Wolverhampton Corporation liveried 4535
It was another of those days off where I’d agreed to meet my wife Lynn after she finished work at the Sandwell Aquatic Centre to support her as she nears completion of her swimming challenge in aid of Diabetes UK, so I was looking for something to do in the meantime. I decided, therefore, to head to Wolverhampton to see if I could ride on at least one of the remaining 13 Alexander ALX400 bodied Dennis Tridents still allocated to National Express West Midlands (NXWM) Wolverhampton garage, now in the twilight of their lives, with the arrival of the electric Alexander MMC Enviro 400 City bodied BYDs currently entering service at the Perry Barr garage where I work, with more BYDs also soon to join the 19, 2020 examples at Yardley Wood, with another order for 130 electric buses expected to be announced soon, although the disposal of off lease 2009 vintage E400s 4799-4815/4817-4829 as they come off lease and their sale to the Go Ahead Group (many going to Carousal Buses to help with the replacement of Arriva services from that group’s closing High Wycombe & Aylesbury garages) will see those older Dennis Tridents and Wright Gemini bodied Volvo B7s that have Euro Six equipped engines survive a little longer, unless a major failure that’s expensive to repair happens, with several buses of both classes having recently fallen by the wayside because of such failures, so the time to ride these buses is now!
Before heading to Wolverhampton though, I had to pay a brief visit to my bank, so I walked to my local bus stop to find that the first bus due was actually my local service that was operated by Wolverhampton garage, the 79 from that city. I decided that, should a Trident appear on this journey, I’d catch it back to Wolverhampton after leaving the bank, but my stead would be 2011 vintage 5404, one of what’s now one of the route’s mainstay, the various former Enviro 400H buses that were originally fitted with hybrid engines but were converted to Euro Six full diesels a few years back, such has been the improvement in emission standards from what looks likely to be the final diesel engines to be introduced in recent years. So I took 5404 to the bank, then walked to Lodge Road West Bromwich Town Hall West Midlands Metro tram stop, catching CAF 100 car 42 to Wolverhampton. On the approaches to the City Centre, we passed a Trident heading West Bromwich bound on the 79, so I thought that this was something perhaps to aim for after a local trip. I then got off 42 at the Pipers Row tram stop next to Wolverhampton bus station.
Sitting within the bus station was 4535, the 2005 vintage Trident that, as a lifelong resident of Wolverhampton garage, was chosen to receive the former Wolverhampton Corporation livery in 2018;
But 4535 wasn’t in service, so I walked around to the bay behind 4535 in the photo above, where another 2005 Trident, 4596, was loading on the 59 to Ashmore Park, with sister bus 4597 pulling in on the bus behind on this frequent (every eight minutes) service. I therefore decided to take 4596 out to Ashmore Park, then come back on 4597.
The 59
Like a large proportion of this final batch of West Midlands Tridents, 4596 was initially allocated to Wolverhampton but would move to Birmingham Central in December 2015 in order for that garage to meet new emissions requirements in Birmingham City Centre, although the subsequent arrival of newer buses would see 4596 head to Walsall in December 2017 but would return to Birmingham Central in June 2021 before finally returning to it’s original Wolverhampton home to most likely end it’s days, in June 2022.
Actually, it was rather appropriate that I should ride the 59 today as, with it’s previous 559 number, the service would be the first Wolverhampton garage route to be allocated Tridents, with several branded for the route from the first 100 Tridents delivered to what was then Travel West Midlands in 2001. In fact, another current Wolverhampton route, the now Platinum operated 529 to Walsall, also received buses from that batch, though back then, that service was run by Walsall garage.
