So, after the lengthy day out on the previous day, another day off made me plan another bash, albeit a little less rigouress…..and considerably less costly!
Therefore, I arose two hours later than the day before, had a leisurely breakfast and once again made my way to catch West Midlands Metro replacement service 79A, today operated by another of the ex hybrid E400Hs that currently dominate the 79A and it’s more permanent 79 sister, today’s example being 5409, which, with me noticing that the track lifting crane that was by the Metro yesterday wasn’t there anymore, took me quickly to Wednesbury, the driver checking at the bus station to make sure that everyone knew that this wasn’t a 79 to Wolverhampton!
Satisfied that we all knew where we were going, he then made his way to Wednesbury Parkway, where the eight or so of us on board got off and made our way past the slightly fuller car park than yesterday, featuring around nine cars, onto the platform and waited a few minutes for CAF 100 54 to come from Wednesbury Great Western Street, this second week of the closure seeing work on the new junction (for the new Dudley branch) sufficiently complete for trams to reach the stop adjacent to those works, although I noticed that the tram was running on battery power, the power obviously being off for safety, proving how useful the batteries can be, also demonstrated the week before the closure, when battery running was being used between Black Lake and Dudley Street on account of work being done by Sandwell Council on the bridge that carries Dudley Street itself across the Metro line.
Once on board, 54 took me swiftly to Wolverhampton, where I got off at Pipers Row, next to the bus station….although the first bus that I wanted to catch didn’t depart from here! My main reason for visiting was to use the loo!
Ablutions completed, I walked over to Lichfield Street, opposite the rather fine architecturally Art Gallery and waited for Select Bus Services route 877.
The 877
Regular readers will remember that last year, I tried to ride the 877 before (see blog Just £2 Part Thirteen-Staffs and Shropshire.” Actually, I’ve only just noticed that it was Part Thirteen, was that the reason for this mishap? I doubt it, I’m not superstitious!) but the bus failed to turn up, forcing me to get a train to Stafford instead. The 877 had been on my list to do for a while since, so today seemed the perfect opportunity!
Today, I was more fortunate, with Optare Versa 27 turning up on time;
A small queue boarded, including myself, paying the current maximum £2 fare and I went and sat down.
Above the door was a faded, Stagecoach Express notice, whilst the interior and very luxurious seating also indicated that the bus came from that big group. I would later find out that the bus, plus another example that Select had purchased, had come from Stagecoach’s Fife operation.
There are two Monday-Friday departures in each direction on the 877, plus a couple of short school journeys. From Wolverhampton, these through journeys leave at 10.05 & 13.05, making up an hourly frequency with the more regular 878 which shares the same route between Wolverhampton & Wheaton Aston. On Saturdays, incidentally, neither route reaches Woverhampton, with the 878 just running three journeys between Stafford & Coven, whilst the 877’s two journeys just run between Stafford & Bradley.
I did manage to ride the 878 last year (see blog “Just £2-Part Ten-Staffordshire Triangle”) so I’m glad that I’ve now got both routes in the book. The numbers 877 & 878 both began to be used on this corridor on 3rd December 1973, when Midland Red took over many of the former Wolverhampton Corporation country services that went far beyond the boundary of the about to be created (from 1st April 1974) West Midlands County Council, which would gain control of the West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive (WMPTE) which had taken over Wolverhampton Corporation on 1st October 1969, the PTE also taking over the West Midlands county services of Midland Red from 3rd December 1973, with the Midland Red takeover of those ex Wolverhampton country services being a recipricol part of the deal. Previously, these services had been the 22 to Wheaton Aston and the 52 short working to Brewood. The Brewod service commenced on 16th August 1922, following a special service running on the 7th & 8th August that year. Wheaton Aston, meanwhile, was first served by Midland Red, reaching there via Albrighton & Tong on 1st March 1922 and was later joined by a service via the main Wolverhampton-Stafford Road, first served by Midland Red from 24th June 1920, to Gailey, then reaching Wheaton Aston via the A5 and Stretton. Wolverhampton Corporation would takeover both routes on 2nd March 1927, the Tong service being curtailed at Ivetesy Bank at the same time. 12th August 1929 would see the service via Gailey replaced by an extension of certain journeys on the Brewood service, creating the services which would go on to become the 22 & 52, these becoming the 877 & 878 respectively upon the December 1973 Midland Red takeover.
