Stratford Upon Avon
I was originally planning to do this bash mostly in the opposite direction but then I found out that, from the 15th April, Diamond were increasing and rerouting their 182/183, a roundabout route (and it is a route singular from what I can work out, 182 being used on journeys towards Bromsgrove and 183 going towards Redditch, very Birmingham City Transport Cross City service!) from Bromsgrove-Redditch, covering sections of route that I’d never ridden a bus over before, so I decided to attempt to get it in the book.
The rerouting has seen the service routed via Longbridge, reaching there from Bromsgrove via Diamond’s 202 route through Lickey to Rednal, then straight down Lickey Road to Longbridge, routes which I’ve travelled along before, so I didn’t feel the need to head out to Bromsgrove, preferring to head to Longbridge in good time for the 10.14 departure of this now roughly two and half hourly service (so you can imagine how sparse it was before the recent increase!)
In fact, very little of what I’d originally planned actually happened……in a good way!
My initial plan to get to Longbridge was to get a West Midlands Metro tram into Birmingham City Centre, then a 63 bus but the week before this trip, West Midlands Railways (WMR) had began to introduce the new Class 730 Electric Multiple Units (EMUs-see blog “Sampling The Class 730”) to the Birmingham Cross City Line, meaning that more of the 1994 vintage Class 323 EMUs that the 730s are replacing, can head north to the Manchester area, joining their sisters that have always been allocated to that patch and finally providing replacements there for the Class 319s that finally ran last December. Therefore, I decided to reach Longbridge by train, getting a possibly final Cross City Line Class 323 ride in the book before the migration North became particularly rampant!
I decided to head into Birmingham early from my West Bromwich home, giving me the opportunity to wait for a 323 without risking missing the 183 that I planned to catch, so I decided to forego the West Midlands Metro tram ride and make my way to Sandwell & Dudley station by bus, buying an All Day N Network card there, enabling me to get a bit more use out of this £10.50 ticket, my plans involving a later train journey within the West Midlands justifying the purchase of this (and indeed, this would come to pass…..but at the opposite end of the line that I originally planned to ride!)
Therefore, up, washed and breakfasted nice and early, I made my way to my local bus stop to catch the first bus that came to take me the short distance to West Bromwich bus station, this being National Express West Midlands (NXWM) 2003 vintage Wright Gemini bodied Volvo B7 4507 on a very full 47, which left me wondering how this journey coped in the days when the 47 and then sister service 47A (which is actually the route of the current 47!) was mostly ran with Enviro 200 midibuses, on a ten minute frequency only a little higher than today’s twelve minutes! 4507 took the residents of the Hateley Heath estate that the 47 serves on it’s way from Wednesbury and myself efficiently to West Bromwich bus station, where I made my way to the stand for the 4/4H/4M services in the Oldbury & Blackheath direction, these services now featuring a coordinated timetable between the formerly competing NXWM & Diamond, with NXWM Scania Omnilink 1847 being the first to appear, on a 4 journey to Blackheath.
1847 is one of five, now Walsall garage allocated buses that stand out from the myriad of other Scania Omnilinks in the fleet, including those that are the main NXWM contribution to the 4 group of routes, these five featuring high backed seats. They were originally entered service from my own bus driving base of Perry Barr garage in January 2008, the final five buses (1843-1847) of the company’s first batch of Omnilinks, and were initially allocated to the newly extended 934 (Birmingham-Streetly Foley Arms via Pheasey) of which I would drive all but 1844. Subsequent revisions to the 934 (being rerouted to Queslett ASDA, then ultimately extended to Walsall and transferred to that garage, where the route still is today) would see double deckers return to the route, with the high backed seated Omnilinks then being moved onto the 52 (Birmingham-Perry Beeches), and were still the regular buses on this service when it became the 952 Limited Stop service in 2009. The May 2015 transfer of the 952 to Walsall would see the five high backed seated Omnilinks head there, where they’ve been ever since. The 952 would subsequently be withdrawn and replaced by a new, Perry Barr operated 52 that reaches Birmingham City Centre via Lozells.
Another bus carrying a fair, morning peak load, though I found a seat relatively easily and we made our way the relatively short distance to Sandwell & Dudley station, where I bought my N Network and made my way onto a full, Birmingham bound platform. A fairly new WMR Class 196 Diesel Multiple Unit (DMU) flew past the Wolverhampton bound platform in the opposite direction, reminding me that the stopping pattern on the two services on the Shrewsbury line has swapped around, with the 196 operated semi fast services now calling at Smethwick Galton Bridge, whilst the Transport for Wales (TfW) operated trains that go onto either Aberystwyth or Holyhead now make the Sandwell & Dudley call that the WMR services used to make.
Looking at Platform 1’s next train indicator though, told me that there were next actually two Avanti West Coast London Euston trains due in quick succession. This isn’t actually that unusual in the peak, as the fact that Avanti’s main West Midlands depot is at Oxley Road, Wolverhampton means that it makes perfect sense to start many early morning services from Wolverhampton, providing a welcome morning peak increase to the normally hourly Glasgow/Edinburgh-Euston via Birmingham service that provides the regular service from Wolverhampton-London.
These trains consisted of a 07.53 Euston calling at the staple calls of Birmingham New Street, Birmingham International & Coventry, whilst the 07.58 was the one, normally Birmingham New Street-Euston train per hour that additionally makes calls at Rugby, Milton Keynes Central and Watford Junction. But the 07.53 was running late and was due to arrive a minute behind the on time 07.58, at 07.59!
Anyhow, I intended to get on the first train to arrive, not minding probably having to stand for the relatively short journey to Birmingham New Street. Then, the 07.58 arrived and it was a five car Voyager! Which was absolutely rammed!
This must therefore have been the peak train that runs from Shrewsbury, which is due to end at the next timetable change…..just before the Voyagers are replaced by new Hitachi built IET bi mode trains that would have allowed those trains along the unwired Shrewsbury line to use the wires from Wolverhampton onwards! A few managed to get on but around half of the platform decided to wait for the delayed 07.53, which a member of platform staff explained to a passenger, was pathed to leave New Street before the Voyager anyhow. So the rammed Voyager left and, as predicted by the next train indicator, around a minute later, a much more suitable eleven carriage Pendolino, 390 156 turned up.