I boarded and grabbed the front seat upstairs, as the bus left the bus station to head straight out of the City Centre, passing under a bridge under the railway line that heads north out of Wolverhampton station, this bridge having restricted this corridor with single deck operation until the road under it was lowered in the autumn of 1943, hence the trams to Wednesfield were always single deckers, as were the replacing trolleybuses, this being the first conversion to trolleybuses of a Wolverhampton tram route, and indeed, only the second tram to trolleybus conversion in the UK, the first having been Birmingham’s Nechells route (today covered by NXWM’s 66), the trams to Wednesfied finishing on 23rd July 1923, being replaced by motor buses whilst the tramway was replaced by trolleybus infrastructure, ready for the new mode to begin operation from 29th October 1923. To say that the new mode of transport was a success in Wolverhampton is really an understatement, for Wolverhampton Corporation would subsequently press ahead with converting the rest of the tram network, including, as we’ll see, services outside the boundary taken over from the British Electric Traction (BET) subsidiary Wolverhampton District, with subsequent expansion including the conversion of some motor bus routes, leading to Wolverhampton having one of the most extensive trolleybus networks in the UK! The 1943 lowering of that bridge would enable Wolverhampton to dispose of it’s last single decker trolleybuses, double deckers subsequently featuring on what was then numbered route 6.
We then headed past the Great Western Railway’s former Wolverhampton Low Level station, closed to passenger services in 1972 and now the focus of much redevelopment around the area. We then continued along the main road through the sixties vintage multi storey blocks of Heathtown, where the trams had originally terminated (in what must have been a very different landscape) before being extended what was then outside the boundary to Wednesfield, to where we then headed, passing the New Cross Hospital that is Wolverhampton’s main hospital complex, contributing towards the 59’s status as what must be Wolverhampton’s busiest bus route.
Wednesfield became part of Wolverhampton on 1st April 1966 and is now a fairly bustling suburban centre, which we passed through into an outer suburban landscape of semi detached housing, which was served at first by various motorbus services, including the 20 from Wednesfield-Bushbury Hill and the 60, a joint motorbus service from Wolverhampton-Bloxwich, operated by Wolverhampton & Walsall Corporations, this beginning on 9th May 1949. The 60 would be supplemented in the peaks from 1st March 1954 by new motor bus service 59, which terminated by the Albion pub, near to the junction with Stubby Lane. This was a precursor to the trolleybus wires being extended to the Albion, with the 59 becoming an all day trolleybus service from 10th January 1955, the 6 remaining as a Wednesfield terminating short working, these lasting until the scheduled journeys were extended to the Albion on 7th October 1959, though the number continued to be used for unscheduled extras until 3rd November 1963, when the trolleybuses on the 59 were replaced by motor buses, the trolleybus system by then being in retreat.
As we reached the Albion, I noticed that, since I last came out this way, the pub had been renamed the Lancaster. Personally, although the world Albion is an old name for England, I’ve always found it a little strange that a pub in Wolverhampton should carry part of the name of local football team Wolverhampton Wanderers arch rival West Bromwich Albion! Over the road from the pub is a petrol station that has been built on the site of the former 59 trolleybus turning circle, for the 59 wouldn’t terminate there for long after the route’s motor bus conversion. 25th July 1966 would see the 59 extended to turn right at the Albion onto Stubby Lane, terminating at the small shopping centre on this road, which was already served by the 57 out to the village of Essington and the peak 42, which had come from Wolverhampton via Willenhall, then headed to New Invention. The other two routes that then served Stubby Lane would head to an estate which would have a major bearing on the 59’s future!
This was the Ashmore Park council estate, built in the early sixties to the left of the Albion, with various routes introduced to serve the estate. The 72, which followed the 42 through Willenhall to Stubby Lane but crossed onto the new estate, commenced on 17th November 1958, whilst a new 71 would link Ashmore Park-Wednesfield via Stubby Lane, commencing on 22nd June 1959. 15th October 1962 would see the 71 rerouted to Ashmore Park direct along the 59 & 60 route along Lichfield Road. A new peak hour number 6 began on 16th December 1963, following the 59 to The Albion before heading onto the new estate.
The beginnings of new development on the other side of Ashmore Park had seen the commencement of service 68 as early as 14th January 1952 to Higgs Road, originally running via Wednesfield & Prestwood Road but would be rerouted via the route of trolleybus route 88 (Amos Lane) along Cannock Road upon the 3rd November 1963 conversion of the 88 to motor buses, alternate journeys on this route being extended to Ashmore Park as the 68.