The Chaserider Market Analysis Project (MAP) revisions of 1980 saw Midland Red reduce their operations on the route, with most off peak 878 journeys being taken over by Green Bus of Great Wyrley, that independent with a penchant for older buses and cheap fares, later adding to this with a service numbered 12, which followed the 877 to Wheaton Aston, then headed into Penkridge.
Green Bus would go under in the early years of this century, never really coming to terms with the more complex needs of more modern buses, with Choice Travel briefly running service 3 in replacement of the 878, before Select Motor Services of Penkridge, an operator that would cover a lot of former Green Bus routes, in which bus entrepreneur Jullian Peddle would later gain a 25% share, took over. They would develop the services into today’s 877 & 878, running through to Stafford, becoming the only thorugh bus services between Wolverhampton & Stafford when the final service along the long established former Midland Red served main road route through Penkridge, latterly covered by NXWM’s 54/54A, was withdrawn in April 2020, the introduction of the Covid 19 lockdown just a few weeks before depriving me of a final ride on this service. Such is the strength of the train service that the direct bus service has died.
We left Wolverhampton down Darlington Street and up Waterloo Road, passed the Molyneux Stadium of Wolverhampton Wonderers Football Club, before joining the semi detached clad Stafford Road for the run to the city boundary, after which we passed under the M54 Motorway and headed into Staffordshire countryside. We branched off the main road to head into Coven, which the then main road service 876 was rerouted to serve upon the 1980 reduction of the 877 & 878 but now, the 877 & 878 are the main services through the village once again. Coven’s a rather spread out village, with many houses having been built for former Wolverhampton residents anxious to escape the urban life, doubtless helped in the years before mass car ownership by the presence of Wolverhampton Corporation’s 22 & 52 buses.
A short rural interlude took us to Brewood, which has a larger centre than Coven but similarly built up for former Wolverhampton residents. As befitting the place where most journeys on the routes once terminated, all the other passengers got off here, leaving me to travel on alone! As we left Brewood (incidentally, pronounced Brude) a van coming the other way signalled our driver to stop, which he did. Both drivers had a brief conversation whilst I noted a pheasant in a nearby field watched on! It turns out that the road had been blocked further along, therefore, our driver got out of his cab and phoned the garage, from where he presumably received instructions to turn around, reversing in a nearby side street and head back into Brewood, where we encountered the Wolverhampton bound 877, which was being run by the other ex Stagecoach Fife Optare Versa, who had come in from a different direction.
We then headed eastwards out of the village along a very narrow country lane, which bought us onto the main A5, onto which we turned left, heading towards the former Ivetesy Bank terminus of the curtailed former Wheaton Aston service, that service through Tong & Albrighton also passing to Wolverhampton Corporation, later losing the Ivetesy Bank section, before also passing back to Midland Red in December 1973, sunsequently integrated into the 893 service to Telford & Shrewsbury. Here, we rejoined the route of the 877 & 878, heading into the village of Wheaton Aston, another quite spread out village, though not to the same extent as Coven & Brewood are. Another sign of life here is the canal, where several narrow boats were berthed.
It’s here where today’s 877 & 878 split up, the more frequnt 878 heading back towards the A5 and down to Gailey, then joining the A449 Wolverhampton-Stafford road into Penkridge, then heading to Stafford via the village of Acton Trussell. whilst the two journeys on the 877 proceed through more of the village to head onto narrow country lanes, the route now becoming extremely rural.