The train was still quite full, though I found an aisle seat, the only full seat having it’s view blocked by a pillar, so at least I had something of a view from the rather more small Pendolino windows, in my opinion the only thing about a Pendolino that is inferior to the diesel Voyagers that were bought by the erstwhile Virgin Trains at around the same time. Hard to believe though, that both classes have now passed their twentieth anniversary!
A journalist has recently decreed that the Birmingham-Wolverhampton line is probably the dullest on the network, causing a degree of outrage from some. Certainly, it’s no Settle & Carlisle but it’s urban, now mostly post industrial landscape is a fine record of the effects that the industrial revolution had on us all! This is demonstrated by the abandoned shell of Chances Glass works and the never far off presence of the Birmingham-Wolverhampton canal that this, the Stour Valley Railway was built alongside, opening in 1852 and providing a more direct route to Wolverhampton and beyond than the previous Grand Junction railway through Bescot had, and beginning the development of Birmingham New Street as the city’s main railway station.
We passed the 1995 opened Smethwick Galton Bridge and what was my local station for many years, Smethwick Rolfe Street, continuing into Birmingham New Street, where myself and a large number of other passengers alighted.
Class 323 Hunting!
One of the most useful new features that have recently introduced to both recent new trains and recent refurbishments, such as the Pendolinos, is a screen telling forthcoming departures at the next calling point, so I consulted this screen for the next southbound Cross City Line departure, which told me that the 08.23 to Bromsgrove was departing from Platform 12B, meaning that I was able to make my way straight there without faffing around looking for an indicator at the station. As I reached 12B, it was to see a Class 323 pull out on a Redditch train full and standing. I pondered where these people were off to beyond Birmingham City Centre at this time of the morning. Five Ways for the offices in that district? Or maybe University? Whilst I was pondering this, the platform began to fill up with passengers again, then 323 207 appeared on that Bromsgrove train. The train was full but not to the extent of the previous departure.
Finding a seat, we waited for a few moments before departure time, then accelerated out, with that peep peep peep Space Invaders sort of noise that 323s are renowned for and headed out through the Worcester tunnel and cuttings which took us to the first station at Five Ways. A few got off but there’s nowhere near the number of offices in this area than there once was. Then we headed along my favourite section of this, the Birmingham West suburban line, opened in 1876 by the Midland Railway as a suburban encouraging overspill to the original Camp Hill Line, part of the Midland Railway’s Derby-Bristol line. Running alongside the Birmingham & Worcester Canal, we pass through pleasant leafy surroundings, feeling a million miles away from the heart of the city where we actually were, this being Edgbaston, one of the city’s more affluent suburbs.
This bought us to the second busiest station on the line after New Street, University, where the vast majority of passengers exited, so I suspect the majority of the multitudes on the previous train had done so too. Like Five Ways, University opened in May 1978, when the West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive (WMPTE) sponsored Cross City Line was introduced, from Lichfield & Four Oaks in the north, to another new station at Longbridge in the south. The service on the southern side had previously been very sparse, consisting of just three stopping trains a day heading onto the Redditch branch, this later becoming a fully fledged part of the Cross City Line. Electrified in 1994, with the delayed introduction of the 323s meaning that elderly Class 304, 308 & 310 EMUs introduced electrification to the line. That electrification would be extended down the Lickey Incline into Bromsgrove in 2018, providing the line with a second, southern terminus.
The familiar 1978 vintage station building, constructed in the same style as that at Five Ways & Longbridge, as well as at the other, previously unstaffed stations along the Birmingham section of the south Cross City Line, now lay blocked off and abandoned, replaced by a recently opened, much larger building on the other side of the line, this being built to handle this station’s ever increasing traffic. So intense is this at times, that supplementing the quarter hourly (though it’s proposed to return to the pre pandemic ten minute service) Cross City trains are hourly calls from both WMR’s Birmingham-Hereford via Worcester service and Cross Country’s Cardiff-Nottingham trains.
Onwards we clattered to Selly Oak, where I noticed that the car park wasn’t particularly full, following which, we headed towards the large Cadbury factory at Bourneville. Back when I first rode a Class 116 Derby DMU on the line around 1980, I was rather unreasonably excited to see the London Transport RT that had been used in the TV advert for the Double Decker bar (why does typing this make me feel hungry?) parked in one of the yards here. We then pulled into Bourneville station, serving Cadbury’s village like community that the Quaker chocolate makers built around their factory (yes, I am feeling hungry now!)
More prosaic Victorian terraces took us into the suburb of Cotteridge, where the seldom used (certainly not by passenger trains now) Lifford Curve branched off to the left, this heading onto the original Camp Hill route of what was originally the Birmingham & Gloucester Railway before it became part of the Midland. Shortly after, we joined the former Main Line as we made our way into Kings Norton station. The stations on the Camp Hill line closed in 1940 but three new stations, at Moseley Village, Kings Heath and Pineapple Road are currently being built, though there opening has been delayed by the discovery of a Badgers set by the new Moseley station, which has had to be moved before construction could continue. All being well though, the new service along the line should begin in December this year!
From Kings Norton, the line becomes four track to Longbridge, with the faster Cross Country services, plus WMR’s Hereford trains, taking the centre fast tracks. I also noticed that the station car park was far fuller than that at Selly Oak, probably due to this station being that much further out. We continued on through the suburbs, calling at Northfield before reaching Longbridge, where I got off;
I now had nearly two hours before the 183 was due so, rather than just sit around (after all, it was too early for the pubs to be open!) I decided to try for some more Class 323 rides whilst I still could, so I crossed over to the other platform, where a fair few commuters were waiting for a train due in a few minutes. As I arrived at the platform, an automatic announcement came over the tannoy stating that new trains are being introduced to the line, so you’ll notice some different features. Was this a general announcement or was it down to this specific train being a Class 730. I knew the answer as soon as a six car 730 set, with 730 009 at the front, appeared;
Ohhh well, always good to sample the new stock too, so I boarded. I was surprised to find plenty of seats available but then, the peak was coming towards it’s end. I was as similarly impressed by it’s spaciousness as I had been on my trip on 730 007 from Walsall-Wolverhampton, with it’s two by two seating leaving plenty of standing capacity for when it’s needed and even when seated, the space was much better than on the 3 x 2 seating that features on the 323s.
