Harborne Garage/ route 25

[j789]

When Harborne garage closed in 1986 was it kept as a store? I only ask as one of my earliest bus memories is of waiting at the Harborne swimming baths stop for a no. 3 and looking across the road into the car park of what was the duke of york pub and there were buses in there, was this area ever used as a small bus station or have I remembered it wrong?! It would be either 1988 or 89.

Also, does anyone else remember the 25 route that ran in the peaks between the city and Bartley Green - similar route to the 22/23? I remember fleetlines being often used on it.

[Ossie]

Used to be my local garage as a kid, but unfortunately that's well before 1986 ....  :)

The outbound no.3 stop in those days was opposite the Duke of York pub between Albert Rd and Harborne Park Road, and the northbound no.11 stop was in Harborne Park Road, rather than in front of the baths.

Harborne depot's main entrance was in Lonsdale Road (with a smaller exit into Serpentine Road). Buses were often parked on the forecourt outside the Lonsdale Rd entrance, which would be more or less visible from the baths, might you be remembering that?  The depot (and the pub) were still open when I moved away from Brum in the early 80's, so I don't know what actually happened when the depot closed.  Perhaps someone else might have better knowledge ....

[Mike K]

I've lived in Harborne for more than 30 years and it was also my local garage. I don't recall it ever being used for storage. As property in Harborne is expensive and land in high demand, the garage was quite soon demolished and residential property (sheltered flats) was built in its place.

The peak hour 25 replaced the 12 at deregulation. By then the Harborne corridor routes were run by QN. The 25 was essentially the same route apart from a small diversion via Adams Hill and Romsley Road. At the same time the 22 was similarly diverted and the 23 had the smallest of extensions from Romsley Road to Field Lane. The 22 went from being the least frequent of the 12/22/23 group of services to probably the most high profile.

Pretty much any QN bus ran on the 25. I too recall plenty of Fleetlines but also Metros and from 1989/90 Lynxs were a common sight on there too.

[D10]

I can remember being taken on a tour of Birmingham garages by my Dad in about 1989/1990 and he took me to the site of Harborne garage, and as mentioned by Mike the sheltered flats had been built on the site by then.

[settlerman]

When Harborne garage closed in 1986 was it kept as a store? I only ask as one of my earliest bus memories is of waiting at the Harborne swimming baths stop for a no. 3 and looking across the road into the car park of what was the duke of york pub and there were buses in there, was this area ever used as a small bus station or have I remembered it wrong?! It would be either 1988 or 89.

Also, does anyone else remember the 25 route that ran in the peaks between the city and Bartley Green - similar route to the 22/23? I remember fleetlines being often used on it.

I remember the 25 well. It was so much quicker to catch into the city. The 23 took you around Woodgate and if you missed it, in some places it was possible to walk and catch the same bus when it emerged down the road from its tour of the estate.

[Mike K]

The strange thing was that the 23 and 25 shared the same terminus but the 23 showed (and still does show) Woodgate and the 25 showed Bartley Green. It is Bartley Green.

[j789]

Shame they dont do an express Harborne route anymore but guess it is well served by a number of routes already. I used to love catching the no. 10 as it was a quick way into town as well and the brand new lynxes on it made it fun too. It is a shame west mids dropped the 10 route as it used to be well used as many people from harborne/quinton would rather catch it than the 103 into town, but it gradually got continually changed (remember the short lived 102 route?!?) until it eventually went to central connect