We entered the village of Church Eaton, a more quintessentially English village than those served on the more frequent section of route, really quite tiny, with a church and a pub seemingly the main centres of this community, who didn’t need the bus today. It was then more country lanes to the similar village of Bradley. From here, we joined the main A518 Stafford-Newport Road, served by Arriva’s 5/5A Stafford-Telford route, originally the 481, which has it’s origins in the January 1992 combination of the Midland Red North (then owned by Drawlane, later to become British Bus, then sold to Cowie, who would rename themselves Arriva in 1997) 81 from Wellington-Edgmond via Newport service with the 415 Newport-Stafford trunk route of Happy Days, formerly known as Austins, whose local bus services had been bought out by Midland Red North in 1991.
One Saturday, around 1994, I was in Stafford, intending to get the next 481 to Newport, to connect into the Midland Red North 519 from there to Shrewsbury. However, I noticed that a 482 (presumably replacing another ex Happy Days route) to the village of Gnosall, on the 481, so I decided to ride this to that point, with a Reeve Burgess bodied Dodge minibus being my stead. The route went along some delightful country lanes serving out of the way villages, which I’m convinced included Church Eaton & Bradley, as well as the next village that the 877 would serve, turning off the main road to enter the village of Derrington. Here, we passed a bus shelter where two people were waiting and I wondered what bus they were wiaiting for, as I’d passed the 877 in the other direction at Brewood but as we continued in, we made a loop around the houses and I soon found out that these two villagers were waiting for our bus!
With these two on board, we headed back onto the main road, passing under the M6 and heading into the town of Stafford, the town’s castle looking down on a hill to the left, and the Highfields council estate, with it’s single multi storey block of flats, to the right. This estate is served by the 9, one of the more frequent (currently every fifteen minutes) Stafford Town services, these now being in the hands of Select, following Arriva selling their Cannock garage operations (which covered Stafford after the closure of the Arriva garage in the town in 2016) to Julian Peddle owned D & G in January 2021, with the company reviving the Chaserider name for this operation, with it being decided that it was more economical for Select to takeover the Town services. Before reaching the Town Centre, we set off around some back roads to serve some new housing, from where we gained no passengers.
Upon heading into town, we found ourselves amongst roadworks, which slowed down our passage, and myself and most other passengers got off at a stop before the Pitchers Bank terminus;
The 5A
Without doubt, the linking of Midland Red North’s 81 with the ex Happy Days 415 was an overwhelming success, although the Wellington-Telford Town Centre section would subsequently be detached, with the route then terminating at Telford Town Centre. The conversion of the route to low floor, Rural Line branded Wright Cadet bodied DAFs around 2004 would see the route increased from hourly to half hourly to enable the smaller seating capacity of the DAFs to cope with loadings! The DAFs would be replaced by the present Wright Pulsar bodied VDLs in January 2014, with the route being renumbred 5 in a July 2015 Telford area route renumbering.
Soon after arriving at the Chells Road terminus (which I’d manage to establsh was still in use, despite the presence of roadworks further down the street) 3784, one of that 2013 registered but entering service in January 2014 batch of Wright Pulsar bodied VDLs that replaced the DAFs on the 481, turned up on the next journey, which was on a 5A, for recent years have seen alternate journeys run direct along the 1985 opened Newport-Donnington Road instead of taking the original route through Lilleshall Village, which is now the 5A (there’s also a 5E evening variant) creating a 40/20 minute interval service over this stretch which, at Donnington, makes up a twenty minute service onwards through urban North Telford with the hourly 6 from Donnington Wood.
Befitting the route’s commercial, more frequent status, a much larger number of passengers boarded 3784 than had been on the 877. We set off back out through the roadworks, then taking the main Newport Road out of town once again, heading out through the villages of Haughton & Gnosall, the latter featuring a lenghty run introduced by Happy Days around a seventies built housing estate, before reaching the point, by the village shop, where I’d got off that minibus on the 482 and waitied around half an hour for the 481 all those years ago!
