Talk of providing new ‘cross-city’ bus services first emerged a few years ago, but it seemed to all go ‘off the boil’ and it looked like the plans were never going to come to fruition.
Following a series of works along the Dudley Road corridor in the last year or so to introduce bus priority measures, it was announced this week by the WMCA, that works would be commencing next week along the Moseley Road through Balsall Heath to introduce more bus priority measures to this part of the intended route.
Work on new bus lanes and junction upgrades on the busy Alcester Road is due to start later this month as part of an ongoing £30 million project to improve bus services across Birmingham, Sandwell and Dudley.
The new measures will give buses priority to improve journey times and reliability as they bypass traffic jams through the Balsall Heath area.
Work on the road, between Highgate Middleway and Park Road is due to begin on 27 February and expected to be completed by the end of June. It is being led by Transport for West Midlands (TfWM) in partnership with Birmingham City Council.
This will be followed by works in Birmingham city centre, running from June, to provide bus priority measures in Margaret Street, Newhall Street, Summer Hill and Snow Hill Queensway. These are due to be completed by October. Public consultation on the plans took place during 2019.
The £30 million cross-city bus project will see priority measures, including bus lanes, junction upgrades and bus gates installed on a long route between Druids Heath and Dudley.
TfWM, which is part of the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA), is working in partnership with Birmingham, Sandwell and Dudley councils on the project. The Department for Transport has provided £24 million of the funding.
“Bus lane works due to start on Birmingham commuter route” – West Midlands Combined Authority, 20th Feb 2023
The ultimate aim is to combine the 50 (Birmingham to Druids Heath), 82 (Birmingham to Bearwood) and 87 (Birmingham to Dudley) services into two new cross-city services, running from Druids Heath via Birmingham city centre to Dudley and Bearwood. At this stage, it is unclear what route numbers will be adopted, or how frequently the services will operate, or even which garage will run them.
At this point in time, these works will be disrupting the 50 service in the short-term, and will eventually (hopefully) provide some benefits to that service. But unlike much of the local media who have been reporting on the same WMCA press release, I know that these current works have no bearing or impact on either the 82 or 87 services, as they don’t (currently) use the Alcester Road through Balsall Heath!
New bus lanes?
What makes me laugh about this is that as part of the proposed bus priority measures, new bus-only lanes are to be introduced along the Moseley Road.
The funny thing is that – as anyone who regularly uses the 50 service will tell you – there is already one bus lane on Moseley Road, heading southbound between Lime Grove and Runcorn Road.
The bus-lane already in place is supposed to be effective between 4:30pm and 6:45pm, yet on the few occasions when I catch the 50 between those hours, there are always vehicles parked up in the bus lane.
Which means that the buses on the 50 can’t use the lane already provided for them, and get stuck in the same queues of traffic that other motorists get stuck in.
If the existing bus lanes aren’t being actively enforced, what hope is there for any new ones?
Is there any ‘need’ for these cross-city services?
The other question to be asked is whether there is any actual ‘need’ for such cross-city bus services, or is this just another ‘vanity project’ like Sprint?
There were cross-city bus services in the past, but those ended up being broken up or curtailed due to reliability issues from having to travel through Birmingham city centre because of… traffic congestion.
The Dudley/Bearwood to Druids Heath cross-city services are the first stage of a plan to have a wider network of such services, as shown in the diagram below:
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all in favour of bus priority measures that will improve the running of bus services, but if I’m travelling from one part of the city of Birmingham to another, then its no hardship for me to have to change onto another bus service in the city centre in order to complete my journey.
And I know that bus routes aren’t always about providing ‘end-to-end’ journeys, but are about getting passengers to and from the places inbetween. After all, there can’t be that many people who regularly travel from Dudley to Maypole, or Frankley to Castle Vale, or are there?
I’d love to hear what other bus users think about this, or anything else that matters to them. Please feel free to leave a comment below, or consider joining our forum and have your say there!