The continued development of the estate would see the 59 rerouted away from Stubby Lane (which, to me, seemed a strange rerouting!) replacing the 6 & 71 by running onto Ashmore Park on 25th March 1968, which has been the route taken ever since! 7th April 1969 would see the 68 increased to absorb all 88 journeys.
So we therefore turned left onto Peacock Avenue, where the estate’s typically sixties semi detached council housing begins, this being somewhat plainer than the similar houses built in the twenties & thirties but looking altogether nicer places to live than the tower blocks of similar vintage that we’d passed on the way through Heathtown. Peacock Avenue took us to the estate’s shopping centre, after which we began the one way loop around Griffiths Avenue that all bus services around the estate had taken since the mid sixties. Today though, the 59 is the only route around here, though NXWM’s 69 (Wolverhampton-Walsall via New Invention, today’s successor to the 68, although this leaves Wolverhampton via Heathtown & New Cross to reach Prestwood Road) and Diamond’s 57 (Wolverhampton-Willenhall, no relation to the former Essington 57 but the route which today serves Stubby Lane) both serve Ashmore Park centre.
Wolverhampton would be absorbed into the new West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive (WMPTE) on 1st October 1969, which would ultimately lead to Wolverhampton services being renumbered into a 5xx series, with the 72 becoming the 572 in the Willenhall area revisions of 1976 (the peak only 42 to New Invention becoming the 571 at the same time) whilst the 59, 60 & 68 becoming 559, 560 & 568 respectively when the remaining Wolverhampton services were renumbered in early 1977.
I would get to know the corridor in the early eighties, my first trip out this way being on a Bristol VR on the 560 in 1981 (which back then, could have been either a Walsall or Park Lane-as the current Wolverhampton garage was then known to differentiate from the then other Wolverhampton garage at Cleveland Road, as both garages had the type, which would be concentrated at Walsall from 1983 until their withdrawal at deregulation) boarding at the corridor’s original Wolverhampton terminus in Wulfruna Street, by what was then Wolverhampton Polytechnic (now University) and Civic Hall where, many years later, I would see several gigs (for Human League, ABC & Heaven 17) with my old mate John Batchelor.
Deregulation would see all West Midlands Travel (WMT, the name of the arms length company set up to operate WMPTE’s bus services, this evolving into today’s NXWM) Wolverhampton services terminate in the expanded Wolverhampton bus station (which has been heavily rebuilt again since then) but that wouldn’t be the only change to the corridor. The 560 would be withdrawn and replaced by an extended, Walsall garage operated 568 to Bloxwich, whilst the 572 would also be withdrawn, the Willenhall-Ashmore Park section being replaced by new tendered service 327 from Wednesbury, which was won by WMT’s Wolverhampton garage, the Ashmore Park section later being covered by the 527 from Goldthorn Park after Chase Buses won the tender for the 327 off WMT in 1989, with the Chase operated 327 then only reaching Ashmore Park on evenings & Sundays.
1991 would see Chase Buses revive the 560, leading to WMT ultimately doing the same, leading to a protracted demise of the 568, with a spell as the 570 via Mossley Estate to Walsall before being replaced by an extension of the 527 into a Wolverhampton-Ashmore Park-Willenhall-Goldthorn Park-Wolverhampton Circular, with 528 being used for journeys in the other direction, with short workings between Wolverhampton & Ashmore Park being introduced when the 570 was finally withdrawn in 1994. The 568 would last a while longer as an evening & Sunday service.
Deregulation would also see spells of Ashmore Park having a through service to Walsall (more direct than the 570) firstly with Midland Red North minibus service 2 from February -November 1987, whilst Chase would introduce the 365 between the two places in 1990, with the oncoming “Battle Of Walsall” between WMT & Chase leading to WMT introducing a competitive 365 in 1994, this being left to WMT following Chase deciding to increase the route’s sister service 364 to the eighties Coppice Farm estate around 1995, the WMT 365 continuing for around a year or two.