We headed back towards Northfield and Kings Norton, stopping at signals just before Kings Norton to allow another nearly new WMR train, a Class 196 on a Hereford-Birmingham New Street train to come off the fast lines and precede before us along the Birmingham West Suburban line. Whilst waiting, I noticed some interesting locos of a far older vintage than either the 196s, 730s, or indeed the 323s. Four HST Power Cars were sited at the far end of the sidings, which were once used for transporting cars from the former Rover factory at Longbridge, featuring a “Rail Adventures” fleetname but, closer to my position was two English Electric Class 20s, 20 205 & 20 189. Behind was another example, painted in London Transport livery. These were mostly freight locos but received occasional passenger use, notably on summer Saturdays on services from Leicester-Skegness and such like.
I then began to ponder where to get off. I quickly decided upon one of the two stations on this section where I’d never boarded nor alighted from a train before, Selly Oak and Bourneville, choosing Bourneville as I felt any wait there would be more interesting. So I got off 730 009 at the station that’s painted with the purple colour scheme traditionally used by Cadburys, it’s near neighbour, the colour scheme most notably used for Cadburys signature Dairy Milk bar (I’m feeling hungry again!)
I then descended the steps to the station entrance, next to the low bridge that has restricted long established Birmingham bus route 27 (currently Yardley Wood Garage-Frankley) to single deck operation, but then entered the tunnel under the tracks, taking me to the other platform, where I had around a ten minute wait for the next train, which was 323 213 at the front;
This took me back to Longbridge, where the vast majority of passengers got off, I suspect students heading to the resited Bourneville College. Will 323 213 be the last Class 323 that I will travel on in the West Midlands? Only time will tell!
The 183
I still had just under an hour before the 183 was due, so I walked over to the Costa coffee (still too early for the pubs!) in the Longbridge Town Centre development that has risen from the ashes of former Rover Works, having a small latte and a croissant. Around twenty minutes before the 183 was due, I walked back towards the bus stop at Longbridge Station, passing the multi storey car park that provides maximum capacity for Park & Ride here.
There’s nothing on this Transport for West Midlands (TfWM) provided stop nor in the timetable case, to say that the 183 stops here, just NXWM’s 45 & 47 to City via Pershore Road and the 49 to Solihull, plus various Kevs Coaches operated tenders, such as the 39/39A to Worlds End/South Woodgate and the 55 to Quinton, but I’d consulted the bustimes.com website, which told me that this stop, HG by code, was indeed where the 183 was scheduled to call. There was also a stop actually closer to the Costa, but bustimes stated that the 183 didn’t call there, the previous stop being on the other side of Longbridge Island, on Lickey Road. So I went back to the station. At 09,55, the time the bus was due to leave Bromsgrove bus station, I checked to see if it was tracking and it was, bus 20988 running around two minutes down. So I waited, hoping that I was waiting in the right place, even though bustines.org assured me that I was! This being a newly revised service, I wasn’t expecting the bus to be well loaded and resolved to put my arm out to make sure that it stopped…..mind you, I always tend to do this anyway (kids, always let the bus driver know your intent to be sure that he/she will see you and stop. You’d be surprised at how many passengers are non commital when it comes to acknowledging their bus, even at stops served by mul;tiple services, like this one!)
I checked bustimes again, and now it was quite close, heading down Lickey Road, so I kept a sharp eye out. I was unsure as to exactly what type of bus 20988 was, thinking perhaps that it was one of Diamond’s Optare Solo minibuses but it turned out to be even smaller, a 14 seat all Mercedes Benz City 45, that originally entered service with the Rotola Group in July 2014, based at Hounslow for a Heathrow Airport NCP Car Park shuttle service. March 2020 saw it transferred to nearby Stanwell, then passing to Rotola’s Diamond operations at Redditch in April 2021, then going to Kidderminster in May 2022, I believe to operate the Bromsgrove DRT (Direct Responsive Transport) operation, to which I believe this notice still applies;
The bus then returned to Redditch in September 2022, where it was allocated alongside now withdrawn sister vehicle 20987 and still in operation 20989, which came from Diamond’s Northern operation at Eccles.
I put my hand out, the driver spotting me just before he was about to pull into the offside line, so he switched his indicator from right to left and stopped to pick me up! As I suspected, I was the only person on board, so I chose the front seat of this dinky little bus and we headed off along Longbridge Lane, out to the A441 Pershore Road as it leaves the city, this being the main road to Redditch.
This was once served by one of Midland Red’s earliest routes out of Birmingham, following the October 1914 agreement to transfer services fully within the city to Birmingham Corporation. By the time of Midland Red’s 1928 renumbering scheme, this had become the 147, running through to Astwood Bank, and also the village of New End for a while. The development of Redditch as a New Town would see Midland Red develop a network of Limited Stop services linking the town to Birmingham, the first of these being the X7 to Studley Road, introduced in the late sixties. This would be followed by the 23rd July 1977 introduced X6 to Evesham (this being the date of the Market Analysis Project Wayfarer revisions based on that town), which from Redditch ran onto Studley then replaced the former 148, another of those 1914 pioneer Midland Red routes that had reached Studley directly via Wythall, then headed onto Evesham, the stretch that the X6 replaced. Evening & Sunday journeys on this route replaced a 147 journey and ran all stop between Birmingham & Redditch and 1978 would see these renumbered 146 to avoid passenger confusion. The same time would see a third Limited Stop service from Birmingham-Redditch, this being the X5, which would form a Circular around the New Town estates with the rerouted X7, thus giving a twenty minute Limited Stop service between Birmingham & Redditch, with an hourly X8 also serving the estates but reaching Birmingham through Wythall.
Redditch & Evesham garages would pass to Midland Red West in September 1981, around which time alternate journeys on the 147 became 148s to Studley. The company would pass to Badgerline in 1988 and the increase of the train service to Redditch obviously had a detrimental effect on the Limited Stop routes, as they were replaced by revisions to the all stop services, with the X5 & X7 going first, in 1992, replaced by a rerouted 147 & 148 around the New Town estates, Astwood Bank then being covered by the 70 minibus service from Redditch (today covered by the 12), whilst the 148 to Studley was replaced by the extended 143 from Birmingham via Bromsgrove. Then, 1993 would see the X6 become all stop 146s, making a half hourly Birmingham-Redditch service with a shortened 147 to Redditch Transport Interchange, this ultimately being renumbered as a short 146. Badgerline merged with GRT in 1995 to form First Bus, ultimately First, whilst this century would see the service go into further decline, the Evesham section becoming a separate 247, whilst the 146, despite a brief early naughties attempt to revive the route with a twenty minute frequency, would soon reduce to hourly, with evening and Sunday journeys withdrawn.
