East Birmingham Sevice Changes - 4th June 2017

[GeminiFan1991]

I would imagine the extra buses that are freed up after the withdrawal of the 55A would be used to facilitate the increased PVR of the 55. My question is, after the withdrawal of the 56/9, is an increase on the 55, enough for the Kingshurst area ?

[Stu]

I would imagine the extra buses that are freed up after the withdrawal of the 55A would be used to facilitate the increased PVR of the 55. My question is, after the withdrawal of the 56/9, is an increase on the 55, enough for the Kingshurst area ?

My best guess is that people in Shard End & Kingshurst wishing to travel to the city centre are already using the 55 & 55A, rather than the 59, as it looks to be a quicker route, and is more frequent. I don't personally use the route myself, so I'm only guessing.

Any increase in passenger numbers will come from those who used the 59 to get to other places like Yardley for example, who will now have to use the 55 to Ward End and change onto an 11C.

I do use the 59 occasionally myself though (along with the 58 and 60), though usually only between Bordesley and Swan Island, if the X1/X2s have gone missing or are delayed. It is usually quite busy through Small Heath, however there are usually still plenty of passengers onboard who continue beyond South Yardley. Sometimes after work, if I need to go shopping in Yardley, it is nice to be able to choose from the 17, 59 or 73 to get me straight there, even if the journey takes a little longer. Although the most frequent, the 17 does suffer from large gaps in service and bunching, which more often than not means the bus is already crammed by the time it gets to Bordesley station. The 73 is usually less crowded.

I just hope that they continue to use double-decks on the 60 after 4th June, because I can already foresee these running in bunches, just like the 17 at present, and the single-decks on the 58 and 59 end up rammed if a 60 has been delayed.

[MK]

Speaking as a resident of Kingshurst I find these changes illogical and pretty unhelpful.
Whilst I can see reason for withdrawal of the 59 based on low passenger usage (my experiences of 2 - 3 journies per week between Kingshurst & Castle Bromwich are of virtually empty buses), i cannot understand the reasoning behind changing the 71 route to go along the Chester Road and omit Kingshurst - how does this benefit anybody? These overall changes mean that the centre has now lost direct links to Solihull, Sutton Coldfield, Sheldon, Yardley and Castle Bromwich. This really isn't what i would call progress. How can this be justified?

[Steveminor]

The 55s being tge only buses tgrough kingshurst are going to be extremely busy. I can see that tge 59 wasnt crrying many but the 71 was. Very strange actions from nx.
I wonder how many buses they have saved with tgese changes

[Trident 4194]

Another good point mentioned in one of the links which I agree with they still charge "extortionate prices". I agree with passengers having to make 2 bus journies instead of one could there not be fare reductions or am I living in my own little fantasy world again?

[Stuharris 6360]

Another good point mentioned in one of the links which I agree with they still charge "extortionate prices". I agree with passengers having to make 2 bus journies instead of one could there not be fare reductions or am I living in my own little fantasy world again?

If you remember I made this very point when we discussed the withdrawl of the 99 and was told that people could buy Daysavers etc.

However if they want to start the practice of making you have to use two buses for a journey instead of one, then they should do the decent thing and make a single ticket valid for an hour so you can change bus at no extra expense .

[Steveminor]

Can't see there being any fare reductions but I can see more people buying nbus now as a lot of people will have to catch Claribels 94 IGO 99 Discount 966  even our S16 on Friday will gain passengers with the alterations to the 58.

[Gareth]

If you remember I made this very point when we discussed the withdrawl of the 99 and was told that people could buy Daysavers etc.

However if they want to start the practice of making you have to use two buses for a journey instead of one, then they should do the decent thing and make a single ticket valid for an hour so you can change bus at no extra expense .

I also think that there should be some kind of ticket available if a connecting bus is needed for a journey. There are plenty of people who don't need a return journey for a number of reasons, so suddenly now having to be charged twice is unfair.

I don't think though that allowing customers to use their ticket for the second leg would work. The fare evaders will be using the same single ticket for months, just as they do with daysavers currently. I look forward to that sadly far off day when we go cashless like London. Daily and weekly capping, free next journey when using a connecting service etc.

