From Sunday 27th October 2019, there will be a number of service changes taking place, mostly due to TfWM contract tender wins. In many cases all that will change is the operator of the service, though there may also be timetable and/or minor route changes taking place at the same time.
Diamond were the first operator to announce changes, the list below will be updated as more information gets published. Additional information obtained from other sources.
- Updated 08/10/2019 with information from NX West Midlands website.
- Updated 09/10/2019 with notification of no change to 91A/91C services
- Final update 21/10/19
5 – Dudley to Wall Heath
- Diamond will no longer operate this service
- Sunday journeys now withdrawn
10 – Birmingham to Quinton
- The terminus on Colmore Row will move to stop SH1 – the same stop as service 24
- From Four Dwellings School buses will now operate direct from Quinton Road West onto Simmons Drive
- At the end of Simmons Drive, buses will then operate along Quinton Road West to Hopedale Road and serve Faraday Avenue & Firsby Road before rejoining the current route from West Boulevard.
10H – Birmingham to Quinton
- Service revised to operate between Birmingham city centre and QE Hospital only
10S – Quinton to Northfield
- Service curtailed to operate between Quinton and Selly Oak only
- From Four Dwellings School buses will now operate direct from Quinton Road West onto Simmons Drive
- At the end of Simmons Drive, buses will then operate along Quinton Road West to Hopedale Road and serve Faraday Avenue & Firsby Road before rejoining the current route from West Boulevard
- There will be a small route change in Selly Oak – buses will now operate a one-way loop serving Gibbins Road & Lodge Hill Road to get to the terminus at Oak Tree Lane.
- Times have been completely revised throughout the week
18 – Merry Hill to Dudley
- Diamond will no longer operate this service on Sundays
- NX West Midlands will operate Sunday journeys alongside the regular Monday to Saturday service.
19 – Maypole to Rubery
- Diamond will no longer operate this service
- New operator will be Kevs Car & Coaches. Slight timetable changes which includes the same timetable Monday to Saturday instead of the present different Saturday. Also will be terminating at Morrisons instead of Great Park in order to give passengers more choice
36 – Heartlands Hospital to Sparkhill
- NX West Midlands will no longer operate this service
- New operator will be Claribels, no change to route or timetable
53 – Erdington to Smiths Wood
- Diamond will no longer operate this service
- Route is revised and will operate between Birmingham city centre and Smiths Wood. Between city centre and Saltley Viaduct it will follow the current 55 and 94 route, and will then operate to Smiths Wood as per the current route, the section between Saltley and Erdington is being withdrawn due to low passenger numbers.
- New operator will be Evergreen (Thandi Coaches)
- New route and timetable shown on BusTimes.org website
54 / 54A – West Bromwich to Worlds End (Quinton)
- Diamond will no longer operate these services
- New operator will be NX West Midlands
- There will be a minor change of route in the Brandhall area – buses will now operate via Tame Road instead of Brennand Road.
- Every other journey on the 54 will now operate as service 54A – this service will operate from Thimblemill Road via Londonderry (Queens Head), Bristnall Hall Lane, Salop Road, Eva Road & Hill Top Road to Warley, The George replacing service 55 on this section of the route.
- Certain journeys on the 54A will extend from Worlds End to Quinton Tesco
- These journeys will operate via Higgins Lane towards Quinton & return via Quinton Road West, Hopedale Road & Faraday Avenue.
- Sunday journeys currently operated by Diamond as service 54A, will operate as service 54, but will continue to operate direct along Norman Road.
55 – Brandhall to Cape Hill
- Diamond will no longer operate this service which is being withdrawn
- Partly replaced by new 54A service, see above
Comment
Following the demise of igo earlier this year, it is certainly interesting to see how the ‘battleground’ for tendered TfWM contracts has changed.
As the largest bus operator in the region, National Express (NX Bus) has mainly kept itself away from bidding aggressively for tenders, apart from where a tender may compliment their current commercial operation. The field was up until recently dominated by the smaller bus operators, in particular igo and Diamond.
It will be interesting to see in this latest round of service tenders who Diamond have lost out to, as I am so far aware of only one contract being won by NX Bus (54 / 54A) ahead of them. With igo no longer on the field, the opportunity is there for other smaller operators, such as Kevs Car & Coaches who’ve won the 19 contract and are expanding in south-west Birmingham, as well as Claribels in east Birmingham and Landflight, who scooped a number of tenders in the Solihull area earlier this year.
Ive seen the 36 being operated by clarribels its not a good choice but could have been better if Landflight kept it or National Express West Midlands.
