West Midlands Hagley Road bus corridor

The Hagley Road bus corridor is a collection of routes in the West Midlands, England. Services 9, 140 and 141 are operated by National Express West Midlands.

History
The 138 and 99 were both part of the 109/139 corridor, with alterations.

The route originally formed part of Midland Red's Service 130/132/133/137/138/192 network operating between Birmingham and Stourbridge, Kidderminster and Brierley Hill. Service 9 was originally Birmingham City Transport's City Centre-Quinton service, extended to Halesowen and Stourbridge by West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive in 1983 to replace Service 130. Midland Red Services 132/133 were replaced by limited stop Services X92/X93 in 1972, which were subsequently extended to serve Hereford and Worcester during the early 1980s.

Service 9
This route used to experience major competition from Diamond Bus. Competition was very intense between both National Express West Midlands and Diamond Bus, however over the past 2 years, Diamond has withdrawn operations on this route slowly withdrawing services 9, 9A, 9B and 9N, although they have re-commenced this service via their Ludlows VOSA Licence using Diamond branded buses.

On 22 June 2008, Travel Express also withdrew all operations on service 9.

Commencing 25 July 2010, Diamond will again withdraw their journeys on the route. This is due to insufficient loadings.

Services 99, 109 and 138
In 2007 the 109 was withdrawn due to low passenger numbers. Because of this several changes occurred.


 * Cradley - Colley Gate - Halesowen was no longer served as well as Mucklow Hill being longer served in the daytime (daytime services serve Spies Lane, 636 serves Mucklow Hill during the daytime)
 * 139E was re-numbered 138 and extended to Russels Hall Hospital after 18:00 hrs and the early morning Saturday journey (renumbered 138) was no longer operated by Pensnett Depot instead it was transferred to Birmingham Central Depot. This means that Birmingham Central Depot have several dead miles to get to Pensnett High Oak.
 * The timetable was revised on both the 9, 138 and the 139 (Now Withdrawn)

In 2010, the 99 was withdrawn and replaced by the 141 between Birmingham-Quinton, from Quinton and Halesowen is still operated by the 9 and from Halesowen and Merry Hill was replaced by the extended 222. However, service 138 continued after Merry Hill Centre (which has been served by bused since its original phase was completed in 1986) towards Russells Hall Hospital. National Express West Midlands service 99 ran in the weekday daytime every 15 minutes, with service 138 taking over in the evenings running every 30 minutes and on Sundays every 20 minutes, only as far as Merry Hill.

Recent History

 * In 2008, Hasbury peak variant Service 19 was withdrawn when the Dudley Network Review occurred.
 * Service 139 was then renumbered 99 from May 31, 2009 and no longer served Five Ways, insteading going under this junction
 * Service 99 was then withdrawn in March 2010, and was replaced in part by the 141 and the 222.

Services 9, 140 and 141 all currently serve Birmingham city centre, Five Ways, Bearwood and Quinton. From here, service 9 goes off to Halesowen, Lye and Stourbridge whilst service 140, goes to Blackheath, Springfield, Dixons Green and Dudley. Service 141 goes to Blackheath, Rowley Regis Hospital, Cradley Heath, Saltwells, and then Merry Hill.

All services are operated by Pensnett. Service 9 is operated with Enviro400s with services 140 and 141 operated with Mercedes-Benz O405N buses. Service 9, and now withdrawn 109 and 139, both were operated with Volvo B7TL/Plaxton Presidents route branded 'Hagley Road' (named after the major corridor it served), however these have since been de-branded and painted into the National Express West Midlands livery. From June 2009 services started being operated by a fleet of new Enviro 400 double-deckers based at Birmingham Central garage and these vehicles carry Hagley Road branding, but without mentioning Halesowen. Some have also been branded to promote special £2 day return tickets on service 9, an Easter special offer, but now some of the Enviro 400 double-deckers have moved to Pensnett and carry a new green 'Every 8 minutes along the Hagley road' branding, with few Enviro 400s still carrying the old branding. which some are repainted. now 'Every 8 Minutes along the Hagley road' being removed from some buses and a move away from Pensnett.

On March 7th 2013. Christina Edkins was stabbed on a number 9 bus on the Hagley Road. 22 year old Phillip Simelane was arrested, wearing a jacket with a tiger design, which had previously been seen on CCTV footage.