A few things to do today, such as going for a Haircut, and then for a swim with my wife Lynn, with us later heading to the theatre but there was a little time for some random bus & tram riding in between!
To maximise my time, I wanted to reach my barbers in Oldbury as soon as it opened, at 09.00, so I was out of the house around 08.10 and caught the first bus which came to West Bromwich bus station, which was National Express West Midlands (NXWM) 2007 vintage Enviro 400 4743 on the 47. At the bus station, I found NXWM Scania Omnilink 1855 on the 4M to Merry Hill, so I boarded this quite full bus and we headed towards Oldbury. This got me to my barbers literally two minutes after he’d opened, so I was his first customer of the day!
Mop chopped, I walked back up to the main bus stops, outside Sainsburys and looked at what was there. Basically, as well as an NXWM Scania Omnilink on the 4 heading towards West Bromwich & Walsall, and a Diamond Wright Streetlite heading the other way on the 4H to Hayley Green, there were two 82/87 branded Platinum MMC E400s on the 87, one heading to Birmingham, the other to Dudley. I considered riding the latter but what I really wanted to ride was the more indirect 12/12A to Dudley, these routes having also made their way from Birmingham, over a more roundabout route through Bearwood & Londonderry as opposed to the 87’s direct course through Smethwick, so I decided to leave the Dudley bound 87 and wait for the next 12 or 12A.
The only problem was that I really wanted to ride a double decker on those routes and, although Wright Gemini bodied Volvo B7s & E400s make fairly regular appearances on these West Bromwich garage operated routes, Scania Omnilink saloons are also common fayre at the moment (hopefully the gradual reduction of saloons in the NXWM fleet with the imminent entry into service of the MMC E400 BYD electrics at Perry Barr & Yardley Wood will ultimately lead to double deckers returning fully to these routes) and, typically, the next 12A would produce an Omnilink. My plan then was to take the next 87 to Dudley but in fact, a more interesting bus turned up first on the 13, what before August 2018 was the 128 (as indeed, the 12 was the very long established 120 before that same date, with the 12A being a new variant introduced then, running via Tower Road instead of City Road) running to Birmingham via the area that renowened West Midlands bus author calls “the nebulous housing mass of Warley!”
Like the 12 & 12A, the 13 was a West Bromwich garage service running via a roundabourt route to Birmingham that is currently operated with the same mix of Scania Omnilinks and E400 & Wright Gemini bodied Volvo B7 double deckers and it was one of the latter, 2003 vintage 4479. that turned up, parking over the road from the loading stop to take it’s dropback;
The 13
Therefore, I decided to abandon my visit to Dudley (still not managed to visit there since the bus station closed for rebuilding into a Bus/Metro Interchange) and go for a ride on the 13 instead, it being a while since my last ride on the service (in fact, I think it may well have been on one of my “beloved” ALX400 bodied Volvo B7s) so having a dose of what was one of the oldest double deckers in the fleet over the route was an opportunity to be grasped!
In fact, I’ve also driven 4479 in the past, as it was a resident at my Perry Barr garage for the vast majority of it’s life, being a 33 (City-Pheasey) branded route upon it’s January 2003 entry into service and was one of the last survivors of the type at the garage, transfering to West Bromwich in August 2022, as moves were made to make the Perry Barr fleet as modern as possible ready for it’s move to the new garage at the other end of Wellhead Lane in December 2022 (and now, electric charging equipment is being fitted at the new garage, ready for that new generation of electric buses to enter service, with me having been typed on E165 the previous week!)
Back to an older diesel bus, I boarded 4479 after it ran round to commence it’s trip and went upstairs (naturally) to enjoy the trip ahead. We left Oldbury up the heavily industrialised Tat Bank Road, the factories giving to the Victorian/Edwardian terraced house filled area of Rood End, with us turning right onto Rood End Road.
Although Tat Bank Road once had a more direct service to Birmingham in the form of Midland Red’s 127, running via Warley Road & Londonderry but being withdrawn in 1968 (being replaced by the 121 between Birmingham & Langley Green, which was withdrawn in November 1983) this first section of the 13 has it’s origins in Midland Red service 229, introduced just after World War Two and running from Bearwood-Oldbury via the many new houses then being built in the Warley area, with the route being extended from Oldbury via yet more new housing shortly afterwards, in the early fifties, to Blackheath. This service had a very long innings, passing from Midland Red to West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive (WMPTE) upon the transfer of the company’s West Midlands local services to the PTE on 6th December 1973, and becoming the last, all day Oldbury garage service to be operated by that classic double decker, the BMMO D9!
