more new buses (Crimson and platinum)
3) The end of most 41xx and 42xx buses
4) Some double decker trainers (4135; 4191?)
5) Preservation of Trident 4194
6) Enlightened transport Policy leading to fewer cars in central Birmingham and less public transport delays
7) Another 100 pages of pure entertainment in the Pensnett garage thread  ;D
8 ) A Pensnett based Black Country ales and pubs heritage advertising bus extolling the virtues of visiting by bus
9) 99 branded Crimson repainted and retrimmed E200s

[Kevin]

I'm all for further restrictions on car traffic as a general thing, but with the city centre itself already being fairly restricted for all traffic -buses included - any further restrictions are just going to create more traffic chaos on the approach to the centre

Now that all the bus routes have been pushed out of the most central areas I'd personally like to see more of the sort of city centre minibus routes that exist and work perfectly well in other cities
Short but incredibly useful connecting routes that run out to places like the Jewellery quarter and the Aston Uni / BCU Eastside development etc

[MasterPlan]

I would suggest

18 - Yardley Wood - Bartley Green (no change)
18A - Yardley Wood - Weoley Castle Square (using the current 48 route to / from Northfield / Weoley Castle)
48 - West Bromwich - Weoley Castle

Yeah that could work. The 18A every half an hour maybe.

[BK63 YWP]

1) More Platinum routes centred on Coventry
2) A load more new buses (Crimson and platinum)
3) The end of most 41xx and 42xx buses
4) Some double decker trainers (4135; 4191?)
5) Preservation of Trident 4194
6) Enlightened transport Policy leading to fewer cars in central Birmingham and less public transport delays
7) Another 100 pages of pure entertainment in the Pensnett garage thread  ;D
8 ) A Pensnett based Black Country ales and pubs heritage advertising bus extolling the virtues of visiting by bus
9) 99 branded Crimson repainted and retrimmed E200s

Is there something special about Trident 4194? Or is it going to be a birthday present for @Trident 4194 so he can have it brand for the 244 and it will be on time haha sorry could not resist

[Stuharris 6360]

Pastures new?

I reckon if the X9 comes off between Birmingham & Hasbury, the 99 will be extended to Dudley via the 244 route?

Am I close @karl724223

[karl724223]

I reckon if the X9 comes off between Birmingham & Hasbury, the 99 will be extended to Dudley via the 244 route?

Am I close @karl724223

yes

[Trident 4194]

yes

So what route will 99 do?

Is the x9 basically the old 19?

[MW]

So what route will 99 do?

Is the x9 basically the old 19?

When are you going to learn? Karl never responds to your questions unless he's being sarcastic

[karl724223]

When are you going to learn? Karl never responds to your questions unless he's being sarcastic

im only said yes didn't say what to did I
He will have to wait till the registrations go in  😜