Well folks, January soon passed by, and as we roll into February, with not much going on to write about, I thought I’d try something a bit different following an afternoon out I had last Sunday.
They don’t really warrant long-form articles of their own, so I thought I’d just combine them into one.
Dudley Interchange progress
The main purpose of my Sunday afternoon out was of course to go up and see what progress was being made on the new Dudley Interchange, as I had seen some comments suggesting that there were rumours of a ‘Spring opening’.
The ‘old’ bus station closed to the public on 14th January 2024 with it’s replacement expected to take 18 months to construct and open, at a cost of £24 million. Which of course meant that the new facility should have been open and in use around July 2025, ie last summer.
A previous visit to Dudley early last year dashed any hopes of this ambition being realised.
So last Sunday (1st February 2026) I made what is becoming an annual pilgrimage back to my town of birth to try and see what was going on, and to judge if there was any chance of a spring opening being met.
From Billesley I got the 11A to Bearwood, where I took what is normally the ‘quickest’ route to Dudley, that is the 126. Thanks to the works at Burnt Tree, it now takes an interesting diversion via Dixons Green, which allowed me a first look at the new interchange from my vantage point on the top deck, as we passed along Trindle Road on our way to the temporary ‘interchange’ at Coronation Gardens just outside the main town centre.
I hoped to get a ‘closer look’ at ground level by walking up around Birdcage Walk, but the hoarding around the site offers restricted views. (Hence the lack of photos, apologies!)
The building structure looks to be in place and almost finished, though it was difficult to tell as it was covered up mostly. It was clear that there was still much to be done with regards to the road layout that the buses will use, as well as the ‘public realm’ surrounding it, ie the pavements and footways that pedestrians will use.
(Hopefully they won’t be as slippery as the pavement on Castle Street, where I nearly fell over yet again!)
I concluded that there was no way this was going to be finished and completed by ‘spring’, so I wasn’t that surprised to read just a few days later that the planned opening date had been pushed back by TfWM to ‘autumn’.
It’s almost incredulous that it is taking over two and a half years to build what is essentially a large oversized bus shelter, that was only planned to take 18 months. And no doubt the original costing of £24m will not be achieved and this will end up ‘over budget’ as well.
On a positive note, at least by autumn, when this is due to open, we’ll also have Metro trams in operation at the same time…
New electric buses in the Black Country
The other purpose of my visit to Dudley was to try and sample a ride on one of the new Wrightbus StreetDeck Electroliner electric buses, which are now being delivered to NX Bus’s Wolverhampton garage. At the time of writing this, the first 50 of this batch are almost all now in daily service, with the remaining 27 to follow over the next few months. (The other 33 are intended to go to Perry Barr garage later this year)
Yes, people scoffed and they sneered, but there are brand new electric buses in the Black Country area right now!
Following my little wander around Dudley town centre, I had intended to get the X8 service back to Bearwood. Luckily for me, being a Sunday, I’d already seen from BusTimes that the X8 was ‘all-electric’ that day.
Unluckily, the X8 I aimed to catch was a timetabled short journey to Quinton, but that wasn’t an issue for me as we shall see later on!
From a passenger perspective, these Electroliners are nice buses to travel on. My only disappointment was that the next-stop displays weren’t showing anything, apart from a Hanover Displays logo, and the audible announcements only appeared to be playing through the downstairs speakers, as you could hardly hear them from upstairs.
For me, I think because I have spent the last year or so travelling on the BYD Enviro400 EVs at Yardley Wood garage, maybe these Electroliners just didn’t give me that ‘wow’ factor that I was expecting. But I do think that anyone who’s never travelled on an electric bus before should be suitably impressed by the smooth ride quality.
Blackheath bus interchange – a follow up
By sheer co-incidence, travelling back from Dudley on the X8 allowed me the opportunity to pass through Blackheath, where previously I had made some scathing remarks about the brand-new bus interchange that opened back in November 2025.
I didn’t get off the X8 there to have a proper look around, but from what I observed from my top-deck vantage point, I’m pleased to confirm that it does look good now it’s all been finished off!
BONUS EXTRA: More Diamond in Quinton
I don’t know when this came into effect but it seems on Sundays that alternate journeys from Wolverhampton only go as far as Quinton Church, where they turn around and go back to Dudley and Wolverhampton. Sounds like a major inconvenience, but isn’t really, as the journey is timed to connect with the 9 from Stourbridge, which arrives about 5 minutes afterwards, for those who do wish to continue on towards Bearwood and Birmingham city centre.
By another stroke of luck, I was actually able to connect with a 19 heading towards the QE Hospital, by virtue of it running about 4 minutes late.
This service between Dudley and QE Hospital was awarded to Diamond at the start of the year as a TfWM contract, due to the previous commercial service operated by NX West Midlands being no longer financially viable.
It was great to have a ride on a relatively brand new Enviro200, one of several that Diamond bought and introduced back in November last year. Being a Sunday afternoon, there were only one or two other passengers on board, so this shorter 8.9m version coped easily, however I understand that Diamond will imminently be introducing some brand new longer 10.8m versions that will address concerns about capacity during busier peak periods.
The final stroke of luck that afternoon was being able to get off the 19 in Harborne, and straight onto an 11A back to Billesley, which ironically was the same bus that I had caught on the 11C earlier to get to Bearwood!
This year, I’m determined to get out more and explore our region’s bus network! If anyone has any suggestions or ideas for me to go and look into or investigate, then please let me know by leaving a comment below!
Featured image (c) Tony Hunter, WM Buses In Photos, used as always with permission
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The X8 has only been hourly to Birmingham from when it was launched together with the additional short working to Quinton Church.
The old 140 was only hourly on a Sunday & for many years only ran from Dudley to Bearwood & didn’t make it into the City Centre.
The idea of the X8 to Quinton from Wolverhampton only was to replace the 241 from Quinton to Dudley which was withdrawn along with the 140 & revised into the X8 although on a Sunday the X8 isn’t a straightforward clockwise half hourly timetable as its fitted with the 8 between Dudley & Wolverhampton to give a 20 min frequency leaving Dudley to Quinton with a very odd timetable.