West Midlands Coventry Road bus corridor

The Coventry Road bus corridor is a group of services running along the Coventry Road in Birmingham, United Kingdom. The services operating along this corridor are numbered 58, 59, 60, 900 and 957.



Route descriptions
Service 58 links Birmingham to Solihull, service 59 links Birmingham to Lea Hall & Kinghurst, service 60 links Birmingham with Cranes Park and Service 957 links Birmingham with Solihull railway station. All services serve the Coventry Road with 58/59/60 travelling via Small Heath and service 957 using Small Heath Highway. These services are operated by National Express West Midlands, and have suffered very little competition from other operators.

The services all serve the areas of Small Heath (except 957), Hay Mills and South Yardley (Swan Island), with the 60 & 957 also serving Sheldon. St Andrews football ground (Birmingham City F.C.) in Bordesley is also served by services 58, 59 & 60.

History of the routes
The 60 route commenced in July 1951 when Birmingham City Transport replaced the Coventry Road trolleybuses with motor buses, and has remained unchanged since. Until the late 1980’s service 60 ran alternate with service 58 which ran through to the Coventry Road / Arden Oak Road junction. In the mid 1970’s WMPTE extended every other 58 to the Airport. For 20 years West Midlands Travel ran service 58 at peak times only before briefly operating it as an all day service with all journeys running to the Airport (although this had also occurred in the late 1990s under the Travel Your Bus branding). Although service 60 operates wholly within Birmingham it is undoubtedly also used by residents of Solihull given the Borough border runs immediately south of Coventry Road from near Gilbertstone Road to beyond Lode Lane. The current route of service 58 was introduced in 2011 - see sub-page Provision of bus routes in the Lyndon area of Olton.

The current 59 route also commenced in 2011. In terms of being a Coventry Road service turning north through Yardley, it can claim historical lineage with Coleshill via Marston Green service 161/171, which from 1986 served stops on the Coventry Road (rather than running non-stop down it). In 1990 this service was renumbered 59. Around the same time local minibuses were introduced that included a link for the first time between Lea Hall and Shard End. In the mid-late 1990s service 59 became route 590A/590C until the service was discontinued 10 years later. Today’s service 59 performs a number of functions. It contributes to service provision on the Coventry Road via Small Heath, it shares service provision on Church Road (north) and Queens Road, and it serves Whittington Oval and Lea Hall Road. It also provides a link between Lea Hall and Shard End, a link between the Kendrick Avenue area and the Chester Road shops/Morrisons, and it provides a service along Fordbridge Road in Kingshurst.

The 957 was originally Midland Red service 176. The service commenced running in October 1955 and retained the number 176 through the WMPTE operated years until West Midlands Travel renamed the route as 57. In 1992 Your Bus introduced a rival service 57. As it ran via Hobs Moat Road rather than Old Lode Lane, WMT retained the service when they took over Your Bus, running the 57Y alternate with the parent service and renaming the variant 57A from 1997(?). The 57A, which had only ever run Monday to Saturday daytimes, was discontinued in 2010 when the 57 also became service 957 bypassing Small Heath.

History of route
The route was originally operated by Midland Red as service number 159 and remained unchanged after transferring to WMPTE until shortly before deregulation in 1986 when the service was extended from Birmingham via Halesowen to Hasbury, relaunched as a flagship Timesaver service and re-numbered 900. The service was also diverted onto the Small Heath bypass. In 1988 the extension to the route was reverted presumably because of the unreliability of such routes which traverse through a large busy city centre (the Birmingham to Hasbury section became routes 19 & 19S which were subsequently withdrawn on 27 Apr 2008).

The 900 journey time was then 60 minutes end to end, in recent years however as a result of additional routing, more stopping places and congestion, the end to end journey time has increased by around 40% which has made the service less attractive for those travelling between the two cities. The Timesaver brand has also been phased out.

Routes via Small Heath
Service 58 runs every 30 minutes Monday - Saturday daytime.

Service 59 runs every 30 minutes Monday - Saturday daytime.

Service 60 runs every 15 minutes Monday - Saturday daytime and every 20 minutes evenings. On Sundays the service runs every 10 minutes between Birmingham and Yardley, Swan Island with alternate journeys (every 20 minutes) extending to Cranes Park.

Service 58, 59 & 60 together create a 7/8 minute Monday - Saturday frequency between Birmingham and Yardley (Swan), along the Coventry Road, a 10 minute frequency Sunday daytimes, and a 20 minute frequency during evenings.

Semi Express routes via Small Heath Highway
Service 900 runs every 30 minutes between Birmingham & Coventry daily & hourly on evenings.

Service 900E runs every 30 minutes between Birmingham and Birmingham Airport Monday - Saturday daytimes & hourly on evenings, giving Service 900 an every 15 minute frequency between Birmingham & Birmingham Airport during Monday - Saturday daytimes and a 30 minute frequency during evenings and Sundays.

Service 957 runs every 15 minutes between Birmingham & Solihull Monday - Saturday daytimes, a 20 minute frequency on Sundays & half hourly on evenings.

Services 900/E & 957 together create a frequency of every 7/8 minutes Monday - Saturday daytimes and every 15 minutes evenings between Birmingham, Hay Mills, Yardley (Swan) & Sheldon.

Photos

 * BCT service 58
 * WMPTE ex Midland Red service 159
 * WMPTE ex Midland Red service 176
 * WMPTE service 58
 * WMPTE service 60
 * WMPTE service 176
 * WMT service 57
 * Your Bus service 57Y
 * WMT service 60
 * WMT service 900 'Timesaver' livery
 * TWM service 57
 * TWM service 58
 * TWM service 59
 * NXWM service 60
 * NXWM service 900
 * NXWM service 957