Rood End Road took us to the sad, burnt out remains of the former Merrivale pub, at the centre of Langley Green and then, as now, a point where several bus routes meet. The 12 & 12A had followed us from the latter part of Tat Bank Road, the 120 having been rerouted that way in the nineties to avoid the delays at the level crossing gates by Langley Green station, and we’d been joined on Rood End Road by the 49 from West Bromwich-Bearwood via Brandhall. At the Merrivale roundabout, we all split up again, with the 12 & 12A heading up Dog Kennell Lane, whilst the 13 & 49 carried on into Moat Road, although we turned left almost immediately into Brookfields Road, with the currently being demolished Langley Baths sited on the corner, this being one of the two swimming pools that have been replaced by the built for the Commonwealth Games Sandwell Aquacentre, where I was to meet my wife Lynn later.
We climbed up Brookfields Road, filled with fifties built council houses, this taking us to the Beeches area at the top, with great views looking out over the Black Country. Here, we left the original 229 route, which headed into the Hill Top district, whilst we headed down Bristnal Hall Road to Bristnal Fields.
31st August 1980 saw WMPTE introduce a large scale revision of services in the Warley area, leading to the demise of the 229 and the other ex Midland Red routes around here, with new routes 128 & 129 created as replacements, providing a more frequent direct link to Birmingham than the former hourly 124 (Birmingham-Brickhouse Farm) that had previously linked this side of Langley to the second city. Originally, there was just going to be the 129, which followed the old 229 route exactly from Blackheath to the Bear Hotel at Bearwood but complaints from the Bristnal Fields area (my Uncle being one such voice) lead to alternate journeys being numbered 128 and routed down the previously unserved Bristnal Hall Road (which would also gain two new routes from Smethwick, the 444 to Brandhall and the 446 to Oldbury, the combined fifteen minutes frequency of these being hopelessly over optimistic! The 444 would become peak only in November 1983, whilst both routes would be withdrawn at deregulation in October 1986) where we encountered less dense private housing as we reached Bristnal Fields, where we turned left into George Road, once served by the aforementioned 124 and the 233 Oldbury-Bearwood via Causeway Green service, which also met it’s demise in the August 1980 revisions, with the 128 & 446 providing a partial replacement. Today, we’re also joined by the 48A from West Bromwich, which follows us from here into Bearwood.
At the top of George Road, we rejoined the former route of the 129/229 by the George pub. Deregulation would see the 129 withdrawn, with the 128 increased to every twenty minutes to compensate. Midland Red West’s 443 would replace the Hill Top section, which is today served by NXWM’s 54A. At the George, we were joined by the 13A (the former 127) from Blackheath via Brandhall, which provides a fiften minute service with the 13 from here onto Birmingham.
The George had once been the original terminus of the 124, commencing on 12th May 1927, and it’s 224 short working to Bearwood (although it’s possible that a route to Bearwood started earlier) which ran along the route that we were about to take, serving the developing area. During the post war years, when the 229, 233 & 214 (Londonderry-Perry Hill) all started, 224 continued to be used for occasional journeys to the George right into the PTE years. We headed down Pottery Road through more semi detached filled suburbs, then climbing into Abbey Road, where I saw that the former Pheasant pub had been demolished. We then travelled alongside the edge of Warley Woods, a charming green filled area where I used to go sledging on snowy days.
Then, it was down Abbey Road until it met Thimblemill Road, where we were joined by the 12 & 12A, which had followed the more direct route from Langley via Londondery to reach here, from where the 12/12A/13/13A provide a combined 7/8 minute service into Birmingham. Abbey Road becomes Three Shires Oak Road at this point, with Vivtorian/Edwardian terraces lining this road to the Bear Hotel. Here, today’s 48A follows the route of the former 229 & 233 by turning right onto Bearwood Road (at least after the 1952 opening of Bearwood bus station, before which the 229 & 233 terminated at the Bear Hotel, running in a loop via St Marys Road & Bearwood Road) whilst we followed the former example of Midland Red’s old 120, 121, 123, 124 & 127 by crossing over the boundary with Birmingham into Sandon Road.