Claribels are using their VDL SB200 which makes it less boring to see.
Hi, what happened to the 93 service due to go from Chelmsley Interchange to Chelmunds Cross? I’ve checked Tfwm and Diamond and no joy. Hoping they’ve not changed there mind as there’s no long anything here either!! Thank you.
Service 5 Dudley to Wall Heath, Sunday journeys are withdrawn. I have the new NWM timetable which shows this.
Hi John
The 18 will now be operated by NXWM.
The 5 will be withdrawn with no replacement.
Regards
Karl
Hi John
The 18 will be taken over by NX.
The 5 will be withdrawn with no replacement.
Regards
The 55 was the only reason I was holding onto the bus element of Network pass now thats gone I will have get rid of the bus element of my pass and actually resort to trains and eventually to a car so NetworkWM is losing money in our case ????
The 19 service will be operated by 5 new Enviro 200 to Euro 6 specification. The service will terminate at Morrisons Rubery to give passengers more choice and to facilitate driver breaks. There will be a link with the 42 service for passengers who wish to proceed onto the Gret Park facilities. There will also now be one operator links to the 39 and 42 services at Longbridge Rail station. Plans all also well underway to make all KEV’Sbus fleet contactless early in the New Year.
Presumably these changes will also see of the remaining single deckers from the BC single decker fleet as well, which has gradually decreased in size over the years? Currently its just, 431, 433, 435 and 2134 – 2137 left I think. The 43X usually found on the 10S and 213X on the 10/10H.
Now there are only 4 21XX they don’t seem to get onto other routes such as the University corridor and sometimes also the 97 as much as they used to when there when there were more of them. A good thing really as double deckers are required on there.
More changes:
94 – Claribels service will be reduced to every 18 minutes and reduced Saturday service.
Meaning the NXWM service will probably be gaining some extra passengers from the Claribel service as the Claribel buses do leave full the City Centre full at busy times. No change to NXWM 55/94.
Presumably this could be the start of a downward spiral for the Claribels 94.
Maybe the beginning of the end of Claribels commercial network, with the 94 cut to every 18 minutes, 55 cut to peak times only and the Solihull to Chelmsley Wood route gone completely.
10H – Cut to only operate between City Centre and QE Hospital.
15:55 from QE Hospital to City Centre will no longer.
The section between QE Hospital and Quinton will be served by the 10S.
Seems pointless to keep it running in this form as, it just runs around empty all day on this section of the route at present. Since the areas it serves have much more regular and better services – such as the X20/X21/X22, 23/24, 80 and Hagley Road routes.
10S – Cut to operate between Selly Oak and Quinton only.
The section of the route between Selly Oak and Northfield will no longer operate.
I seen on nx bus website about them taking over 54/54A but it’s starting an hour later and finishing an hour later also times are changing at the moment with diamond its 05 and 35 minutes past the hour Monday- Saturday and 35 minutes past the hour on a Sunday that’s from west brom when nx bus takes over it will be 25 and 55 minutes past the hour monday -friday and 50 minutes past the hour on Sunday
54a is taking over parts of 55 in Warley so I can see it in our section being removed we already had a service reduction with 444 took off and now 55 is in doubt, being our only link with Queens Head and Warley for connecting for other buses and Oldbury and Bearwood, it will mean people near High St with less Warley links and no Bearwood ones and Warley and Bearwood with more convoluted/longer links to Galton Bridge, its already 2 to High St, my mom would be stranded as her doctors is in Bearwood, many by us cannot walk the extra so dont go to Bearwood or Oldbury anymore, time to learn to drive!
The 54/54a route wise is slower, the 55 was quicker to Smethwick High St from Warley so was 444 and old 448 which was even quicker. Again people already have 87, 80 and 80a for Cape Hill and 80 and 80a and even 89 to West Bromwich in Smethwick. I cannot see anyone by us using 54/54a which is why 80 is rammed. Many people miss old 448 which served us and High St from Bearwood and served Galton Bridge much quicker overall and provided better links in Smethwick and Warley, but like all the buses in Smethwick they do part jobs and generally the routing isnt very good, it takes too long and its a good walk to many services. Most people I see and know drive to the stations or get taxis as buses arent very convenient and people dont want to use two buses to go a short distance.