2011 would see the 5xx series replaced by one/two digit numbers, so the 59 returned, whilst the 560 was replaced by two new services, the NXWM journeys becoming an 908 through to Walsall via High Heath, this later becoming the 89, before having a spell split at Bloxwich again, with the Wolverhampton side becoming the 60, though the through service would return as today’s 9. A fifteen minute service between Wolverhampton & New Invention would be retained by the 69, which then takes a more direct route to Walsall through Short Heath & Beechdale, which soon after would be rerouted via New Cross & Prestwood Road to cover for the remains of the 527/528 replacement 28 that hadn’t lasted long. Chase was taken over by Arriva in 2007, with their 560 journeys combined with their former 319 from Bloxwich-Walsall via Goscote as the 19, but this would be subsequently withdrawn as Arriva reduced their presence in the area.
Oddly enough, for such a busy route, the 559/59 has never itself faced a great deal of competition itself, perhaps the presence of Chase’s 560 over most of the route was enough to dissuade others from having a go, although Diamond ran their version of the 559 around, I think 2010 but it didn’t last!
So we began the time honoured run around Griffiths Drive, which gives good coverage of the estate, meaning that non of it’s residents are a long walk from the frequent 59. The nineties saw traffic calming installed along here in the form of chicanes, consisting of the road being reduced to one lane by an outstretched piece of pavement with a couple of bollards on it, a lot easier for buses than the normal speed bumps that have been known to play havoc with bus suspensions and drivers backs alike! Unfortunately, just beyond one of these chicanes was a badly parked car that made quite a tight manoeuvre for 4596’s driver to get past, though he managed this with commendable skill.
The main stop on this one way loop is next to a small precinct of shops, where buses wait time. I’ve got off here on many occasions over the years, mostly from deregulation onwards when Wolverhampton was a good place to ride WMT’s surviving Leyland Fleetlines, even into the early nineties when only around six survived here, their use on Saturdays on what was then the town’s (Wolverhampton not becoming a city until 2000) quite short routes meant that they were incredibly easy to find at the bus station, this being added to from 1993 onwards by further examples from the closed Dudley garage and those taken out of the reserved fleet to cover for newer Metrobuses that had been loaned to other operators, a good way of helping to re-pay the debt created for the Employee Share Ownership Plan (ESOP) privatisation of the company, very much creating an Indian summer for this long serving West Midlands bus type, though I doubt that the drivers were exactly pleased about having to drive more of the elderly buses with their rather haphazard Autosteer power steering system fitted to them in the nineties!
Therefore, to try and repeat a little of that nineties magic, I decided to get off 4596 here;
…..and wait for 4597 behind to turn up. The usual precedure back in the day was to pop into the Stars Newsagent for a bar of chocolate. Today, illustrating the decline of newspaper circulation, with the traditional newsagent now in retreat, this is a general store but, nevertheless, I decided to replicate the tradition by buying a Star Bar! Ohh those memories of those nineties bashes, with the standard WMPTE Fleetlines on the 559 being added to in 1994 when the 527/528 transferred to Walsall garage to make space for services from WMT’s closing low cost unit (and former independent) Metrowest, bringing that garage’s formerly Coventry allocated East Lancs bodied Fleetlines into the mix! Happy days!
I think the last time that I came up here was during the dying days of the Optare Spectras, that pioneer low floor double decker that had transferred from Birmingham Central to Wolverhampton around 2010, their time coming to an end around 2013. So here I was again, chasing a class of double decker in their final days! I’m sensing a pattern here!
4597 soon appeared, again having to make an awkward manoeuvre after a chicane thanks to the parking of a removals van before reaching the stop!
