West Midlands Coventry Road bus corridor

Coventry Road
Routes
58	Birmingham - Sheldon Arden Oak
58A	Birmingham - Birmingham International
60	Birmingham - Cranes Park
900	Birmingham - Coventry Limited Stop
957	Birmingham - Solihull Station Limited Stop
Via:	Small heath, Yardley and Sheldon
Operation
Operator(s):		National Express West Midlands for all routes, AM PM Travel also operate the 900.
Vehicles:		Dennis Trident 2 Volvo B10L Volvo B7TL

Route map
Legend Birmingham Moor Street or Coach Station (900/958) Small Heath Yardley Sheldon Cranes Park (60 terminates) Solihull Station (57 terminates) Birmingham International (58/958 terminates) Meriden Coventry (900 terminates)

The Coventry Road bus corridor is a group of services running along the Coventry Road (A45) in Birmingham, United Kingdom. The main services operating along this corridor are numbered 58, 58A, 60, 900 and 957.

58 / 58A / 60 / 957 Birmingham - Sheldon / Birmingham International / Cranes Park / Solihull

Service 58 links Birmingham to Sheldon with the peak service 58A linking to Birmingham International railway station, service 60 links Birmingham with Cranes Park and Service 957 links Birmingham with Solihull Train Station,. All services serve the Coventry Road with 58/58A/60 travelling via Small Heath and service 957 using Small Heath Highway. These services are operated by National Express West Midlands, and have suffered very little competition from other operators.

In 2003, a batch of 15 Dennis Tridents were branded for this route however since then 4 of these have had to be de-branded due to different services requiring them. As a result, it is not unusual to see Plaxton Presidents and on occasion Optare Spectras working. In August 2008, 4 more Dennis Tridents have been de-branded, with others half-way through the process.

The services all serve the areas of Bordesley, Small Heath (except 957), Hay Mills, Yardley and Sheldon whilst serving numerous supermarkets, St. Andrews football ground (Birmingham City football club) and 4 different interchanges.

In 2009 a new service 958 was introduced as a limited stop service between Bimringham City Centre and Birmingham International. This replaced selected 58 journeys this service was then withdrawn a few months later being replaced by a limited stop version of the 57 numbered 957.

900 Birmingham - Coventry

History of route

The route was originally operated by Midland Red as service number 159. On 3 December 1973, all routes within the West Midlands were passed to WMPTE,^[1] and this route was included.

On 26 January 1986 the service was extended from Birmingham via Halesowen to Hasbury, relaunched as a flagship Timesaver service and re-numbered 900. In 1988 the extension to the route was reverted back presumably because of the unreliability of such routes which traverse through a large busy city centre. (The Birmingham to Hasbury section became routes 19 & 19S which have since been withdrawn on 27 Apr 2008).

The 900 journey time was then 60 minutes end to end, in recent years however as a result of additional routing, more stopping places and congestion the end to end journey time has increased by around 40% which has made the service less attractive for those travelling between the two cities. Along with the withdrawal of the Hasbury section and the extended time on the 900 service, it has not shown good interest in the people who used them.

The latest alteration was to reduce it to every 30 minutes during the daytimes of Monday-Saturday. A 15 minute Monday-Friday peak time frequency. Finally the extension from Sheldon of service 58 during Monday-Saturday daytime was to fill the 30 minute gap between Birmingham Airport and Birmingham City Centre, in effect still providing 4 buses per hour during the off peak. To add to this: The Timesaver brand has also been phased out.

Pete's Travel used to operate one return journey from B'ham - Coventry as a positioning journey to avoid dead mileage.

Current frequencies

Coventry Road routes=

Service 58 runs every 15 minutes Monday - Saturday daytime and every 20 minutes on Sunday daytimes.

Service 58A runs an infrequency service to Birmingham Airport, Monday to Friday peak times.

Service 60 runs every 15 minutes Monday - Saturday daytime and every 20 minutes evenings and Sundays.

Service 58 & 60 create a 7/8 minute Monday - Saturday frequency between Sheldon & Birmingham, along the Coventry Road, and a 10 minute frequency Sunday daytimes.

Limited service routes

Service 900 runs every 30 minutes between Birmingham & Coventry daily & hourly on evenings.

Service 900E runs every 30 minutes between Birmingham and Birmingham Airport Monday - Saturday daytimes & hourly on evenings, giving Service 900 an every 15 minute frequency between Birmingham & Birmingham Airport during Monday - Saturday daytimes and a 30 minute frequency during evenings.

Service 957 runs every 15 minutes between Birmingham & Solihull Monday - Saturday daytimes, a 20 minute frequency on Sundays & half hourly on evenings.

Services 900/E & 957 create a frequency of every 7/8 minutes Monday - Saturday daytimes & half hourly on evenings, between Birmingham, Hay Mills, South Yardley & Sheldon.

References

1. ^ "Transfer of BMMO (Midland "Red") operations to West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive (WMPTE)". Midlandred.net. http://www.midlandred.net/history/wmpte.shtml. Retrieved 2009-03-04. 

External links

• Travel West Midlands website
• West Midlands Buses (Photographs)