We passed from Staffordshire into Shropshire just before entering the town of Newport, where I got off at the noughties introduced town bus terminus by the town’s Waitrose store;
Newport
I couldn’t help notice that the bus shelters here have recently been replaced, the previous rather grotty all metal versions being replaced by these smart looking Telford & Wrekin council shelters;
Newport’s a typical Shropshire market town, not so olde worlde as similar such towns in South Shropshire, like Bridgnorth or Ludlow, but quite pleasant, it’s wide High Street containing a fairly prosperous selection of shops. Last time that I was here (see blog “Just £2-Part Six-More Telford Tenders”) I’d discovered a chip shop that it was then too early in the day to sample but today, this wasn’t the case, so I headed along the High Street trying to find it, which indeed, I did…..only to discover workmen busily converting the shop into a Dominos Pizza shop! I therefore resorted to Catherines Bakery for two large hot sausage rolls, which filled the spot. Having eaten them, I made my way to the New Inns, the Joules pub that I’d discovered on that last visit…..finding Jones chip shop immediately opposite! Ohhh well! Win some lose some!
Inside the wonderfull charecter filled pub, I consumed two pints of the superb Joules Slumbering Monk and then decided to have sausage and chips from the chippy just before it closed anyhow, taking them back to the bus terminus to eat them. They were OK!
The 102
On that last trip, as described in “Just £2-Part Six-More Telford Tenders”, I’d ridden the 103, the more interesting of two then recently introduced Telford & Wrekin Council tendered services linking Newport with Wellington, another Shropshire market town but one which has become totally dominated by the adjoining Telford New Town, with Telford Town Centre having taken away many of Wellington’s original shoppers These two services are operated by Chaserider and are designed to provide more of the area with regular bus services. The 103 is a truly magnificent route, serving villages which had either lost their bus routes in the pandemic (the aforementioned Arriva 519 to Shrewsbury, serving Edgmond, Tibberton & High Ercall) whilst the rest of the route served villages that lost their bus services long ago, like Walcot & Wrockwerdine. The 102, meanwhile, covers a more well trod path, following the 5A through Lilleshall then providing a direct service from various parts of the Donnington area to the Princess Royal Hospital and Wellington, links to these places having disappeared from these parts over the previous twenty years or so.
Nevertheless, the completist in me wished to get the 102 in the book too, so I’d timed my itinerary to catch the 14.40 departure off Newport, which was operated by Telford & Wrekin branded MMC E200 543;
So I boarded the bus and, for this approximately seven mile trip, paid just 50p!
Yes, during this week of the school holidays, Telford & Wrekin Council had introduced a bargain 50p fare on it’s tendered services, meaning even more of a bargain than the maximum £2 fares that I’d been using to get around over the rest of the day!
Nevertheless, I was the only person taking advantage of the offer on this trip, the bus leaving Newport with only myself on board! Travelling out along the High Street, I nostalgically drifted back to my first visits to the town in 1984. I was then a student at what had just been renamed Telford Colege of Art & Technology but then known universally still by it’s previous name of Walker Tech in Wellington. I was on a Business Education Council (BEC) course, and each Wednesday afternoon, each of us went to work experiance, with our first apppointments being allocated close to our homes, with me doing my first spell on the Halesfield Industrial Estate, near my then home at Woodside, but we all swapped around after Christmas, with no one wanting to go to an accountants in Newport, so I volunteered for it on account of the bus ride out there every week.
I remember then using the 2 bus route there from Wellington on it’s way to Edgmond, this being the former Midland Red 917, which ran through from Shrewsbury until November 1979 (a peak journey survived, with college service X7 being the spiritual survivor of this) but was renumbered 2 in September 1981, as part of a general renumbering of buses in Telford. Returning home, I used to take the 16.15 X82 Shrewsbury via Telford Town Centre service as far as the latter point, this service having commenced in early 1982. That time of the afternoon in Newport Town Centre was a bustle of local coach operators, including Happy Days, all operating school services.
With much complication on the post deregulation journey afterwards, the 2 & X82 would evolve into today’s 5 & 5A. These, however, follow the final section of the former Happy Days 415, which carried on beyond Newport to Church Aston (not to be confused by my earlier visited Church Eaton) a village that had really developed as a suburb of Newport, so from what I can remember, the 102 is the first regular service to turn right onto the direct road towards Lilleshall & Donnington in a very long time. We took this road and headed out of town, soon reaching the straight 1985 built road that today’s 5 now follows, whilst we took the current 5A route (as well as that used by evening service 5E) that turns left into Lilleshall, a prosperous, spread out village that was once home of the National Football Academy. We twisted our way around the village’s narrow roads, again with no takers, before reaching the old main road, with the 1985 road in the distance beyond heading straight to Donnington. We turned left onto the old road and headed into Muxton, on the edge of the built up area of Telford.