The 54 and 54a wont help people who want Smethwick to Bearwood and vica versa. People hate two buses and they dont connect anyway. The 444 was fine up until the Queens Head then was too convoluted people just wanted a direct bus like old 448 to Bearwood. The 50a/c was a limited replacement not serving Hawthorns or Blue Gates and sloped rds like ours and left those on more inaccessible longer roads with long walks struggling and poorer links. I cannot see the situation improving, considering they are changing Diamond buses, which is why many by us drive.
The reason people didnt use 50a/c btw is it was nowhere near them and didnt serve Blue Gates or Hawthorns, people like us were nowhere near the 50a/c or High St unlike the route of 444 which was more useful. People only use buses if they are near them and useful and dont have to walk ages otherwise they dont bother or use a taxi or car ????
I’ve read on NX website that when nx take over 54/54A that the route is partly changed in brandhall to serve Tame road insteead of brennand road to replace the 55 on this part of the route is there a bus replacing the 55 in the cape hill area that will serve suffrage street and corbett street on that part of the 55 route
No not to my knowledge we live on 55 route we have no replacement at all, we have no link now to get to Queens Head to catch Bearwood, Warley, Oldbury services, plus less links to Galton Bridge, plus we use 55 for health clinic and shopping in Cape Hill by Corbett St. Doesnt make sense to have yet another West Brom bus in Queens Head as they have 48, 48a and 89. Also 54 will be longer to Smethwick High St, 55 from Warley and Brandhall was quicker. Its not great when you consider lots of rds have no Bearwood bus and havent for years we havent for 7 years and its a good walk to alternatives many by us are elderly and disabled the 48, 89 and 48a are not near us and is hard walking wise. 55 is well used between Queens Head and Cape Hill. I cannot see replacements and the stops in places are just reading 80 and 87. The 54 is slower and more round wrekin for those who need trains and 87 from Warley as 48 and 48a doesnt go by High St and Londonderry Lane will be down a bus with just 89 and Diamond buses like 21 isnt near many people and those people are already by 12.
Of coarse we arent in Cape Hill and people by us use it for connections those people will probably stop using the buses all together. Many elderly dont like the crowded NX services and its horrible with shopping and prefer 55 so those people wont go by bus anymore, and many use it to connect with Queens Head and of coarse the 80 doesnt go there so they cannot use that bus for those reasons anyway.
The 80 is an awful bus, doesnt go to City Hospital or Colmore Row, takes ages to get to Birmingham, doesnt go to Queens Head, the old 448 and 444 were far better much better links, I will be walking even with a disability to 12 and 87 in the meantime until I pass my driving test, I wont have to put up with the awful service changes then.
Mike, that’s because not everyone can have a direct bus route to everywhere they want to go.
Not every bus can go to Colmore Row. Colmore Row for places like the Markets and the Bullring is quite far away. The 80 comes through the Markets and Smallbrook Queensway, connecting the Markets, Bullring, High Street and Five Ways serving different area of the City Centre, which otherwise wouldn’t be linked by this service.
The 80 can’t stop directly outside of City Hospital, it goes relatively close, the route it takes serving Icknield Port Road, Five Ways and Granville Street means this idea is impossible (the 80 is also well used in these areas as well, so you can’t just remove the service).
You can also interchange at Summerfield Park for the 82 towards City Centre or the 11, if you want to go somewhere not served by the 80.
The only possible alternative route into the City Centre, I can think of would be for it to follow the X22 up to Priory Queensway, which would be slight closer to Colmore Row. Equally though that would however inconvenience passengers travelling to the Markets.
Mike, the 80 isn’t an awful bus and neither is the 80a.
Each bus has their own route and their own destinations. If the 80/80a did go to City Hospital or Colmore Row then there would be no link to the Birmingham markets and other roads would be without a bus.
I understand that you’re unhappy about the changes but you can always talk to the bus operator (nxwm) and hopefully you’ll get your bus back.
I have to agree with chris the 80/80A bus is awful never on time they’re meant to be every 10 minutes combined Monday-Saturday daytime yet 2 Saturday’s in a row I’ve waited 1 and half hours for one and they always miss one out in the evenings D
Its not really Cape Hill area that will lose out its rds like ours where there is only one bus service and we are in a worse location than Londonderry Lane as its harder and longer to walk by us with us being sloped. Sloped rds are harder to walk and carry things. Londonderry area will have 21, 54a, 12, 12a, 48, 48a, 89 do they need all these services while harder to walk areas lose out? Although Londonderry Lane will be down a bus with just 89 which is unreliable but at least the connections are better on 89 than 80! So in a sense frequency will go down but overall bus links will still be there unlike by us. The roads in between and serving them right are as important as end to end. Cape Hill isnt losing out as there is plenty of buses its people by us are especially elderly and disabled and those with no car access. Bit unfair Londonderry gets 7 buses and a large sloped rd like ours 1 and bad considering a new aquatics centre is being built in Londonderry and we will have no access to it from our rds.
