Cannock and Birmingham

[Bob]

Do you think there would be a market for new/different bus services between cannock and birmingham? Maybe a through route down the A34, or through brownhills and streetly. maybe NXWM could run them, or arriva.

[Justin Tyme]

A little bit of history may help here.

Midland Red provided the first Birmingham - Cannock service in the 1920s.  This (numbered 104 from 1928) ran via Sutton Coldfield, Streetly and Brownhills about every 2 hours, but was withdrawn in 1971.

Harper Bros of Heath Hayes ran a very successful service between Cannock and Aldridge via Brownhills from the 1920s, which was extended first to Kingstanding and, eventually, Birmingham in 1965.  In 1971 it started a Hednesford - Birmingham express service via Cannock and the M6.  Harpers were taken over by Midland Red in 1974, and the motorway service was soon transformed into the successful X31 Rugeley - Cannock - M6 - Birmingham.

I believe the X31 was finally defeated by traffic congestion on the M6, and the Cannock - Birmingham service (latterly 156) lost traffic to West Midlands Travel south of Brownhills after deregulation.  Arriva's current 32/33 on this corridor now stop at Brownhills or run to Walsall instead.

More recently, of course, TWM ran the 951 group between Birmingham and Cannock/Hednesford via Walsall, but NXWM  now clearly finds only the Birmingham - Walsall section worthwhile except in the peaks because Arriva have won the Walsall - Cannock traffic.

I guess here lies the problem.  NXWM provides frequent Birmingham - Walsall services (which anyone else would find difficult to dent), and Arriva provides frequent Walsall - Cannock services (which anyone else ...).   And there is a direct train service that is quicker.

[Bob]

Arriva relaunched the X31 service last July, although it still goes down motorway its a different route from the old one. Any idea whether thats been much of a success? I have been on it a few times & it can be either dead or VERY busy :-)

[Nathan4775]

I was just thinking abou the 935 what about if they introduced a 935B to Cannock Via Perry Barr, Kinsgatnding, Streetly, Aldridge ???, ??? cannock ;D

[KayP]

That's not a bad idea, or they could just extend the X51 to Cannock off peaks and Saturdays

I was just thinking abou the 935 what about if they introduced a 935B to Cannock Via Perry Barr, Kinsgatnding, Streetly, Aldridge ???, ??? cannock ;D

[Nathan4775]

I think it would be better for the X51 to go to cannock as it works weel at peak times so it wold probally work as weel in the daytime ;D

[Bob]

Nxwm arent interested in Cannock any more i dont think. sadly

[Nathan4775]

Aww thats a shame :(

[Bob]

yep it is. cannocks bus service is crap compared to what it used to be! a daysaver on arriva is £6!! £3.80 on nxwm :-((

[Nathan4775]

Thats daylight robbery tbf + for NXWM i buy a Netowrk ticket becuase it easier for me to get around

[Discodave]

Glad twm do not run into cannock as none of there drivers had a clue of what the nnetwork boundry was and had numerous bouts of abuse on the number 1 when people try to get on only to be told they have to pay and the usual answer was we got here on the TWM bus.  As with price NXWM do not run many rural routes and mainly running in Nnetwork area with subsidised fares and a large market then can afford to have cheaper day tickets etc.  Lots of arriva routes are rural and with the reduction in subsidies and the decrease in the fuel duty rebate and even they are dominant in cannock, stafford, Telford the demand is not there plus people had got used to paying cheap fares crossing the border into walsall and now they are paying proper cross border fares they do not like it yes Gonig up to £2.20 single to cannock is steep but if you looked at the faretable for the old 951 group of routes fares from cannock should have been higher but many drivers just pressed the usual wm max fare.  Tony may be able to better clarify this.

[Bob]

i just used to get a daysaver, thats not correct about the demand not being there in rural /arriva areas, both stafford services and others are very busy and yet they charge expensive fares, also half the vehicles used are rubbish!!

[PM]

Fair enough £6 is expensive but not much more as in Birmingham more council tax is paid to subsidise cheap bus fares so hence people can pay less. Whereas, outside the Birmingham border eg Worcestershire their fares are more expensive as they pay less council tax.

[Bob]

it be interesting to see what a band a 1 bed property is in birmingham compared to cannock

[Justin Tyme]

I think it's fair to say that the Corporations charged lower fares than Midland Red, mainly because there were enough chimney pots (and therefore passengers) to make good profits anyway.  Midland Red ran in less densely populated areas, so it needed to charge nearer to what the market could bear.   Generally, it's still the case today - NXWM's fares are comparatively low.