We turned left into Sutherland Drive, which, years ago, was the terminus of 916 service from Wellington, from April 1978 operated by the indepedent Excelsior until September 1981, when it was replaced by the 3 to Donnington Roundabout (although I remember one morning peak journey that still headed to Muxton Corner) this being operated by Excelsior until their ultimate demise (and it was a long drawn out, complex demise which I’ve talked about before, mostly in the “Buses For Fun” blogs “Buses In Telford-Part’s Two & Three”) in 1989, when Midland Red North would finally take it over. 1984 would see Sutherland Drive used as a regular terminus again, when Britannia International Travel began a B1 service from Muxton Corner-Telford Town Centre, which Midland Red North responded to with their own 31 running five minutes in front!
Following my college course, I went on a YTS (Youth Training Scheme. Kids, ask your Parents, it might make your eyes water!) at Britannia, during which time the company would inexplicably have then Secreatary of State for Transport Nicholas Ridley take the licence for services B1 and B2 (Town Centre-Wellington via Overdale, which Midland Red North similarly attacked with route 32) off Britannia, inexplicable because the same Transport Minister was pushing forward his “Buses” White Paper at the time, which would ultimately lead to the 1985 Transport Act that gave us deregulation which, of course, encouraged such free enterprise competition! May 1985 would see the 31 withdrawn, replaced initially by a 33 which did a different loop around Donnington and extended beyond the Town Centre to new housing in Priorslee. The 33 would subsequently be replaced by the Telford minibus network in May 1986, and the usual complexities of deregulation has affected bus routes in the area since.
Much new development had come to the area beyond the old Muxton Corner terminus since, and we headed into this, before heading into the older area of Bell Green & Donnington Wood, which I recognised as the site of the former Britannia garage where I had worked all those years ago. Houses now stand on the site, the business coming to an end in the early years of this century, with West Bromwich based Petes Travel latterly renting part of the garage off Britannia for use on competitive & tendered services witihn Telford, a return to the spirit of the B1 & B2?
We then made our way through the Donnington area, where Arriva’s 5/5A/6 & 7 are the main services, though we picked up a few. In his regular “Inside Track” column in “Buses” magazine, Julian Peddle stated that the new Telford tendered services were doing well passenger wise, although higlhy unlikely to become completely commercially viable, which was good to hear after my early runs on the other new routes had revealed very few passengers and this seemed to be the case on this 102 journey but, of course, this may have been down to me travelling agaonst the natural passenger flow of the day, with people heading out of Wellington at this time.
We made our way tantalisingly close to the Town Centre, passing through the affluent housing of Priorslee, which the aforementioned 33 first served back in 1985 and has largely been served by tendered services following deregulation, with the 8 & 8A through to Bridgnorth & Much Wenlock respectively providing an hourly link to the Town Centre today. We then hit the Queensway dual carriageway which took us more to the north of town, coming off close to the Princess Royal Hospital, also served by the trunk Arriva route 4 from Leegomery-Madeley via Wellington & the Town Centre. We followed this the short distance to Wellington bus station, where I got quickly off and boarded Arriva Wright Streetlite 3322 on the aforementioned 4, which was loading at the time, which took me out of Wellington Town Centre, down to Holyhead Road, where I noticed that the long established Cock Inn had become a Joules pub, so must put that on my to visit list. Less fortunate has been the Bucks Head, further along, which has long succumbed to the fate befalling that Newport chip shop and had become a Dominos pizza joint! This was where I once had the occasional, illicit under age drink, as the Telford College of Art & Technology where I studied back in the midsts of time (well, 1984!) is just over the road and, as usual when I pass here by bus, memories come flooding back onto boarding those Tellus branded Midalnd Red North Leyland Nationals on the 15.49 11 back home to Woodside, the bus usually being absolutely wedged! Happy days!