A few hundred yards along Sandon Road and we were passing the wide junction with Willow Avenue, this width betraying the fact that this was once a bus terminus, for this was once the terminus of Birmingham City Transport’s (BCT) route 6, introduced on 29th September 1926. I’ve always found it quite odd that an operator who normally left some fair sized gaps between it’s, admitedley very frequent routes, would start a service that was only a very short walk from the Hagley Road tram 34 and the 1919 introduced motor bus route 9 (more on which anon) but I suspect the presence of Midland Red along Sandon Road on the services that would become the 120 & co (from 1928) caused Birmingham Corporation (which didn’t become BCT until 1937) to start their own service to avoid Midland Red abstracting traffic within the city, meaning that, under the terms of the 1914 agreement between the two operators, Midland Red were obliged to charge protectionist fares when following a Corporation bus or tram service. The only really major change to the 6 during it’s lifetime occurred after WMPTE’s October 1969 takeover of BCT, with the 6 becoming a cross city service on 28th February 1971, with it’s extension to Perry Common, running alongside the long established 5/7 from Portland Road, with journeys from Sandon Road-Perry Common showing the number 5, as did journeys from Portland Road, with 6 & 7 being shown for journeys heading to their respective western termini. This continued until the routes were one manned in May 1974, when 6 & 7 began to be used in both directions, 5 then being used for City-Perry Common shorts until 1977, when these became 7Es.
The 6 would cease as part of the August 1980 revisions, being replaced by extra 7Es on the Perry Common side, whilst the introduction of the 128 & 129 replaced the Sandon Road side.
Also paralleled at this point by the 11A/11C Birmingham Outer Circle, we followed the grand Edwardian terraced houses of Sandon Road until we were within sight of the Hagley Road, which the 6 and the various ex Midland Red services used to join at this point but today, the 12/12A/13 & 13A all follow the Outer Circle by turning left onto City Road, taking this down to the crossroads with Portland Road, as once served by the aforementioned 5/7, this cross city service beginning on 26th September 1927. The 128 was the first service to follow this route, this occurring at deregulation, with the now Hockley garage operated service (transferred from West Bromwich, where the 128 & 129 had been allocated since the January 1986 closure of the ex Midland Red Oldbury garage) rerouted this way to partially replace the 7, which was then cutback to the City-Perry Common route that it still follows today, the 128 supplementing the 428 from West Bromwich (replacing the former 428/429 Wednesbury-Portland Road service) which covered the 7 from that route’s former city boundary terminus.
Both the 128 & 428 initially operated through the City Centre to Hockley, this being handy for driver reliefs at the route’s new Hockley garage home but 26th January 1987 saw the routes cutback to terminate at the City Centre. September 1988 would see the 428 replaced by a new 129, operating through Smethwick to re-meet the 128 at Rood End, then heading alongside the 128 to Blackheath. September 1995 would see a short lived 138 introduced to follow the 128 until Lion Farm, then follow a 1990 introduced routing of the 129 to Blackheath, the latter route being cutback to terminate at Oldbury, apart from evenings & Sundays (when the 138 didn’t run) when it continued to Blackheath as the 129A. 1996 though, would see the 138 withdrawn and the 129 return to Blackheath full time.
July 2010 would see the 129 withdrawn, with the 80 (West Bromwich-Birmingham) rerouted to serve the outer end of Portland Road, then turning left onto the other side of City Road to make it’s way to city via Ladywood, with the new 127 joining the 128 along the other side of Portland Road. Sandwell revisions in October 2012 would see the 128 lose it’s Blackheath section to the 89 (this stretch now being covered by the 3 & 3A) whilst another new 129 would supplement the 127 & 128 between City and The George, then heading to West Bromwich via Londonderry, though September 2015 would see this transfer from West Bromwich to Pensnett garage and rerouted to Merry Hill.
August 2018 would see the 128 & 127 renumbered 13 & 13A respectively, whilst a short lived 13B would follow the former 129 route to Blackheath, though this was gone within around six months. More recently, from 2021, the 12 & 12A has also been rerouted via City Road & Portland Road.
And so we headed past the large houses of Portland Road, many being flats and student housing today, provoking memories of a party at one of them in the summer of 1992, when my class at the Birmingham Theatre School came to an end, with us spending most of the evening/early morning in the garden, getting verrry, verry drunk! Soon after, we reached the circular building of the Strathallen hotel, where we joined the Hagley Road.