As can be seen, in contrast to 4596’s 2015 onwards crimson livery, 4597 is in the previous, in my opinion, less attractive red & white livery and, upon barding, I discovered that the seats featured the previous moquette, fitted to the Tridents after their first repaint;
Again, 4597 was originally a Wolverhampton bus, entering service, like 4596, in September 2004. 4597 would transfer to Walsall on 11th September 2016, then moving to Birmingham Central in May 2021 before returning to Wolverhampton in May 2022.
So I grabbed the front seat and continued my trip around Griffiths Avenue before reaching the shopping centre again, then turning left onto Peacock Avenue, taking us back to the main road and a return to the City Centre, taking advantage of the bus lanes through Heathtown for a smooth trip!
An Hour At The Bus Station
According to the bustimes website, the Trident I’d seen on the 79, 4594, was around an hour away, so I decided to hang around, seeing if any other Trident appeared on something that I fancied, otherwise, I’d take 4594 to West Bromwich. An ideal opportunity would appear in neighbouring Queen Street in the form of Wolverhampton’s current oldest Trident, 2003 vintage 4449, one of those originally delivered to Birmingham Central for the Coventry Road services but unfortunately, it was on the 3 from Castlecroft-Fordhouses, which dosen’t call at the bus station and I hadn’t time to make it to the nearest stop, which I think is in Lichfield Street, so I had to let it go. In addition to 4596 & 4597, there were another two Tridents on the 59 that day, whilst 4535 would appear again, this time pulling up in Pipers Row, presumably providing staff shuttles to the garage at Park Lane;
But in the absence of anything else, it was a chill for an hour watching the comings and goings of the various bus routes serving the bus station, NXWM predominating with E400s, mostly those former hybrid E400Hs like 5404 that I briefly rode on the 79 earlier, plus a few E400s that had been transferred from Coventry over the past year, whilst the Platinum branded MMC E400s would appear on their regular haunts, the 529 to Walsall and the 8/X8 to Dudley and onto Merry Hill/Stourbridge/Wollaston Farm & Birmingham respectively. Single decker wise, the large number of Wright Eclipse bodied Volvo B7s predominated on the vast majority of the Wolverhampton city services, supplemented by E200 midibuses of two lengths, although I didn’t see any of the three Wright Streetlites that operate alongside the smaller E200s on NXWM’s tendered services. Other tendered services include the 53 & 81 operated by Banga Buses, alongside their commercial 530 to Rocket Pool & 891 to Telford, whilst more tendered services include Diamond’s 57, with that company about to gain four more, as the, frankly rather scruffy white E200s of Travel Express. now branded Let’s Go and based at the former Midland Red bus garage on Dudley Road, used to compete with NXWM on the 1 to Tettenhall & 11 to Underhill. plus appearing on tendered services 63 (Oxbarn Avenue) 64 (Wakeley Hill) & 65 (Fordhouses via New Cross Hospital) , as well as the 303 from County Bridge-Bilston, are to cease trading following prohibitions from the Ministry, from Sunday 16th June, with the tendered services passing to Diamond, so this would be the last time that I would see this operator, making me slightly regret that I never photographed any of their buses today!
Other operators buses that I saw included an Arriva Wright bodied VDL on that group’s last surviving route into the city, the 9 to Bridgnorth, whilst the other two main country operators into town, Chaserider & Select Bus Services, don’t serve the bus station, so I didn’t see either today. All in all, quite an interesting city bus wise!
The 79
Eventually, as bustimes.org predicted, 4594 returned to Wolverhampton, pulling up on the 79 stand ready to return to West Bromwich:
Again, 4594 was new to Wolverhampton garage in September 2004 and would transfer to Birmingham Central on 21st December 2016, making it’s way to Walsall in December 2017 before heading to Yardley Wood, again connected with emission restrictions, this time in Solihull Town Centre, in April 2019. The bus would head back to Walsall again in June 2020, then Birmingham Central in May 2021 before returning to Wolverhampton in November 2022.