First would sell it’s Redditch and Kidderminster garages to Diamond in 2013 and the decline of the 146 would continue, the service ceasing entirely during the pandemic in 2020 and never returning. So the 182/183 is now the only service serving the Birmingham-Redditch Road beyond the city boundary.
We soon reached the village of Hopwood, by the Birmingham and Worcester Canal. Despite the route’s subsequent decline, the 146 retained an impressive half hourly Sunday service well into the nineties and I remember one Bank Holiday Monday around 1995, I was one of the “responsible adults” who were accompanying Sunday School kids from our then church on a ramble from Hopwood to the Lickeys, using the 146 to get to Hopwood. The driver of the then usual Midland Red West Leyland Lynx on the route must have had a nice, quiet but tightly timed run from Redditch into Birmingham’s then Bull Ring Bus Station (ohhh, blessed place of hallowed memory!) and was obviously expecting a similarly quiet trip back but was quite perplexed to see some thirty odd kids and a few adults waiting to board!
“I ain’t got time for this!” He muttered to Richard (sadly no longer with us) the ramble organiser who was paying our fares!
Sadly, as well as the subsequent demise of the Sunday service (despite West Midlands Travel’s Yardley Wood garage running this for a while) the fact that the whole 146 has gone means it’s now impossible to do this ramble at any time of the week by bus!
Soon, the bus turned right to do a double run into a development of pre fabricated bungalows, where we picked up an elderly lady with a concessionary pass. Returning back to the main road, we soon turned right again, heading along a very narrow lane which, like that prefab estate, to my knowledge, had never had a bus route before. This bought us into Barnt Green, which I recognised from the large bridge under the Birmingham-Bristol line that the village’s age long main bus service, the former Midland Red 145 from Birmingham-Bromsgrove, now operated by Diamond as the 145/145A from Longbridge Station-Droitwich/Wychbold (see blog “A Little Ticking Off Exercise!”) enters the village. We then followed this route into the village centre, seeing the railway station in the distance, where the Redditch branch branches off from the main line. Before this, we turned left onto a road cluttered with parked cars that even this tiny bus could only just get past.
Not sure if this is the exact route, but we were now roughly following the path of the other service that Midland Red used to operate through Barnt Green, the 142. Unlike the 145, which headed out of Birmingham along the Pershore Road, then headed through Cofton Hackett to reach Rednal Traffic Island before heading for Barnt Green, the 142 headed straight down the Bristol Road and Lickey Road, joining the 145 at Rednal Island and both routes then preceded to Barnt Green, with the 142 then turning left and heading towards Alvechurch and Redditch.
The 142 would become peaks only in 1979, with the Redditch-Rednal section being replaced by a new 149 which then continued to Bromsgrove via Lickey, thus becoming the main ancestor of today’s 182/183. I believe the 149 was briefly withdrawn in around 1981 but would be bought back by Midland Red West with a reduced number of journeys. The 142 would be withdrawn in November 1986, whilst the 149 would linger on, as a Friday only service past deregulation, with me being not too sure exactly when it was withdrawn.
Tony Blair’s Rural Bus Grant would be responsible for bringing back a service to the corridor in the early years of this century, with services 82 & 83 being introduced in the early naughties. My knowledge of them during this period is a little sketchy but I think I remember First being the first operator of them but later they would pass to the Henley In Arden firm of Johnsons, with them being renumbered 182 & 183 at some point, later being passed to Diamond. Austerity funding cuts around 2010 would see them cutback to just the couple of journeys that ran before the recent increase and rerouting, obviously designed to take into account the demise of the bus service through Hopwood and Alvechurch.
We headed along pleasantly narrow country lanes, passing under two bridges under the Redditch branch, the 142 having past under at least one of which, restricting the route single deckers (as indeed, did a bridge on the main line similarly restrict the 145, the only double decker route to serve Barnt Green being the short lived West Midlands Travel 945, which ran between August 1987 and April 1988. This route from Birmingham terminated in the village, so didn’t pass under any of the low bridges beyond it.
The country lanes bought us back onto the A441 just before it heads into Alvechurch, though we branched off yet again to serve some housing estates on the edge of this small town, where we picked up three more senior concessionary passengers. Soon after, we were in the centre of the small town, where we stopped to pick up another three senior citizens. Waiting time, the driver turned around to us and said that he felt a bit of deja vous here, as he’d previously driven the 146.
“Bring it back!” shouted one of the ladies from the estate. The driver shrugged his shoulders, implying that it wasn’t up to him!
Actually, the driver’s deja vous upon seeing Alvechurch’s picturesque, olde worlde Town Centre was shared by me, for I was more used to travelling through here on buses that were considerably older than today’s stead! For Wythall Transport Museum’s Alvechurch/Beoley Circular passes through, using the Museum’s single deckers along delightful country lanes, most notably the BMMO built saloons of Midland Red, which would have operated the 142 in years gone by, though the last bus I had on the run was Cheltenham District Bristol RE 1000 (see blog “Wythall At Easter. “)
Rather than continue along the main road, we turned left onto the road that the Wythall buses come up, before they turn left onto the main road, heading for the outskirts of Redditch before turning left again to return to Wythall via the village of Beoley. So this was the first time that I’d headed out of Alvechurch in this direction , opposite to that which the Wythall buses take.
We followed this pleasant country lane to a sign which pointed rightwards to the village of Rowney Green, following the road through this thinly populated village. Before World War 2, Midland Red had run an R10 (Redditch’s town service R prefix always was used on some services that ventured beyond the town’s environs) out to the tiny settlement of Weatheroak, which the Wythall run passes through on the way from the museum, all that’s there is a disused Windmill, a pub and a few cottages, the R10 running on certain days of the week only. Suspended for the duration of the war, it returned upon peace returning but only as far as Rowney Green, which was typical of many small villages that would lose their bus service in the seventies, the R10 being withdrawn around 1979. And there would be no passengers for this trip from Rowney Green today.
We rejoined the main road for the run into Redditch, diverting to enter the tightly filled car park of a Sainsburys….which non of our passengers wanted, preferring instead the lure of the Kingsfisher Centre, the shopping centre built on top of the bus station side of Redditch Transport Interchange, which we soon reached, although the 182/183 stop at the only stand here that’s in the open, the driver having put 182 on the blinds for the return trip as we all got off and he then handed the bus over to his relief.
