West Midlands Soho Road bus corridor

The Soho Road bus corridor is a collection of bus routes operating along Soho Road in Birmingham. The 74 links Birmingham and Dudley and the 75 links Birmingham and Wednesbury.

History

 * Pre-deregulation - Service 79 was created by West Midlands PTE in 1971 by combining several separate routes (principally the jointly-operated Birmingham City Transport/West Bromwich Corporation Transport Service 75 between Birmingham and Wednesbury and Wolverhampton Corporation Transport's Service 90 between Wolverhampton and Wednesbury).


 * 3 August 2008 - Cityspeed start operations on the 74.


 * 29 June 2008 - Sandwell Travel introduce a morning service between Great Bridge and Birmingham in this direction only.


 * 7 May 2008 - Diamond Bus extended their service back to Dudley, from West Bromwich/ Dudley Port.


 * 25 November 2007 - Diamond Bus curb their service to run from West Bromwich/ Dudley Port as opposed to running from Dudley. Evening and Sunday service are all withdrawn.


 * 22 July 2007 - Diamond Bus increase their frequency introduce an evening service. Sunday service is re-timed.

74 Birmingham - Dudley
The service currently serves Birmingham, Soho Road, West Bromwich, Great Bridge, Dudley Port and then Dudley. National Express West Midlands service 74 runs every 9 minutes during the day, with 74E's (short workings between Birmingham and West Bromwich) running every 9 minutes too. Service is then reduced to every 20 minutes in the evening and 15 minutes Sundays. The service is usually run with Mercedes-Benz O405N mainly seen on 74E routes & a few late journeys to Dudley however Volvo B7TL Alexander ALX400 and Plaxton President's are known for making a common appearances on the full 74 route. The service is run commercially.

The major competitor on this service is Diamond Bus who run every 20 minutes during the day, Monday - Saturday. There is no longer an evening and Sunday service run by Diamond Bus with the night service 74N, also ran by Diamond Bus, being withdrawn in 2006.

As of 29 June 2008, Sandwell Travel commenced operations on the 74 between Great Bridge and Birmingham, in this direction only.

As of 24 July 2011, a new 74E service was introduced to operate between Birmingham and Handsworth (Island Road / Morrisons) only.

75 Birmingham - Wednesbury
The 75 is a shortened working of the 79 introduced on 24 July 2011, operating between Birmingham and Wednesbury only. This change occurred in line with other changes to the Soho Road corridor.

The 75 is the only bus service that currently links Wednesbury with Birmingham.

It is known that whenever the Midland Metro service is terminated (due to various reasons), that National Express West Midlands service 75 accepts tickets and passes between Birmingham and Wednesbury as well as service 74 (Between Birmingham and West Bromwich) and service 79 (Between West Bromwich and Wolverhampton).

The full length route is operated by only National Express West Midlands, whilst shortened workings are operated by Joe's Travel between Carters Green & Birmingham. National Express West Midlands also operate the 75E, which runs between Birmingham and West Bromwich as an 'every other bus' service.