As one of the main thoroughfares out of Birmingham, the Hagley Road has long been host to a good selection of bus services, most of Midland Red origin, heading beyond the city boundary into the Black Country, plus some heading further afield into rural Worcestershire, these latter routes staying with Midland Red once the West Midlands services past to WMPTE, although non of those country services survive running into the city. Over the years, even the number of former PTE services along the corridor have reduced, with now only four services continuing outward beyond Portland Road, these consisting of the 126, once running through to Wolverhampton but now only reaching Dudley, branching off the Hagley Road along the Wolverhampton “New” Road, as it was called in 1927 when Midland Red buses began running along it immediately after it opened. The remaining three routes operate all the way out along the Hagley Road to the city boundary, then continue beyond. Two are now Limited Stop along the Hagley Road, these being the X8 to Wolverhampton, following the former 140 route to Dudley, then covering the former 126 route onwards, whilst the X10 heads to Merry Hill, with one journey per hour reaching Gornal Wood, effectively replacing the former 137.
The X8 & X10 provide a combined ten minute service between City & Quinton (Stag) , with an all stop ten minute frequency duplicating this as far as Quinton (Spies Lane) provided by the route that tends to be mainly associated with the Hagley Road, a route that NXWM are currently making a little fuss of, as it’s reached an incredible 105 years of age! This is the 9 to Stourbridge, a former Birmingham service that commenced on 3rd March 1919, running out to Quinton (City Boundary). Since that date, only one, very significant change has been made to it’s route, this ocurring in November 1983, when the 9 was extended to Stourbridge, replacing the ex Midland Red 130, a route which was actually older than the 9, having began in October 1914, when Midland Red burst out from it’s Birmingham home, an agreement leaving local services to the Corporation, leading to Midland Red spreading far and wide to become the largest territorial bus company in the UK. The number 130 though, didn’t come to use on the route until 1928.
As we pased the Ivy Bush, heading towards the big Five Ways junction, the sight of a Platinum MMC on the 23 from Bartley Green coming off a side street told me that this route had been diverted from it’s normal Harborne Road route in for some reason, this being confirmed by the sight of another Platinum headiing out on the 23’s sister, service, the 24 to Quinton Road West. Just after, we encountered the Edgbaston Village terminus of West Midlands Metro, from where CAF 100 car 44 departed just ahead of us, which we followed down the now bus & tram only Five Ways underpass, then had to stop behind 44 as it called at the Five Ways tram stop, at the top of Broad Street, something that none of the bus routes along here would have to do for just over a fortnight from the following day, as the Wednesbury-Edgbaston Village section of the Metro is closed to enable the point work for the new line to Dudley to be fitted at the new junction with the existing line at Wednesbury.
We then continued behind 44 down Broad Street, turning away from the tramway when Broad Street came to it’s end, with us turning left towards Paradise Circus….where I came across the bus that everyone was talikng about that day! For in celebration of the 9’s 105th anniversary, Pensnett garage (the route’s current home) driver Karl Totney sugeseted to management that it would be a nice idea to borrow Yardley Wood E400 4722, one of two buses in the fleet to be currently painted in a BCT heritage livery (the other, Acocks Green’s Wright Genmini bodied Volvo B7 4651, was unsuitable for operation for Pensnett, as drivers there wouldn’t have been typed on that type of vehicle) and use it on the 9 for a short period. This gave me an idea for my next move!
We headed into the City Centre, making our way down Great Charles Street, then up Snow Hill to reach the 13’s Colmore Row terminus, where the bus was already showing 13A for it’s next trip out of town;
Trams And The 9!
Ideally, I could have caught the next 9 from here, Colmore Row also being the terminus of the 105th birthday boy, but I needed to use the loo and there’s not one present in the immediate area. Therefore, I walked through the St Phillips cathedral church yard, which now rejoices in the nickname Pigeon Park, then headed down Temple Street to use the public loos in the Grand Central shopping centre that surrounds New Street station. I did the necceserries and then realised that the easiest thing to do now was to say my brief farewells to the Edgbaston Village section of the Metro, catching CAF 100 45, featuring a contravision ad wrap for the City Of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the tram then climbing the short but sharp Pinfold Street to reach Victoria Square and the Town Hall tram stop alongside that famous Birmingham landmark. I’ve recently decided that this is my favourite West Midlands Metro stop, being surrounded by interesting archetecture.