The X19
Since the 2013 takeover of First’s former Midland Red West garage in the town, Diamond has been the main bus operator in Redditch, their varied, blue liveried fleet bustling to and thro in the Interchange, most notably on the frequent 57 & 58 Circulars around the four New Town estates, introduced originally as the R8 & R9 on 17th March1976, when Reddibus came to be the first local brand name to be used by Midland Red, as part of what would become the Market Analysis Project (MAP) series of revisions, designed to bring a level of viability back to the network.
Other services include the 51 to the fifties vintage Batchley Estate (originally Midland Red’s R1 & R2) plus various other, less frequent local services, supplemented by a few longer distance services, such as the 150 to the Birmingham suburb of Kings Heath via Wythall, the remains of the former X8, and the aforementioned 247 to Evesham, with a Wright Gemini bodied Volvo B5 arriving on that route, similar to the example that I rode on that service last year (see blog “Bus-ing Around The Cotswolds”.)
All in all, I felt that the fleet looked pretty smart, a great improvement on the mis matched liveries and grubby appearances of the Redditch Diamond fleet when I last rode the local services extensively in 2018, as featured in the “Buses For Fun” blog “Fraternising With The Enemy!” But my next planned bus was on what’s the only service from here that isn’t operated by Diamond!
This was the X19 to Stratford Upon Avon, operated by Stagecoach’s garage in that town and usually in the hands of double deckers. Now, running around very narrow country lanes on tiny little minibuses like Diamond 20988 is great fun, as well as being a boon to remote rural communities but one of the great joys of life is bounding across the British countryside on the top deck of a double decker bus. So much so that I’d decided that, should a single decker turn up on the next trip, I’d hang back an hour, have a ride around the 57 or 58 and get the next one. Checking the timetable, I was pleased to see that I’d hit lucky and that I only had a fifteen minute wait for the 11.15 departure, but would it be a double decker? Bustimes.org has ingrained in me a degree of impatience so I decided to look up what the bus was (yes, bustimes.org even gives you your bus’s fleetnumber!) and found that, not only was the bus, which the map stated was very close to the Interchange, a double decker but that it was actually 18127, one of the remaining Alexander ALX400 bodied Dennis Tridents to remain in service at Stratford!
Now, last year, as recorded in the blog “A Trident, A Trident, My Kingdom For A Trident”, I’d gone looking for one of Stratford garage’s remaining Tridents, destined to be withdrawn in the very near future when Stagecoach’s new order for MMC E400s begin to enter service, likely to be the last diesel double deckers that the large group will order. The X19 was one of my main targets back then, as I’d noticed that, on various visits to Stratford over the course of last year, the route seemed to be a regular haunt of the Tridents but, as up until then, my plans hadn’t been able to incorporate a trip on one.
So, on that occasion, I found myself in Stratford, waiting for the next X19……..and it produced a later E400 bodied Scania! I did find a Trident on that occasion, 18323 on the X18 to Coventry but I still desired a double deck trip over the X19, this being an early stage of today’s plan! I wasn’t sure how many, if any, of Stratford’s Tridents actually now survived, so I was frankly expecting one of those E400 bodied Scanias that are now the mainstay of Stagecoach’s Stratford (actually, I think the 2022 reopened garage is actually an out station of Leamington) double deck allocation. But it turns out that the Tridents are still out there, surviving for now and I’d got one in the book when I wasn’t specifically looking for it! Such is the fun of this hobby!
I joined the small queue and paid my £2 to the driver (Diamond accept NXWM Staff Passes, so I’d used that on board the 183) and went upstairs to enjoy the view. We left Redditch through the Crabbs Cross district, then it was across the Worcestershire boundary and out into Warwickshire, soon reaching the town of Studley. We were following a similar path to Diamond’s 247 to Evesham, although that was rerouted in 2022 to cover the route of withdrawn local service 67 between Redditch & Studley. Beyond this small, pleasant little town, we continued following the 247 through the countryside to Alcester, where we called at the town’s main bus stop by the Police Station, before wandering around a housing estate.
From here, we went in the opposite direction to the 247, into the territory of the former Stratford Blue, the small independent that had sold out to the Balfour Beatty group in the twenties, only for them to sell it onto Midland Red in 1935, unusually keeping it as a separate subsidiary until the “big is beautiful” early policies of the 1969 formed National Bus Company (NBC) decreed that Stratford Blue be fully absorbed into Midland Red, the small company’s Stratford & Kineton garages becoming Midland Red outposts on 1st January 1971.
The Stratford-Alcester service had originally belonged to Stratford Blue, though I don’t know the number they used, nor the 5xx digit number that Midland Red would use from January 1971 but I do know that the Avonbus MAP revisions that began on 28th May 1977 saw the service gain the number 208, both the Avonbus and subsequent Evesham area Wayfarer revisions reusing the 2xx numbers that the company had previously used in it’s Black Country area that had passed to WMPTE on 3rd December 1973. Midland Red South, who took over Stratford in the 1981 split, would extend certain journeys onto Redditch as the 228 around 1983, bringing a touch of competition to Midland Red West’s X6!
However, it would be just the Alcester-Stratford section that I would travel along first, on a balmy early summer evening in 1988. I’d been wandering around the Midland Red South network that day, and arrived in Stratford in the afternoon to seek out 6197, the last of Midland Red’s D13 class of Alexander bodied Daimler Fleetlines, dating between 1969 & 1971, to remain in service. I found the absolute beast of a bus on the 212, a very irregular route to the village of Broom, but this school journey, which I believe was all that was left of this service, that had also began to use the number 212 with the Avonbus revisions, extended onwards to Alcester. I boarded amongst a host of schoolkids, meaning that a double decker was necessary for this trip, and enjoyed a wonderous run through wooded Warwickshire countryside, dropping off the kids at various outposts and arriving in Alcester all alone. Here, the bus changed to a 208 for a direct return to Stratford, so I boarded again, enjoying this fine double decker for the final time along this lovely route for the first time! The 212 would be the victim of fairly extensive Midland Red South cutbacks the following year, with presumably the school kids being catered for by an independent. 6197 would also go, being withdrawn from service in June 1989.
Those 1989 cutbacks had been bought about by Midland Red South’s new owners, Western Travel, the holding company for the management buy out of fellow NBC subsidiary Cheltenham & Gloucester, who had purchased Midland Red South on 10th December 1987. Subsequently, after a spell of the Stratford operations reviving the Stratford Blue name, Western Travel would sell out to the growing Stagecoach in December 1993. But this would be a difficult area to run a viable bus company in, with low, affluent population densities meaning that bus passengers were thin on the ground.