I boarded and once again managed to grab the front seat, with the bus heading out, following the 1999 opened Midland Metro tram tracks down Bilston Road, this corridor having last seen tram tracks in 1928. For where as the Wednesfield route was the first tram to trolleybus conversion in Wolverhampton, the Bilston route would actually be the last original Wolverhampton Corporation tram route to close, on 26th August 1928, initially being replaced by motor buses…..but Wolverhampton Corporation would return to being a tram operator just five days later! For the 1st September 1928 saw the Corporation takeover the Bilston area tramways of Wolverhampton District Tramways, this company’s ownership of the final section of the Wolverhampton- Bilston route being the main reason why this service was the last survivor of the original system.
The West Midlands Metro tram tracks leave the Bilston Road at Priestfield, where the GWR Wolverhampton Low Level-Birmingham Snow Hill line used to pass under the Main Road, the trams now using the Birmingham side of this line to reach Birmingham City Centre. We carried on amongst Bilston Road’s terraced housing, heading into the previously separate town of Bilston itself, becoming part of Wolverhampton at the same time as Wednesfield. It wasn’t Wolverhampton Corporation’s intention to keep the former Wolverhampton District trams for long! Motor buses would quickly replace the trams, with all but the short Bilston-Bradley route subsequently converted to trolleybus operation, with the Bradley service, initially operated by one man twenty seater buses, becoming Wolverhampton route 23, and eventually extended across Bilston to the developing estate at Stowlawn, now served by the NXWM 39 to Walsall.
Trolleybuses would takeover from motor buses on the Wolverhampton-Bilston section on 19th November 1928, with the ex Wolverhampton District route to Darlaston going over to trolleys on 28th May 1929, creating a through Wolverhampton-Darlaston service. The remaining two ex Wolverhampton District services, to Willenhall & Fighting Cocks, were converted to trolleybuses on 27th October 1930, with again, the services running through across Bilston, this becoming the long established 25 and is covered by a longer NXWM service of that number (Wolverhampton-i54) today. The long lasting pattern of trolleybus operation through Bilston would be completed on 27th January 1930, when the Darlaston-Wolverhampton service was extended cross town to Whitmore Reans, replacing the tram replacing motor bus service to that point, the trolleybuses running in a loop around Whitmore Reans, creating services 2 & 7 to differentiate between journeys running in alternate directions. 47 would become used for Wolverhampton-Bilston shorts, initially terminating at Bilston Town Hall but congestion there would see the creation of a new turning circle on Great Bridge Road, just off the Holyhead Road between Bilston & Moxley, on 29th October 1949.
Motor buses would takeover the 25 permanently on 8th February 1965, following a temporary replacement by loaned Birmingham City Transport exposed radiator Daimler CVD6s owing to the reconstruction of the railway bridge by the about to be closed (and now planned to be reopened!) Willenhall railway station, as part of the electrification of the West Coast Main Line and associated branches, from 26th October 1964.
The 2, 7 & 47 would be converted to motor buses on 9th August 1965, with the undertaking’s 72 seat thirty foot front entrance Guy Arabs with various types of bodywork then dominating most of the Wolverhampton fleet. The formation of WMPTE would lead to big changes on this corridor, with 28th February 1971 seeing the creation of the 79 from Wolverhampton-Birmingham via Bilston, Darlaston, Wednesbury & West Bromwich, the first major example of integration of the bus services of the PTE’s former constituents, with the 79 actually replacing services that were once operated by each of those former municipal fleets!
There was already a through service from Wolverhampton-West Bromwich in the form of the 90, run jointly between the two town’s corporation operators, this motor bus service following the 2 & 7 routes from Wolverhampton-Moxley, then heading directly to Wednesbury along Holyhead Road and then following the joint Birmingham/West Bromwich 75 to Birmingham as far as West Bromwich.