Birmingham city centre markets & shops would greatly benefit if we could get ON the 50 bus & not just get off it at the Bull Ring stop. We could carry all our shopping. As it is I now shop in Kings Heath as do many others, simply because the 50 bus stop to bring our shopping home is too far from the markets.
The sad reality is getting rid of 450 and 444 and breaking the bits up didnt work. And 89 and 48 do less overall. Lots of people were left with poorer services and can get to less places especially those of us not near main roads and awkward longer change overs and waits. People across Smethwick and Warley lost important local links that havent been replaced the hourly and 30mins buses like 54 and 48a didnt do the same job and has led to more isolation and poorer links to overall network. So many lost links to trains and High St and to Bearwood and Hawthorns which will now never recover 🤦♂️
Come on Stu you arent that interested and you arent going to write an article on bus services in Smethwick and Oldbury areas. They arent concerns they are facts. The services in our section of Smethwick have been decimated, 2 buses took off. Just the other day I was on 12a no timing with 89 I missed the bus with shopping had to wait for 48a the only other bus and walk like all the other Smethwick residents 15-20mins back home. I am a real bus user and like so many by me have to mainly walk to any real meaningful service often uphill. Yet the Quewns Head has 6 bus services to a variety of destinations. Its about fairness across bus network which those in charge couldnt care less about and they certainly dont care about users which is a) I wont be posting on here anymore and b) getting a car so I can transport my elderly mom around without us struggling. Nobody much cares about Birmingham through buses when they cannot reach a local shopping centre like Bearwood and Oldbury or have to struggle on 2 30mins buses for Smethwick High St for main library. We are no different to Queens Heads, bus users have mixed needs and even people going to West Brom go to Bearwood and Oldbury even within the same week so the bus services should reflect this regardless of frequency. Bus users needs are not being met and other areas are being treated better. No wonder the bus journeys have plummeted users needs are not met! The bus network is now too simplified and services are doing less not meeting needs of users. 48 and 48a and 54/54a classic examples old services did far more. The role of buses to help public and pick and drop people off along the way which they dont do as routes too simplified and quick.
Come on Stu you arent that interested and you arent going to write an article on bus services in Smethwick and Oldbury areas. They arent concerns they are facts. The services in our section of Smethwick have been decimated, 2 buses took off. Just the other day I was on 12a no timing with 89 I missed the bus with shopping had to wait for 48a the only other bus and walk like all the other Smethwick residents 15-20mins back home. I am a real bus user and like so many by me have to mainly walk to any real meaningful service often uphill. Yet the Quewns Head has 6 bus services to a variety of destinations. Its about fairness across bus network which those in charge couldnt care less about and they certainly dont care about users which is a) I wont be posting on here anymore and b) getting a car so I can transport my elderly mom around without us struggling. Nobody much cares about Birmingham through buses when they cannot reach a local shopping centre like Bearwood and Oldbury or have to struggle on 2 30mins buses for Smethwick High St for main library. No wonder the bus journeys have plummeted!
fare play to the bus drivers to go on strike with all the s… they have of people twm keep it up dont stand down
Too many buses to West Brom and Birmingham in places like Smethwick and not a mix of services to other local centres which is putting off bus users and means network is less flexible. Even people who travel to West Brom go to other centres at other times during the week which is why cars and taxis are more popular. The network has become very rigid over the years and lack of choice and options
Mike, I read your comments with interest, but often they are irrelevant to the article you are posting them to. Perhaps you’d consider writing up a ‘long form’ article to better elucidate your concerns, which I’d be happy to post as a blog here for others to discuss?
Smethwick is now a very unequal town with some of the poorest areas with worse services. The Albion Estate and Stony Lane no bus at all others like mine with lack of destinations and services despite larger walks. Nevermind as Queens Head and Warley has everything despite more there owning cars 🤦♂️. Terrible treatment like other Sandwell towns and now has more social inequalities and access inequalities and deprivation as a result!