1989 would see the 208/228 renumbered 26 but would be thin on frequency for a number of years, though the Rural Bus Grant would see an hourly service return in this century. I would next ride the route, on board a Northern Counties bodied Volvo Olympian in 2010, having ridden from Stourbridge-Bromsgrove on a Hansons Optare Solo on the 318, then caught what was by then First 67246 but was originally Midland Red West 246, one of the second (1995) batch of Plaxton Verde bodied Dennis Lances, and the only one of either batch that I’d never travelled on, so I got it in the book, on the X33 Kidderminster-Redditch service (now Diamond’s 52) and found the Olympian at the Transport Interchange, so I rode it to Stratford, then catching one of Johnsons Optare Olympuses on the X20, which then ran to Birmingham. I would ride the route again, on an Alexander bodied Volvo Olympian, a couple of years later as the end of a Stagecoach Warwickshire bash, catching the train from Redditch back to Birmingham.
My last ride however, on Saturday 22nd October 2016, would be on a somewhat older bus! For this was the day that Stagecoach Midlands used two of it’s then Heritage fleet (sadly, the new brooms at Stagecoach have got rid of their Heritage buses) on various Stagecoach Warwickshire (basically former Midland Red South territory) routes. Included in this was ex London Transport Routemaster RML 2565 (Stagecoach fleetnumber 12565) which, after it’s life with Stagecoach London had finished, was transferred to the Warwickshire fleet and painted in the erstwhile Stratford Blue blue & cream, this being used for Private Hire etc. Along with my wife Lynn and friend Phil, we rode this to Redditch and back, bringing the former Stratford Blue livery back to the Stratford-Alcester section, even if not on an authentic Stratford Blue bus! Afterwards, we boarded the other Heritage bus in use, former Eastern Counties ECW bodied Bristol Lodekka FLF 453, on the then X17 Coventry service duplicate as far as Leamington, when it then worked a 63 to Rugby. A fantastic day, which I wrote about in the “Buses For Fun” blog “Stagecoach Warwickshire Heritage Day”.
Since then, despite keeping an eye out for a double decker to ride the route on many a time that I’ve been in Stratford, most recently last October but to no avail, not helped by the frequency being reduced to every two hours during the pandemic. Before this, the 26 had been replaced by an extension of that X17 Coventry-Stratford service onto Redditch but this was short lived, the Redditch section being split off again as the X19, whilst the X17 would be rerouted via Wellesbourne between Stratford & Warwick, swapping routes with the more direct to Coventry X18. Subsequently, the X17 would return to being a Coventry-Warwick via Leamington service, with the Stratford via Wellesbourne service becoming the 15.
So this trip on 18127 was a long time coming, my first and very likely my last Trident trip on the X19! We passed through the vilage of Great Alne, then joined the main road towards Stratford, the Cotswold hills visible in the distance, as the driver worked the Cummins engine of the Trident hard, giving a good, fast thrash into the village of Shottery, on the edge of Stratford and famously the location of Anne Hathaway’s Cottage, the wife of one William Shakespeare, whose birthday had only just been celebrated, the bard having been born on St Georges Day, and also passing away on the same date in 1616. Apparently, the records support the accuracy of this possible “adjusted for the tourists” fact, as my friend Tour Guide Ian Jelf pointed out on a promotional video that he posted on Facebook, the records at Holy Trinity Church, where old Will’s buried, recording both a baptism and a christening within a few days of St Georges Day in both of the relevant years!
Due to the Shakespeare connection, Shottery sees frequent City Sightseeing open toppers passing through, this operation being franchised to Stagecoach, who currently use open top versions of Dennis Tridents bedecked in City Sightseeing livery, such as this example parked outside the Pen & Parchment pub in Stratford, where the tour starts from;
How much longer they’ll last on this work is open to question, as Stagecoach are currently in the process of updating their various open top operations, including using some hybrid buses, both for it’s various City Sightseeing franchises and it’s various open top services in places like Skegness.
Soon, I was in Stratford;
Barnabys
Now, it was time for fish & chips, so I made my way down to the tourist trap by the canal and River Avon, where Barnabys fish & chip shop is located. Here, I used the (cash only, as is the restaurant) takeaway to buy cod & chips, which I took over to a bench by a fountain, in the garden area that’s overshadowed by the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, to eat them. Eating fish & chips in a restaurant is all very well but there’s something special about eating them out of the paper, I think it’s because the grease of the fish seeps into the chips, along with the salt & vinegar, all added to the fresh air (best appreciated at the seaside, though we were a bit far from the sea here!) makes our National dish just irresistible out here! Such a pleasant place to eat them! Unfortunately, just as I was finishing them off, a few drops of rain added to the slight spray from the fountain, so I was lucky that I had finished!
The 28
Back to the buses, the reverse of my original plan would have seen me catch a probable E400 Scania on the X20 to Solihull but the fact that I’d got here so early made me consider taking the X18 to Coventry, then use my N Network ticket to get either the 82 or 87, both operated by Stagecoach, onto Solihull, the plan then being to take a train through Birmingham Moor Street & Snow Hill onto Jewellery Quarter, then having a couple of pints in the superb Jewellers Arms, then get the West Midlands Metro home.
The X18 runs half hourly, so I knew that I wouldn’t have to wait too long for one. However, once I’d got to Bridge Street, a sight made me drop all my plans and sent me in an entirely different direction! For to quote the famous line frequently used by one Colonal John “Hannable” Smith, leader of the crack Vietnam unit accused of a crime that they did not commit but who escaped into the Los Angeles underground (no, not a railway!) where, if you have a problem and you can find them, then maybe you can hire…….yeah, those of you of a certain age have got “The A Team” theme going through your head, haven’t you? For as the cigar chomping Colonal played by George Peppard so frequently, usually in a sarcastic vein, used to say;
“I love it when a plan comes together!”
For when I’d got to Bridge Street, it was to find another Stagecoach Trident, 18323, the very bus that I’d rode on the X18 last year, was loading on a 28 to Evesham. Therefore, the previous, much revised already plan was abandoned and I boarded this venerable bus in the opposite direction, a new plan quickly forming in my head! Yes, unlike last year, when I’d purposely came hunting for Tridents and only ended up with the one, today, with no particular desire to ride them in mind, not even being sure if they were still on the road, I’d fallen quite accidentally on two examples! Such is the random and exciting nature of our hobby at times! All part of the fun!