Then, it was around to Broad Street, travelling up this thoroughfare which the local press said that trams were returning to on it’s 2022 opening but the reality was that Broad Street never had an original tramway, always having been served by buses! Calling at Library, next to the International Convention Centre and Symphony Hall where the orchestra advertised by 45 mostly plays, Brindley Place and Five Ways, we then dived back under the tunnel to reach Edgbaston Village terminus;
I then walked to the adjacent bus stop for onward travel along the Hagley Road. Current Mayor Andy Street plans to use money that the Government has diverted from the aborted Manchester section of HS2 to move the extension of the Metro onwards along the Hagley Road to Bearwood and ultimately, to Halesowen, with a possibility of a Dudley & Russells Hall Hospital branch along the Wolverhampton Road but Mr Street faces re-election next month and his main rival, Labour candidate Richard Parker, has only thus far stressed minimal support for ongoing Metro extension, with most of his campaiginig so far revolving around bringing London & Manchester Bee Network style bus franchising to the West Midlands, whilst the Government themselves will face re-election sometime over the next twelve months! So things aren’t going to move quickly!
So for now, it was down to the trusty 9 to take me further along the Hagley Road, my aim being to head towards the Holly Bush, the former name of a Quinton pub that’s now a Toby carvary, which is opposite Olivers chip shop, where I was going for lunch! The first bus to arrive was 2018 vintage 9 branded Platinum MMC 6921 on the long established route. I’d been following 4722s progress on the useful bustimes.org website, with this scheduled to reach the Holly Bush on it’s way back to Birmingham at 12.05, five minutes after Olivers was due to open. Therefore, I decided to stay on board 6921 out to Halesowen, where I would have a fifteen minute wait for 4722’s scheduled arrival.
I’m planning to write a full blog on the history of the number 9, following a trip over the whole route to Stourbridge that I’m planning to do on Good Friday, something that I haven’t done for a fair few years, so I’ll refrain here from describing much of the trip along the Hagley Road, out of the city down Spies Lane (actually the route of the 136/137 Gornal Wood routes before the 9 Stourbridge extension, those two routes then rerouted down Mucklow Hill to replace the 130) and then along the dual cariageway Manor Way into Halesowen Town Centre, soon reaching the bus station, where I got off and took a photograph of the especially programmed blinds that proclaim the 9’s 105th anniversary!
4722
One of the first batch of E400s delivered to what was then Travel West Midlands in 2007, 4722 was allocated initially to Perry Barr, where I would drive it and it’s sisters regularly on my Sutton rota services, until they were displaced by new 2013 examples (since replaced on Sutton by the 2016 vintage Platinums) with 4722 being one of the examples transferred to Yardley Wood, where it was branded for the 35 (City-Hawkelsey) before it’s 2020 repaint into BCT livery, adopting the two thick blue “tween deck” lines that featured on BCT’s Standard half cabs, as opposed to the version with a thin blue line on 4651, which was that used on BCT’s Daimler Fleetline rear engine buses.
4722 turned up on time, though I was unable to get a photo of it’s arrival thanks to an NXWM E200 on the 19 to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital being on the stand, blocking my view. Nevertheless, I boarded and we made our way back out of Halesowen, up Spies Lane and into the city of Birmingham, getting off at the Holly Bush, the stop where, from 1949-1997, crews would change over, making the short walk to/from the Quinton garage that operated the 9, making this photograph of a BCT liveried bus on the route rather appropriate!
So I then bought cod & chips from Olivers, waiting for the chips to be cooked, then went back to the bus shelter to eat them, branded Platinum MMC 6930 soon appearing on the 9, so I adopted “covert chip eating mode” and shoved them in my bag, boarding 6930 for the short run to Bearwood, where I continued to eat them on a bench by the bus station, before 2003 vintage Wright Gemini bodied Volvo B7 4510 appeared on the 48A, this being one of two routes that I wanted to catch next (the other being the 48, which stops around the corner in Bearwood Road) so I again adopted “covert chip eating mode” (I think this being the first occasion that I’ve actually smuggled the same portion of fish & chips on board two buses!) for what was left and boarded 4510, the bus heading through the Bearwood Road shops that the 229 & co would have passed down for many years, passing the site of what was that route’s Bearwood garage home until it’s December 1973 closure, then reaching the Bear Hotel, where we met the 12/12A/13/13A again, turning right onto Three Shires Oak Road and then following the 13 route back to The Beeches, from where we headed down the narrow Salop Road, which took us to Hurst Road, where we joined up with the route of the 48 and headed to the small shopping area of Londonderry, where I got off.
