National Express West Midlands Birmingham Outer Circle

The Birmingham Outer Circle is a roughly circular, 27 mile (43 km) bus route in Birmingham, England (a small section crosses into Sandwell). It follows the city's outer ring road, the A4040 with some small deviations.

Buses on the Outer Circle travel both clockwise (service 11C) and anti-clockwise (11A). Operated by National Express West Midlands usually with new Wrightbus Volvo double decker buses (Metrobuses are known to occasionally come onto the service). The number 11 is Europe's longest urban bus route and first came into existence in 1923. The route passes such landmarks as Cadbury's in Bournville, one of the world's largest chocolate factories. The service is run commercially.

A full circuit takes 3hrs to complete, and the service carries 50,000 passengers each day. There are 272 bus stops. The route serves 233 schools, colleges or universities, 69 leisure and community facilities, 40 pubs, 19 retail centres and 6 hospitals. It also links some 15 commercial centres.

The route is also traversed, annually, by a cavalcade of vintage buses.

Route

(Clockwise from the A34, in the North of the city.)

*Perry Barr
*Witton (for Aston Villa)
*Erdington
*Ward End
*Stechford
*Yardley
*Swan Shopping Centre at South Yardley, where the route crosses the A45 road from Birmingham to the National Exhibition Centre and Birmingham International Airport
*Acocks Green (Passing Acocks Green Bus Garage)
*Hall Green (for Sarehole Mill)
*Billesley (Outskirts)
*Kings Heath
*Cotteridge
*Bournville (for Cadbury World)
*Selly Oak (for University of Birmingham and Selly Oak Hospital)
*Harborne
*Bearwood (in Sandwell)
*Winson Green (for Winson Green Prison and Winson Green Outer Circle stop on the Midland Metro)
*Handsworth

In pop culture

The Birmingham band Woodbine's eponymous 1999 album features the track "Outer Circle", a tribute to the bus route.

External links

* [http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/11showcase Birmingham City Council page about upgrading the route]
* [http://www.birminghamitsnotshit.co.uk/eleven/ Kings Heath to Kings Heath in Five Minutes - a film of the complete outer circle bus route]