We then took the course of that 11, along Holyhead Road, the route of the old A5, into Oakengates, leaving this passed the Greyhound, another pub that has become a Domino Pizza. Here, the old 11 did a loop around the Ketley Bank estate (now served by Arriva’s tendered circular 99A/99C) whilst today’s 4 would normally head up the road to Snedshill, though this was closed today due to roadworks, so we headed onto the Queensway dual carriageway route of the former 11, though it was then called the Eastern Primary Road. As we came off, we were able to serve the 4’s normal Telford Central stop (the station didn’t exist during my college days, opening in 1986) before heading to the Town Centre bus station, where I got off. The picture below shows 3322 just leaving the bus station, right at the bottom, continuing it’s journey to Madeley, not a direct replacement route wise but very much the spiritual successor to my college journeys on the 11!
Meanwhile, the Telford & Wrekin liveried E200 that stands out amongst all the Arriva liveried buses here, is actually an Arriva bus too, one of two E200s that are the regular buses on the aforementioned 99A/99C that began last year, replacing several separate tendered services.
I had around half an hour wait for the next Banga Buses 891 back to Wolverhampton, which appeared in the form of Optare Solo SR SR!0 KSU, which I thought had been the regular Optare Solo SR that had featured on the 891 on my various £2 journeys on the route over the past year but was in fact a different example, with more basic seating. I used my card to pay for this trip, not only because I’d run out of coins but also because last year, the company, for some reason, insisted on card payments only on the route, though I noticed this had now ceased, with several other passengers paying cash.
A fairly full bus thus left the bus station, picking up a few more passengers in the Staffords Park Industial Estate before leaving Telford behind and travelling through the countryside to Shifnal, then on towards Tong, the village where, years ago, Wolverhampton Corporation had cutback their original Wheaton Aston service to terminate. Now, the small village is unserved, though quite visable just off the A41. The formerly Arriva operated 891 would serve it until 2015, after Banga had started competing on the route (due to Arriva briefly attacking Banga’s main 530 service from Wolverhampton-Rocket Pool) but sticking to the main road instead of serving Tong, which Arriva would copy in July 2015, when they renumbered their service 8. One year later, Arriva left the route to Banga (see “Buses For Fun” blog “Requiem For The 8”). Over the years that I’d travelled the route, I can only recall passengers boarding or alighting in Tong around twice, but today, someone actually wanted the village, so asked the driver to drop him off nearby, which he did!
Then, it was through the RAF dominated Cosford before turning off the main road to serve the larger village of Albrighton, then passing into Staffordshire, passing through the small village of Kingswood before entering the Wolverhampton suburbs along Tettenhall Road. As seems to be usual form with the last two trips on the 891, the driver didn’t bother serving the bus station, turfing us off at the St Georges stop, presumably then heading for garage, so I walked down to the Pipers Row tram stop and caught CAF 100 50 to Wednesbury Parkway, from where I caught NXWM E400H 5405 on the 79A back home.
Final Thoughts
So three days of quite intensive bashing came to an end, all three days exploring different aspects of my hobby. Monday had seen me head off into the past, riding vintage buses at Wythall Transport Museum (see blog “Return Of 5399 & Happy 50th 4413!”), whilst Tuesday saw me head up North to play on trains with the aid of a Lancashire Day Ranger (see blog “Lancashire Day Ranger 3”) whilst today was spent closer to my West Bromwich home, riding the mostly rural bus services featured in this blog.
People often ask me how I never get bored with the current transport scene, particularly those whose main interest is the more charecter filled vehicles of days gone by, and my answer is always to keep things varied, travelling to different areas, splitting things between bus and railways and, of course, taking any opportunity to revisit that more charecterful past by visiting places such as Wythall! These three days have been a fantastic example of the variety still out there to be explored by those of us with a bent to do so, something I plan to carry on doing as long as I’m able to.
Now though, it’s time to get back to making my own contribution to keeping the British bus industry going, driving buses to enable me to pay for those wonderful trips!
Tram, Train & Buscapades! 