Just around the corner from here, just beyond the former Queens Head pub that’s now home to a vets, is the Sandwell Aquacentre, the Olympic sized swimming pool built for the 2022 Commonwealth Games, and replacing the Langley Green baths that I saw being demolished earlier that morning, as well as the fine, art deco Thimblemill baths (which the 12 & 12A pass on Thimblemill Road) the future of that marvellous building having yet to be decided. Here, I met up with Lynn, whose swimming ten lengths a session here for the charity Diabetes UK (if anyone wishes to contribute, I’ve shared her Just Giving page on my Facebook profile, and thank you to those who have already contributed) and I decided to join her today, the first time I’ve been properly swimming (that is, not having a splash around in a holiday centre pool!) in many years!
There was a lot of controversy involved in the centre’s construction, from it’s location in a heavily suburbanised setting, with relatively poor road links, plus the overall cost of construction, but I have to say that the result is highly impressive, with plenty of people using the facility on this Friday afternoon!
After a swim and a rather marvellous hot chocolate, I drove us home, where we had a chill for an hour before heading out, down to the Metro, catching a tram (didn’t note the number) to Grand Central, from where we walked to the Alexander Theatre (the first time I’ve ever been here, having got all the other City Centre theatres in the book, including having appeared on stage at both the Old Rep and it’s replacing Birmingham Repertory Theatre!) to see “Peter Pan Goes Wrong”, produced by the Mischief Theatre company, who were behind “The Play That Goes Wrong” the absolutley hillarious “play within a play” that Lynn & I first saw in London back in 2018, which had me in sticihes throughout with sets falling apart and all sorts of other disasters occurring to the actors within the production, and “Peter Pan Goes Wrong” was in a similar vein, with the cast flying into scenery and all sorts, which kept me laughing throughout! An incredibly slick production requiring impecabble timing from the cast!
Afterwards, we went to the London North Western Weatherspoons on New Street station, where I enjoyed a couple of pints of locally brewed Piffle Snonker. Lynn then asked me if I’d mind getting the tram up to Edgbaston Village (honest!) before we headed home, as she dosen’t get to ride this side of the Metro often, so, with it being the last night before the temprorary closure, I agreed, with us boarding a handily arriving CAF 100 car 40 just as we walked out of the station, this taking us up Pinfold Street, then along a Broad Street that was bustling with Friday nightlife (just think of travelling on a Blackpool tram along the Golden Mile on a similar evening, without the seaview!) up to Edgbaston Village, where I got out for a quick photo;
Then, with the tram forming the 23.44 to Wednesbury Parkway, about the last but two departure from Edgbaston Village before the close of service, we took the front seats for the view ahead, gradually filling up as the tram went through the City Centre. As we sped our way home, I couldn’t help thinking how useful it is for us to have the Metro, giving us a fast, direct link into Birmingham City Centre, enabling us to do things like visiting the theatre and go for a drink afterwards! Had the Metro closure already taken place, we’d have probably drove to Sandwell & Dudley station and got the train, which of course, would have meant no drinkies! Yes, we could also have caught the bus, but the journey time for the approximatley eight mile trip (with a change required at West Bromwich) really wouldn’t have been attractive.
I started thinking that this sort of thing was what many Londoners take for granted, leading to the vibrant night life in the West End. Yes, Birmingham too has vibrant night life but hasn’t quite got the quality of public transport needed, nor, more to the point, have West Midlanders quite got the same attitude towards public transport use that most Londoners have.
Is this what Politicians mean when they talk about levelling up? If so, then I’m all for it! As I’ve said before, the West Midlands Metro hasn’t quite got into the local psyche in the way that the other new tramway systems have (Manchester, Sheffield, Croydon, Nottingham, Blackpool & Edinburgh) and I suspect that’s largely because of the time it’s taken for the system to get deeply into the City Centre, as well as get above it’s one route status, something that the Dudley route should change by the end of the year. As a passenger on that one route, I can vouch for how useful my local tramway is, therefore, I support any plan which encourages any expansion of the network to bring that usefulness to more people!
Soon, we were back at Black Lake, where I watched my local tram disappear into the Hill Top tunnel and serve only the Wednesbury-Wolverhampton section for a few weeks!
So ended an interesting day, using public transport to gain access to four, rather diffferent tasks, illustrating it’s value, as well a little bit of freewheeling just for the sheer pleasure of riding on buses and trams!
Tram, Train & Buscapades! 