The 28’s a route that I’m far more familiar with than the Alcester & Redditch run. Originally Stratford Blue’s 5A (the 5 was a less direct service from Stratford-Evesham via Broom, it’s Midland Red replacement being replaced itself by the shortened 212 with the Avonbus revisions) the service became the 538 after the Midland Red takeover, then became the 218 with the Avonbus revisions. My first trip on the route was in February 1987, as part of a mammoth bash using the about to be discontinued NBC Explorer ticket (see the “Buses For Fun” blog “Explorer Farewell”) as the group’s subsidiaries, including the four Midland Red companies (in fact, this would be the only time when I managed to travel on the buses of all four!) headed towards privatisation (in fact, Midland Red West was already privatised, in the form of a management buyout, on 23rd December 1986.) I’d arrived in Stratford on a Midland Fox (the former Midland Red East) ECW bodied Leyland Olympian on the X67 from Leicester (I’d only come from Coventry, though) and wished to go onto Evesham on the 218, hoping for a double decker (either 6197 or one of Stratford’s two ex Trent Fleetlines, or one of the garage’s ECW bodied Leyland Olympians) but a Leyland National turned up. I took it anyway, having a charming run through to Evesham, then caught a Midland Red West Plaxton bodied Leyland Leopard on the X6 to Birmingham, then finishing the day off with a trip on a Midland Red North ex London via Western National DMS Fleetline on the 110 to Tamworth (little did I know that Midland Red North’s then financial woes would mean those DMSs would soon be gone) on the 110 Tamworth as far as Fazeley, where I intercepted a return evening working that was Plaxton bodied Leopard 1504, coincidentally, the bus I’d started the day with, on an X76 to Nuneaton.
The route was renumbered 28 in 1989, and over the following years, whenever I was on a Midland Red South bash in Stratford, I would keep a lookout for a double decker on the route but to no avail, not helped by a reduction to a roughly two hourly frequency in the nineties. Then, in the early years of this century, more Rural Bus Grant money would see an hourly service restored, with ex Stagecoach London Dennis Tridents being allocated to Stratford for the route, the first Tridents that what was now Stagecoach Warwickshire would have. Subsequently, a 28A would be introduced, making a half hourly combined service, these initially using a mixture of Mercedes minibuses and Alexander bodied Volvo B10M saloons but then it was decided in 2009 to allocate some brand new E400 bodied Scanias to both routes. With double deckers now the regular buses, my trips on the route would increase considerably over the next few years, making the route one of my favourites in the area.
2016 would see the 28/28A replaced by an extension of the X18 from Coventry, which made a nice long double decker ride. The last time that I would ride a Trident on the route was in 2018, with my friend Phil, after riding new Gold branded MMC E200s on the 48 from Coventry-Nuneaton and back, taking the Trident all the way (see “Buses For Fun” blog “Nuneaton Gold, Evesham Beer & Stratford Chips!”) to Evesham, the second time we’d ridden all the way through from Coventry-Evesham.
The Evesham side would be separated again in 2022, this section being reduced to hourly, These Evesham journeys would retain the X18 number for a while, but common sense would prevail when the 28 number returned to the Stratford-Evesham journeys.
So, it was now time for another ride from Stratford-Evesham, probably my last time on a Trident, some twenty odd years since my first trip on one of those ex London Tridents! So another charming run, to the south of the route taken by the X19, hence those Cotswold hills seem much closer! We headed into Bideford, the charming Avonside town where we met up with Diamond’s 247 again, that service following the more roundabout route of the former Midland Red 148 to the south of the river, whilst we took a more direct path through Salford Priors. Another stunning route, which I’ve written a lot about over the past nine years, so I’ve little more to add here. All too soon, we were at Evesham;
Evesham
Of course, the fact that this is the end of Stagecoach’s territory in the area means that, since that February 1987 trip, the absence of a ticket like the NBC Explorer has precluded anything other than a return trip from Stratford-Evesham but the maximum £2 fare makes a journey beyond Evesham, deeper into Worcestershire, a more affordable option. My hastily concocted third plan saw me aim for First’s X50 to Worcester, which the timetable on the stand told me was half an hour away, so time to pop into the Olde Swanne Weatherspoon for a quick pint of Elwood brewery’s Patron Saint before heading onwards.
Evesham was once home to a Midland Red garage that, for such a rural locale, was unusually long lived, not closing until 31st December 2006. As well as trunk routes such as what was once the 148, later the X6 & 146 before becoming the 247 to Redditch, there was also quite a strong network of local services to nearby villages but the eventual loss of these to small independents, such as Henshaws of Bourton On The Water, who operate these two Optare Solo SRs, one on the 552 to Long Lartin, home of a high category prison, the other on the 553 to Honeybourne, both services formally operated by Midland Red West;
The X50
The other main trunk route out of Evesham is that to Worcester, which today is mostly the X50, operated by First, in the main by branded Plaxton Centro bodied Volvo B7s but my bus today was 47476, a Wright Streetlite that was still painted in the former First Olympic livery, a sign above the doors revealing that this had previously been part of First’s York fleet;
People have got some quite negative thoughts about the Streetlite but personally, I don’t mind them. Certainly, they are as comfortable as most other modern single deckers, though I have to admit that this was easily the most rattly bus that I’d been on today! The big attraction for operators is economy, with fuel consumption being very low. Worcester garage’s fleet has recently grown to become the garage’s main type of bus, replacing the Mercedes Benz Citaros that have prevailed at First’s last surviving Worcestershire garage over the past few years. But I’ve been told that this isn’t to last, with all of Worcester’s Wright bodied fleet due to be transferred out and replaced by ADL (Alexander Dennis Limited) buses in the Enviro range, some Enviro 200s already being present.