The 90 started on 17th October 1948, with agreements made with Midland Red to allow it’s introduction, as Midland Red already ran services 273/274/276 over the Bilston-Wednesbury section, these services being established in the early twenties, running from Sedgley-Bilston then following the Darlaston tram tracks of it’s fellow BET owned Wolverhampton District company as far as Moxley, then heading to Wednesbury and onwards to Darlaston, forming part of a mini Midland Red Darlaston network, based on that company taking over the South Staffs Darlaston-Willenhall tram route, this becoming Midland Red’s 277. This rather complex and little known corridor would be rationalised from 3rd December 1966, with the Sedgley section replaced by the new 863, which then replaced the 285 from Bilston-Bradley Lane estate, receiving an extension to new housing at Rocket Pool, whilst a peak 864 ran from Sedgley-Wednesbury, the company by then being perfectly happy to leave the Bilston-Wednesbury section to the 90 at other times! The Wednesbury-Darlaston section would be replaced by the 862 running through to Willenhall, replacing the 277, whilst a peak 867 replaced the 276 to Darlaston Green. The 864 would be withdrawn before WMPTE took over Midland Red’s West Midlands services on 3rd December 1973, after which the services would disappear into various integrated PTE services that I’ve explained in Part Three of the “WMPTE 50” series of blogs.
The 90 would disappear when the 79 commenced, as would the 2 & 7, whilst the 47 shortworkings were renumbered 71, with Wolverhampton-Darlaston shorts becoming the 78. The Whitmore Reans section of the 2/7 would be replaced mainly by an increase of the 34 Blakeley Green service, although 7 would continue to be used for peak Wolverhampton-Whitmore Reans shorts.
We passed along the factory filled Holyhead Road, passing the now gone 47 turning circle just inside Great Bridge Road, shortly after which is the boundary with what’s now the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall, this bringing us to Moxley, where the Holyhead Road branches to the right, this ceasing to be served upon the 90’s demise, other than for the unnumbered West Bromwich service to Moxley Hospital, which the PTE would number 479 in 1976, renumbering it again in November 1977 to 927 in the PTE’s “Special Services” 9xx series, this route passing to Midland Red West after deregulation before it’s ultimate demise, though deregulation would see the return of a regular service along the stretch with the 979 Birmingham-Wolverhampton Timesaver Limited Stop service, which would last until 2000, the Midland Metro having abstracted traffic from the route, with the 78 (Birmingham-Wednesbury) having a brief extension to Bilston along Holyhead Road before that road became busless again.
As we headed towards Darlaston, I remembered that at some point in the early seventies, the 71 was extended into Darlaston via the Herberts Park estate, served until 1971 by Midland Red’s 861 Circular but the 71 along with the 78, would cease on 6th June 1976 when all shortworking numbers used alongside the 79 and it’s much longer established 74 sister service from Birmingham-Dudley, would cease. Herberts Park would later be served by the 336/339 from Walsall and has had various services through the estate since deregulation, including the 79 for a short period. Today, it’s served by the 39 from Walsall, which then follows the 79 to Bilston before heading to Stowlawn.
We did the 79’s time honoured double run into Darlaston, stopping by the ASDA, where 79 passengers have always had to be careful to get on the right bus in their direction, then heading back out in the same direction before serving the fifties housing of Dangerfield Lane. This was originally served by Walsall Corporation’s 51 from Wednesbury-Bentley, serving housing that had been built by Darlaston Urban District Council before it was absorbed into Walsall in 1966. The Wednesbury-Darlaston section of the 51 was replaced by the 79 upon it’s 1971 commencement, with the Bentley side being replaced by the new 236/239, today covered by NXWM’s 37.
Dangerfield L:ane leads onto Holyhead Road, which the 79 used to turn left onto to head into Wednesbury but the road’s 1996 conversion to dual carriageway when it became part of the Black Country Route main road from West Bromwich to Junction 10 of the M6 near Willenhall, lead to Wolverhampton bound 79’s being unable to turn right onto Dangerfield Lane, leading to the route being rerouted through an industrial estate that lead it to the main Darlaston-Wednesbury Road, once served by a South Staffs tramway that became part of Walsall Corporation’s 37 & 38 Walsall-Wednesbury-Darlaston circular bus routes, which, from 1971, became WMPTE’s 237/238 before being renumbered 337/338 in 1976, the routes ceasing at deregulation, the Darlaston-Wednesbury section being replaced by the new 78 that paralleled much of the 79 from Birmingham-Wolverhampton, differing both here and between Wednesbury & West Bromwich replacing the former 428/429 through Hateley Heath. I would ride the 78 on it’s first day, Monday 27th October 1986 (initially, an evening & Sunday 77 covered both the 78 & 79 routes at these times, though this ceased in February 1987) on board a Cleveland Road (Park Lane initially closing at deregulation but reopening in November 1993 when Cleveland Road closed) 63xx Leyland Fleetline.
