New cross-city bus services

[2206]

I knew you were going to say that. The X12 only goes to Castle Bromwich village, not the main part of Castle Bromwich. The 94 would fit in with your concerns about having the routes frequency match up closer, and with the previous Washwood Heath google incident you know that people don't seem to know where the different bits of east Birmingham actually are.

And if you look at the routes covered, the areas are mainly the non-express routes covered.

Package one - no specific route
Package two - 65/16 and 35/47(or 45?)
Package three - 50 and 82/87
Package four - 907/67/x14 and 61/63/x20/x21/x22 [this one seems to be a mashup of existing routes]
Package five - 23/24 and 94
Package six - 74 and 97

The colours may have had something to do with how they've planned this out, but remember the x12 isn't branded any more.

I'd have thought that these cross-city routes would be kept separate to the express/limited stop routes.

Unless they want to up the X12 frequency I suppose?
Won't the X14 one they're showing be express to Kingsbury Road?

[ellspurs]

Unless they want to up the X12 frequency I suppose?
Won't the X14 one they're showing be express to Kingsbury Road?

Well the other parts of the x14 before Kingsbury Road are covered by other routes within the proposal (65/67) so it could come off the Expressway and just pick up from all stops once it gets there.

[Mike K]

The principle behind some of these proposals seem sensible - linking major hospitals, places of work etc but some of the ones on that map seem downright strange, for example Harborne to Castle Bromwich and Hawkesley etc to Perry Common. Other than linking the Broad St / Westside commercial area with the east of the city I can't see why there would be great demand for linking the 23/24 and Chelmsley corridors. Difficult to see how further bus priority measures could be implemented on the Harborne side and whilst reliability improved after the recent upgrades, those routes will still suffer heavy congestion once life returns to normal.

[mesub]

The blue line that starts at Bartley Green, is that supposed to be the X22?

I would think so. The X22 does serve a bit of Bartley Green before it ends at the woodgate terminus.

Are these cross-city routes replacing existing routes?

That's what I was thinking, but j789's idea does seem to make sense.

[Steve3229vp]

It would be interesting to see what route numbers would be used, I wonder if using a 'C' prefix might used with the C meaning City e.g
C1 Walsall - Airport/NEC (new sprint route)
C2 Walsall - Solihull (new sprint route)
C86 Bearwood - Druids Heath
C87 Dudley - Druids Heath

Just a thought !

[The Fox 4846]

I would've thought it'd make sense for the 45/47 and 16 as they are at a 6 min frequency and the route would be unaltered. The Uni routes is interesting and I can see the linking with Perry Barr looks like the X20/21/22 with the 907/X14 and a new express route to castle vale. The 7/65 and 35 is an interesting one, would've thought the 7&35 makes most sense with the 65&67 linking with the 61&63 making sense.

[mesub]

It would be interesting to see what route numbers would be used, I wonder if using a 'C' prefix might used with the C meaning City e.g
C1 Walsall - Airport/NEC (new sprint route)
C2 Walsall - Solihull (new sprint route)
C86 Bearwood - Druids Heath
C87 Dudley - Druids Heath

Just a thought !

It could be suffixed as well.

[Steve3229vp]

It could be suffixed as well.

No, suffixes are generally used for alternative to normal route eg 4 Solihull, 4A Gospel Lane or E for short working

[bususer28]

The principle behind some of these proposals seem sensible - linking major hospitals, places of work etc but some of the ones on that map seem downright strange, for example Harborne to Castle Bromwich and Hawkesley etc to Perry Common. Other than linking the Broad St / Westside commercial area with the east of the city I can't see why there would be great demand for linking the 23/24 and Chelmsley corridors. Difficult to see how further bus priority measures could be implemented on the Harborne side and whilst reliability improved after the recent upgrades, those routes will still suffer heavy congestion once life returns to normal.

I completely agree and I'm starting to get confused as to what they're trying to achieve out of these. If you take something like the 45/47 and 16, you're effectively merging a route that was already within easy connecting distance, you only need to walk 50m at the markets to change. But if you take something like the 35/7 (to me it looks like the 7 not the 65), you're creating 'new' connections i.e. linking the markets with Snow Hill and vice versa, which makes more sense to me than merging routes which are easily accesible from each other anyway having said that, not sure who from Moseley or Kings Heath would need Aston or Perry Common, maybe a merger with the 33 would make more sense to link the One Stop centre.

[Tony]

I completely agree and I'm starting to get confused as to what they're trying to achieve out of these. If you take something like the 45/47 and 16, you're effectively merging a route that was already within easy connecting distance, you only need to walk 50m at the markets to change. But if you take something like the 35/7 (to me it looks like the 7 not the 65), you're creating 'new' connections i.e. linking the markets with Snow Hill and vice versa, which makes more sense to me than merging routes which are easily accesible from each other anyway having said that, not sure who from Moseley or Kings Heath would need Aston or Perry Common, maybe a merger with the 33 would make more sense to link the One Stop centre.

Or perhaps it's they have looked at data from the ticket machine where smart passes and contactless show passengers journies and matched where most people make connections, not just asked people to guess what would be good routes to join up.

[MasterPlan]

Would it not make sense to make the cross city route every 10-12 minutes and then also keep the original route every 10-12 minutes as well as that each part of the route maintains a 5-6 minute frequency. That way if there was a delay on either side of the cross city route, the other side wouldn't be badly affected as it would still have a bus running the shorter route?

You'd hope so, wouldn't you? Can't imagine people will be pleased their bus in Harborne isn't turning up because it's stuck in Castle Bromwich for example...

[Trident 4194]

Or perhaps it's they have looked at data from the ticket machine where smart passes and contactless show passengers journies and matched where most people make connections, not just asked people to guess what would be good routes to join up.

Will the hagley road services link with the X1 and X2 then as per diagram?

[2206]

Will the hagley road services link with the X1 and X2 then as per diagram?

Its shown in white, like the YW 6, so don't think so. I think X1/X2 will link with 51/X51 as the sprint service.

[Tony]

You'd hope so, wouldn't you? Can't imagine people will be pleased their bus in Harborne isn't turning up because it's stuck in Castle Bromwich for example...

That is the way they have been done. And it can help. Sometimes buses can all get stuck on one route for a time, but on a cross city route they can keep comeing beacuse they are the other end of the route so running on time

[Stu]

Will the hagley road services link with the X1 and X2 then as per diagram?

That diagram I believe shows an overall view of the 'key' network routes, but only the coloured ones are proposed to be combined.