We crossed over the River Avon and left Evesham, heading amongst the orchards of the Vale of Evesham. The first time that I ever rode this route, then the 550/551, was in November 1985 in total darkness! I’d just arrived in Worcester from Gloucester on the 374, intending to get either a 144 or a Limited Stop X43 or X44 onto Birmingham but I then saw what was then Midland Red West’s oldest bus on the 551. This was 6443, one of several of the 1971 vintage S24 class Willowbrook bodied Leyland Leopards that Midland Red West had bought off Midland Red East, these joining other examples at Hereford garage to compete with independents in the Herefordshire Trial Area that the government had introduced as a pilot for the deregulation that would ultimately be bought in by the 1985 Transport Act. By November 1985, the S24s at Hereford had been replaced by ex Northern General Leyland Nationals but 6443 had found itself transferred to Evesham, coincidentally the garage where it had first entered service back in 1971! My intention had been to then get a 146 to Birmingham but I’d just missed one of the then two hourly evening journeys on this but luckily landed within half an hour of one of the few X52’s from Great Malvern-Stratford arriving, so caught a Plaxton bodied Leopard on this, connecting nicely into an S28 class Marshall bodied Leopard on the X20 to Birmingham. The lack of evening services on any of these routes today makes such a move quite impossible to make!
Over subsequent years, I would enjoy this picturesque route in daylight, often on board those S28 Marshall bodied Leopards, Evesham being the last Midland Red West garage to operate these, surviving until around 1991, leaving just Midland Fox’s Coalville garage as the final home of these delightful dual purpose buses that were ideal for the majority of routes operated by garages like Evesham.
Pershore’s the main intermediate town on the route, where we picked up and sat down several passengers, then it was onwards through more glorious Worcestershire Countryside, a new section of the route seeing the bus entering the new Worcestershire Parkway railway station, located where the Birmingham-Bristol line crosses under the Worcester-Oxford/London Paddington line, with platforms on both lines. Then, it was into the city, terminating at Crowngate bus station.
Worcester
I spent the next thirty odd minutes watching the Worcester bus scene. As I say, the Mercedes Benz Citaros that were so prominent on previous visits in recent years, have gone, with the Wright Streetlite being their main replacements.
Wrights are also prominent in the double decker field here, with several Streetdecks having recently being displaced from Leicester by new electric buses (see blog “Leicester Electric”) being active here, including this example in the livery previously used for the 14/14A New Parks services in Leicester;
…..whilst an older Leicester bus that’s been here for a rather longer period is 32644, a Wright Gemini bodied Volvo B9, which I’m told has subsequently been withdrawn from service!
But as I say, the Wright fleet is set to move on from here soon, with the former 14 branded Streetdecks destined to transfer to Weston Super Mare, with ADL buses destined to replace them at Worcester. There are already some ADL E200s allocated here, plus some recent E300s are still in the livery of their previous Swansea Clipper allocation;
I also spotted one of the X50 branded Plaxton Centro bodied Volvo B7s….on the 44 to Great Malvern!
But I was still going to get a ride on a Plaxton Centro bodied Volvo B7RLE, this being Diamond’s 30823 on the 303 to Kidderminster;
The 303
As can be seen, there was quite a queue waiting for this bus and I was only able to grab an aisle seat when I got on board. This bus dates from April 2009 and was fitted with high backed, E leather covered seats, having originally entered service from Tividale garage for use on the 9 (Birmingham-Stourbridge), which Diamond had recently began competing with NXWM on. This didn’t last and the bus migrated to other services before being transferred to Kidderminster in July 2020, this garage having been taken over from First at the same time as Redditch, in 2013.
Despite this journey being quite full (probably due to the time, around 15.30, with a lot of school & college kids returning home, mixing with people who had been shopping) the 303 is a classic example of how rural bus services have declined over the years. Originally Midland Red West’s 315, the service ran through to Stourbridge with double deckers, running every half hour on Saturdays up until the early seventies (hourly at other times.) The route was renumbered 303 with the 5th November 1977 introduced Wendaway MAP revisions at Kidderminster but, despite some journeys being extended to Wolverhampton in 1982, wouldn’t be registered commercially at deregulation in October 1986, with the Stourbridge/Wolverhampton side being abandoned (this being covered by the Kidderminster-Birmingham services as far as Hagley Forge, from where the 318 covered into Stourbridge) but Midland Red West won a tendered service between Worcester & Kidderminster, this only running two hourly. Stevensons would operate the route for a while, as would Petes Travel but it would pass back into Midland Red West/First hands on both occasions and increased back to hourly, again with Rural Bus Grant money.
As we left Worcester along the Kidderminster Road, we branched off to serve the Bevere area, previously served by First’s 37 city service that was withdrawn in 2022. About half of the bus got off on the estate, considerably more than when I last rode the route just after the rerouting (see blog “Worcestershire Connecta 4”) when only an elderly couple had got off amongst the semi detached houses here. Returning to the Kidderminster Road, we then past the turning circle where the 37 and earlier City services had turned around (I once rode an ex Grampian Alexander bodied Leyland Olympian on the former 32 to here) and then left the city along the A449 main road, deviating from this dual carriageway to service the villages of Ombersley, and then Hartlebury, the two main intermediate points. Soon, we reached the outskirts of Kidderminster, with us then turning up Hoo Road, which the route has been serving since deregulation. At the end of this semi detached clad road, we joined a traffic queue. I really now needed to head to the station, just to the right of the end of Hoo Road but, unfortunately, there was no convenient stop nearby, meaning that, in the past, I’ve had to stay on board as the bus passed over the Town Centre Ring Road and get off at the first bus stop on the other side, then walk back. Today, however, someone asked the driver if they could get off whilst waiting in the queue, to which the driver agreed, so someone else who wanted to get off here and myself both quickly got up and alighted too!
I then walked up to Kidderminster station where, before getting a train home, I felt that it would be rude not to pop into the King & Castle, the pub on the Severn Valley Railway side of the Severn Valley Railway side of the station, for a couple of pints of the nectar that is Bathams bitter! Leaving here, despite having fish & chips in Stratford, the smells coming from Captain Cod’s chippy were too much, so I succumbed to two pieces of Southern fried chicken and a small chips…..well, I read an article from the Guardian the other day about how our fish & chip shops are struggling, so I consider it my National duty to support these as much as possible…..the same with pubs…..and rural bus services for that matter! That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it!
With a train in the station that was starting from here, I quickly bought my ticket to Stourbridge Junction, from where my N Network ticket was valid, not realising that I’d actually bought a day return for £4,20! D’OOHH!
The train was 172 336, which I boarded and ate my chicken & chips as we headed towards the Black Country….dining by train is so civilised!
This took me speedily and efficiently to The Hawthorns, where I just managed to miss a very full West Midlands Metro tram…..but the indicator told me that the next tram was only four minutes behind, this being CAF 100 car 50, which was no where near as full, so I got an aisle seat for my trip home. Thus came to an end a fascinating day wandering around two very beautiful counties!
Tram, Train & Buscapades! 