Like the 79, the 78 would be shared between West Bromwich, Hockley & Cleveland Road garages, though the shares of the latter two would be reduced at deregulation, disappearing in 1995 when the two routes would be operated exclusively by West Bromwich. 1996 would see the 78 cutback to Wednesbury at the same time as the 79’s rerouting away from the new Black Country Route and would be then extended to Wednesbury Parkway Metro Stop upon the 1999 opening of the Midland Metro but then replaced the 979 along Holyhead Road to Bilston in 2000, though this didn’t last, the 78 soon terminating at Wednesbury bus station again. Ultimately, around 2007, the 78 would be withdrawn, replaced between Wednesbury & West Bromwich by routes using the numbers 428 & 429 again, this section being the 47 today.
West Bromwich would operate the 79, latterly using Mercedes Benz 0405 saloons, until 2002, when a route swap would see it transfer to Wolverhampton, beginning a long association with the Dennis Trident, the garage then receiving a large number of the 43xx 2002 batch which, when combined with a large number of the 2004 batch, like 4594, would dominate both the 79 and the Wolverhampton double deck allocation for the next twenty years. 2011 would see the 79 lose it’s Birmingham section, initially with a “new” 75 from Wednesbury-Birmingham (reviving the former Birmingham/West Bromwich joint service that used to have that number) although ultimately, that would be replaced by the 79 being increased back to every ten minutes (it became twenty minutes after the split) and extra 74Es between West Bromwich & Birmingham, pretty much the way things are today. The Tridents would be supplemented by Optare Spectras during their spell at Wolverhampton but otherwise, Tridents would reign supreme on the route until around five years ago, when the E400Hs began to predominate. So my ride on 4594 today is very much heading towards the end of an era!
We soon reached Wednesbury bus station, then headed onto West Bromwich through Hill Top, past my local bus stop and into West Bromwich bus station, where I had a quick change onto a 48A, my hopes of being able to compare the Tridents today with a ride on the other current elder statesman of NXWM double deckers, Wright Gemini bodied Volvo B7s being scuppered by this 48A being 4764, one of the first E400s delivered to Travel West Midlands in 2007, though it actually entered service in January 2008 and the type that replaced the Trident (though officially, those early E400s chassis was designated Trident, though it was really a different animal to the original Tridents, hence why I call them E400s) in Alexander Dennis’s range. I remember driving 4764 at it’s initial Perry Barr home, the bus being one of those featuring high backed seats for use on the new 993 (Birmingham-Streetly Hardwick Arms) but transferring to Walsall along with the 993’s new 935 replacement in August 2010, then moving to Coventry in June 2015 when the Birmingham-Streetly corridor became Platinum operated. The arrival of electrics at Coventry saw 4764 transfer to West Bromwich in December 2022.
I got off 4764 at Londonderry, then met Lynn for a swim, her swimming challenge for Diabetes UK subsequently being completed the following Friday.
Of course, now that electrics are beginning to spread elsewhere in the fleet, it’s the turn of the E400s to begin their decline, with the 2009 E400s about to be returned to their leaser for sale to Go Ahead South. Whilst this gives some of the Tridents a slight reprieve, they’re unlikely to last beyond 2025 and any major failure will see individual examples withdrawn, the same going for the remaining Wright Gemini bodied Volvo B7s. So ride them now! The bus industry moves onwards, facing uncertainty in these financially challenging times, yes, but the future is almost upon us!
Tram, Train & Buscapades! 