We should have an hourly Bearwood to Oldbury bus so our section of Smethwick is equal to Uplands (two buses 89 and 21) and Queens Head (7 services) in levels of service and accessibility. Our Oldbury and Bearwood buses were stolen by NX and TfWM and not replaced leaving us with less service. Terrible bad as our sections are more sloped. Some areas are bring treated more equally and fairly than others!
In Sandwell such as certain town areas like internal Smethwick where I am is there is a lack of choice and options to get home. Regardless of the frequency we should be able to get to a lot of local neighbouting towns easily and should be able to switch easier even if the bus is hourly. Its the lack of options and choice thats the issue not how frequent the buses are. Nobody much cares for through buses on main routes. There either needs to br a mix of services or one bus doing more neither of which is happening. However this isnt the case in areas like mine and getting around is too complicated too time consuming and lack of options getting home. The reality is the buses did more and were nearer people so were more useful 10 years ago, but not now.
The walking generally in Birmingham is a lot shorter than it is say in my area of Sandwell. The 87 and 82 goes right by Moor St to Colmore Row I regularly walk across City but generally trains by me visit both stations so no need to go into the centre. A link to train station or Metro is far more useful and currently disabled and elderly passengers by me cannot access the trains or Metro. Its these small local links that are far more useful and speed journeys up. The lack of access in many parts of Sandwell is a bigger issue and lack of bus services linking to the trains and Metro limit connectivity. Its too complicated atm to access most places and too time consuming linking people to West Bromwich often in the wrong direction adds time especially on current routes. Links to 87 and other services is far more needed, many bus services seem to avoid the trains and Metro which would provide quicker journeys than buses do. Many services dont serve either Birmingham or West Bromwich which people need slowing journeys down. Takes me 3 buses or loads of walking and a train just to get to my brother in Old Hill all with health issue. A car or taxi is quicker. The links slow the journey down further. Needs interconnectivity locally more to speed journeys up lots of local links now missing
No need. Most in Smethwick area rarely travel beyond Birmingham and most travel only within Sandwell. Many travel to Bearwood Oldbury, West Brom and Cape Hill and even Blackheath. Needs to be more local services to local centres and linking internal roads up. The services are very poor now in my section. There needs to be train stations links to them and to Metro stations much more needed. It now takes ages just to get to West Brom needs to be quick links and links to trains and other buses. We now have no access to 9, 12, X8, 126 13 and other services as no links to these buses and no links to Bearwood so journeys are taking longer and these arent licated in West Bromwich. Overprescription of too many services on same roads and main roads. Half the people by me travel to Bearwood and Oldbury but nearest buses 20-25mins walk and connections are poor and take too long. The old routes were far better. We have to walk far more now than people in centre of Birmingham. The routes will just be delayed more and those who say want Oldbury for 87 will be waiting even longer and no real thought for those of us not near main roads so already have a big walk to 82 or 87 will just put people off even more. They need to think local rather than focus on big main routes as many who live by 87 already use it anyway. Most who use cars dont live by 87.
I personally am not aware of these plans actually happening imminently for cross city routes . I understand its only at the proposal stage at WMCA at present with the infrastructure work currently underway due to financing secured
There’s an ‘Enhanced Partnership Scheme’ document at the TfWM website, it was published in October 2022, and indicates the Dudley-Druids Heath cross-city will be operational by December 2024 (on page 38):
https://www.tfwm.org.uk/media/zuhdzhqk/wm-enhanced-partnership-v002-v7-6-final.pdf
The problem with changing buses in Birmingham, particularly in recent years, is that it can be quite a walk between the various termini, for instance, say, from Moor Street-Colmore Row. And yes, in Birmingham, an awful lot of passengers do change routes in the City Centre, and granted, not all of these would possibly benefit from a through journey but the fact that the cross city services will cross the city centre will enable changing between routes to become easier!
My biggest concern with the two corridors mentioned here is the amount of, shall we say, illegal motoring manuevers that take place, meaning enforcement will be difficult!