Birmingham Bus routes 2 & 3

Birmingham bus routes 2 & 3 are a pair of services running from the city centre serving Yardley Wood Road and beyond in the south of the city of Birmingham, United Kingdom.

Both services run to a co-ordinated 20 minute frequency Mon-Sat daytimes thus providing a 10 minute headway (15 mins eves and Sun) on the shared section of route through Wake Green and Billesley (both services also run together through Sparkbrook sharing the Statford Road with the likes of services West Midlands Stratford Road bus Corridor 6 and Warwick Road bus Corridor 37).

Service 2 then runs via Yardley Wood (garage) and Warstock to the Maypole, whilst service 3 runs via Yardley Wood and Shirley railway station to Shirley before heading north to Acocks Green via Shirley Road.

Both services are mostly commonly operated by double-decker Dennis Trident 2 buses, with some journeys, particularly in the evenings, operated by single-decker Volvo B10L buses.

Service 2
Service 2 originally ran as Birmingham City Transport service 24 to Warstock and, with what is now the shortened 2E evening working, is unchanged since before the second world war.

No changes to service 24 were made by WMPTE. In the mid-late 1980s West Midlands Travel renumbered the route as service 2 before facing competition from Your Bus service 2Y in the early 1990s.

Although Your Bus were soon taken over, WMT continued operating the 2Y under the Travel Your Bus branding as the service additionally ran through to the Maypole via the end of Yardley Wood Road and Maypole Lane (and hence not serving Warstock).

In 2001 the separate branding was discontinued, however all Mon-Sat daytime services adopted the Maypole connection by running beyond the Warstock terminus via Gorleston Road and the middle section of Prince of Wales Lane back to Yardley Wood Road and hence the 2Y route to the Maypole. Sunday daytime services also started serving the Maypole from January 2009.

Service 3
Service 3 has its origins in Birmingham City Transport service 13A which by the 1950s ran on the current 3 route as far as the School Road / Ravenshill Road junction (original service 13 pre-dated service 24 and ran down Yardley Wood Road as far as Haunch Lane until eventually being phased out).

In 1964 the 13A was renumbered 13. A couple of years later every alternate working started running along Priory Road as far as Slade Lane. The use of an unrelated route number for the Priory Road variants simply reflected BCTs policy of using the next available service number which at that time was service 38.

The 13 and 38 remained unchanged throughout the WMPTE operated years. In the mid-late 1980s West Midlands Travel renumbered service 38 to service 12, then shortly after made the logical decision to combine the two routes by extending from the 13 terminus down Ravenshill Road and hence Priory Road to the 12 terminus. The new service adopted the latter number with Mon-Sat daytime services additionally extended to Shirley Station from June 2000.

In October 2009, following an unsuccessful trial of linking The Baldwin with Shirley Station, all daytime services were extended to the end of Haslucks Green Road (so as to maintain a link between Yardley Wood and Shirley following the withdrawal of service 69).

This then led to further extensions just three months later as newly renumbered service 3 took over Stratford Road bus Corridor Service 31 withdrawn routes along Streetsbrook Road to Solihull and Shirley Rd/Lakey La/Gospel La/Pool Farm Rd/Shirley Rd to Acocks Green (every other journey as service 3A).

A final change in October 2011 saw the Solihull route withdrawn and the Acocks Green route renumbered to service 3. On Sundays daytime journeys continue to terminate in Shirley at the junction of Haslucks Green Road and Stratford Road.

Photos

 * BCT service 24


 * BCT service 38


 * WMPTE service 13


 * WMPTE service 13 at terminus


 * WMPTE service 38


 * WMPTE service 24


 * WMT service 2


 * WMT service 12


 * TYB service 2Y


 * TWM service 2


 * TWM service 12


 * NXWM service 2


 * NXWM service 3 to Solihull


 * NXWM service 3A


 * NXWM service 3