There is a lot of ignorance here we have had numerous bus changes where we live none have added anything that wasnt there previously from our point of view it is a bad bus. We live on a sloped road. Who said anything about removing the service? The 80 may very well be fine for people on large sections of the route but not for us. We already had 83 a perfectly decent service by us serving city hospital and colmore row. Previously I could easily change from 444 and 448 to 87 and trains no problem before once again another ridiculous change. Infact we were served for 2 decades with 448 excellent service links. Nobody is saying people should have direct services everywhere, but comments made here are ignorant. Public transport is about making sure people have good transport links, enabling people in difficult and more sloped areas to access places and switch services easily without struggling the same for people on main rds that means connections to other services to enable people to move around. Please STOP being ignorant. The 80 was perfectly fine serving Smethwick High St, our bus services should have been left alone. People links have been removed many people from Bearwood and Warley as well as Smethwick are struggling to get around. From rds like ours the 83 was far better linking people not linked by 87 or other very frequent buses. Many of us in residential areas have difficulty enough moving around but taking link buses off is not at all convenient especially for passengers elderly or disabled, taking links off to buses like the 48 and 12 which serve facilities and places not covered by other buses doesnt help anyone and just attracts more car and taxi usage. You do realise people need buses outside the main rds? If so please dont be ignorant and allow us to decide what is best for us! Please tell my 80 year old mom and others struggling who find switching buses like that tiring, btw the 80 changed route due to a number of buses changing in Birmingham effecting us in Sandwell the reason why 83 was put on and now 89 is the 80 didnt go to the Hospital so people demanded another direct bus from West Brom however 89 doesnt serve us. Dont assume every change is necessary and do think how bus changes affect those of us on less accessible rds! In no way did I say the 80 should change or be removed as there should be two buses serving us anyway. Since when did any transport authority care about rds like ours? So sorry but I beg to differ
Btw people have two train stations by us nobody uses the 80 by us for Markets. You get on a train and get off for New Street thats what trains and Metro are for plus is 4x quicker, New Street station is literally over the rd, so please dont assume just because a bus is needed by you, its great for everyone else, the 80 may very well be needed by you, but dont assume its needed by us. Also dont assume everyone has loads of bus options within a short walk we dont! The decision to put Birmingham buses by us while cutting us off from main shopping centres like Oldbury and Bearwood which people need daily is silly. Most commute by us by train thats why local buses should be linking people up to other main services and local shopping centres. Birmingham isnt the only place people need. Birmingham buses get stuck meaning people travelling locally have not only long wait but poor local links, taking local links off even to other buses isnt helping anyone. How is cutting people off from Hawthorns a good idea considering its people’s main Metro station? For Birmingham link people up to main trains and Metros locally or even the more frequent buses but dont start taking local buses off to places which dont have rail and Metro stations which only connections are by bus!
The…. The…. The 36 is going ????????????????????
No, the 36 is being taken over by Claribels
But why National express 36 was gaining passengers why did claribels have to ruin it!
If 55 is not run it will be disaster, not only is this a vital bus link in Smethwick providing links no other service does, the removal of 444 years ago already caused lack of links and frequency in Smethwick it will mean many by us will no longer be able to get to 12 and 48 for Bearwood and Oldbury and facilities like health centres and as well as many other facilities, hopefully be continued under another operator, if not…..
I should perhaps make it clearer that the list of changes in the article is not yet complete, and there are still more details to come, which I’ll add into the article once they become available.
Regarding the 55, all I know so far is what Diamond have announced, which is that they are no longer operating this service. So don’t take it as read that the service is being withdrawn completely, it will likely just pass to another operator.
55 is our only bus to connect with Oldbury and Bearwood services. This is an hourly bus that doesnt run evenings, they have changed operator in the past and has made no real difference, they may gain more if it passes to NX as people can use NX passes but its lack of frequency and destinations mean people have to walk a lot further to NX services to get to Bearwood and Oldbury, other roads do have NX buses running every 30mins for connections so have better frequency, however it does go to Cape Hill health centre. Many by us have health problems so cannot walk the extra to other services. You can only use it to switch bus and often you end up walking a lot further home anyway
Do you know who taking over the diamond services in dudley?
Again as per my reply to Mike above, once I have more information, the article will be updated.