[andy41]

I also think that there should be some kind of ticket available if a connecting bus is needed for a journey. There are plenty of people who don't need a return journey for a number of reasons, so suddenly now having to be charged twice is unfair.

I don't think though that allowing customers to use their ticket for the second leg would work. The fare evaders will be using the same single ticket for months, just as they do with daysavers currently. I look forward to that sadly far off day when we go cashless like London. Daily and weekly capping, free next journey when using a connecting service etc.

I wouldn't hold your breath while we still have a deregulated service. The infrastructure and back office that TfL provide is very expensive and we will probably never get the budgets here that they do, plus with so many self determining operators with their own technologies and systems you would probably need a regulated system to force the scheme on them and cover their costs to adopt it.

[Stuharris 6360]

I look forward to that sadly far off day when we go cashless like London. Daily and weekly capping, free next journey when using a connecting service etc.

Sorry but I feel like cashless would be a backward step. Yes from a security point of view it would be good, but not everyone uses public transport regularly and so a smartcard would be of no use, plus everybody doesn't have a contactless bank card.

Cash has always been good enough, why change it. Am sure one day it will happen in London that the entire Oyster card system will fail, what happens then, presumably everybody would get free travel meaning lost revenue.

[Isle of Stroma]

I also think that there should be some kind of ticket available if a connecting bus is needed for a journey. There are plenty of people who don't need a return journey for a number of reasons, so suddenly now having to be charged twice is unfair.

I am of the habit of going for a walk (anything up to 15 miles - not in a straight line obviously) & sometimes catching the 'bus home. I'm happy to complete the walk but £2.40's not bad. They can whistle though If they think they're getting a daysaver out of me for that.

I look forward to that sadly far off day when we go cashless like London.

Yay. Another excuse to let the bus go & walk instead.

[andy41]

I would propose that if Claribels are choosing to keep their 94 'as-is', they should at least renumber it to 94A.

And the suggestion regarding their 71E seems reasonable, at least by extending it to Kingshurst, and I'd propose they renumber it as 72A instead of 71E.

This would at least show their differentiation from the NX routes, and avoid any further confusion to passengers. What do you think @Steveminor ?

If Claribels were to renumber their services they would fall foul of the publicity charge for every single bus stop affected, another ridiculous policy designed to disadvantage smaller operators.

[andy41]

Speaking as a resident of Kingshurst I find these changes illogical and pretty unhelpful.
Whilst I can see reason for withdrawal of the 59 based on low passenger usage (my experiences of 2 - 3 journies per week between Kingshurst & Castle Bromwich are of virtually empty buses), i cannot understand the reasoning behind changing the 71 route to go along the Chester Road and omit Kingshurst - how does this benefit anybody? These overall changes mean that the centre has now lost direct links to Solihull, Sutton Coldfield, Sheldon, Yardley and Castle Bromwich. This really isn't what i would call progress. How can this be justified?

The 71 will no doubt be getting moved to Perry Barr garage. When we see the final timetable it will probably be apparent that in order to operate it to its current 20 minute frequency they need a specific journey time between Sutton and Chelmsley in order to run it with the amount of available vehicles. When they worked it out on the current route it was probably over by a couple of minutes and missing Kingshurst is the economy required.

Same probably applies on the reroute of the 94.

[Steveminor]

If Claribels were to renumber their services they would fall foul of the publicity charge for every single bus stop affected, another ridiculous policy designed to disadvantage smaller operators.

Also changing route numbers for us would just add to an already confusing situation for the passengers if we keep our numbers the same people will have a little bit of stability at least.

I do think that nx should have taken things like this into account though & changed their numbers accordingly i.e their 94 should have become 94A

[Gareth]

Also changing route numbers for us would just add to an already confusing situation for the passengers if we keep our numbers the same people will have a little bit of stability at least.

I do think that nx should have taken things like this into account though & changed their numbers accordingly i.e their 94 should have become 94A

Haha, that made me laugh. Reminded me of back in the early 90s when it was reported in the press that WMT were considering legal action against smaller operators using their service numbers.