Solihull bus routes 82, 87 & 188 are a group of bus services operating through the rural areas of Solihull Borough (also known as the Meriden Gap) between the town of Solihull and the city of Coventry.
Service 82 runs between Solihull Station and Coventry via Hampton-in-Arden and Meriden, with typical journey times of 50-55 minutes.
Service 87 runs between Solihull Station and Coventry via Knowle, Balsall Common, Burton Green and Cannon Park with a typical journey time of 60-65 minutes.
Service 188 runs between Solihull Station and Coventry via Knowle, Chadwick End (plus Fen End JLR at peak times), Balsall Common, Berkswell and Tile Hill with a typical journey time of 70-75 minutes.
The services each run hourly Monday to Saturday daytimes and are operated under contract to TfWM by Stagecoach Midland Red South.
History[]
What became the rural areas of Solihull Borough (part of Meriden District prior to 1974) were originally primarily served by the Midland Red twice an hour direct Birmingham-Meriden-Coventry service 159, a version of which had commenced as early as 1914, and an indirect Birmingham-Coventry service numbered 158 via Solihull, Hampton-in-Arden and Balsall Common, which had commenced in 1933, though over time only the Solihull to Hampton core section had retained an hourly frequency, plus Coventry Corporation Transport hourly service 12 to Burton Green. Five additional services which were always or ended up irregular were the 167 Birmingham-Airport-Hampton-Balsall Common-Burton Green-Kenilworth-Leamington along with supplementary 537 Solihull-Hampton to Leamington, the 547 Solihull-Knowle-Temple Balsall-Beausale-Warwick, the certain days only 186 Solihull-Knowle-Barston, and finally Coventry Corporation Transport service 14 (formerly 19) to the small village of Berkswell, just north of Balsall Common. Ahead of the WMPTE takeover of Midland Red services within the new West Midlands County, the 158 was truncated to Birmingham to Hampton (with the core Solihull-Hampton section on a reduced 2 hour frequency), whilst the Balsall Common to Coventry section become the 569 (and additionally extended to Meriden).
This part of the West Midlands county was unique in that, as an efficiency measure, WMPTE didn't directly provide all bus services between 1974 and 1986. From December 1973 Midland Red retained only the 537 Balsall Common to Leamington section, and whilst WMPTE did directly take on the 159, 158 and 569 (and from April 1974 Coventry services 12 & 14 which were soon renumbered 28 & 29), the 547 was discontinued (the 186 had already been withdrawn in April 1972) and the 167 numbered retired (one journey each way a day retained but running as a 537) with instead a Solihull to Balsall Common and Meridan service via the small village of Barston running a handful of times a day, or via the hamlet of Temple Balsall once a day, contracted to be run on behalf of the PTE initially to Shirley's Garage of Meriden Ltd, and then following a fleet acquisition to Mid Warwickshire Motors.
In 1978, Mid Warwickshire Motors (MWM) additionally took on the 158 with the occasional Birmingham journeys discontinued but the Hampton to Balsall Common section reinstated additionally via Meriden and Berkswell or as service 155 doubling back from Hampton via Barston. At the same time the other two services were numbered 156 & 157, whilst the 569 was combined with the ex-Coventry Burton Green service as routes 42-45 (depending on routing in Cannon Park and the University of Warwickshire), and the occasional Berkswell service renumbered 46. Within a couple of years the MWM services were renumbered 555-558 (matching Midland Red's Warwickshire area route numbering), and then again in around 1982 to H55-H58, whilst the Coventry to Balsall Common service became the 24/34/44 (depending on routing in Tile Hill).
WMPTE service 194A (the A variant operated just once a day bypassing Meridan)
In April 1983, MWM ceased trading with WMPTE stepping in to operate the H55-H58, and then in April 1984 these were combined with the 24/34/44 to create the hourly combined 192/193/194 Solihull to Coventry via Hampton, Meriden and Balsall Common services, and the 196/197 Solihull to Balsall Common via Knowle and Barston / Temple Balsall. Whilst the former group was operated by WMPTE using two buses from Coventry and one from Acocks Green, the latter pair were soon contracted to MWM's successor Heart of England Services (HES), until later that year when HES went bankrupt resulting once again in direct operation by WMPTE. HES sister company Heart of England Tours (HET) responded though in spring 1985 stating that it could operate both sets of routes without subsidy, upon which the Department of Transport withdrew the PTE’s licence. The Solihull - Balsall Common services commenced by HET were now numbered HE42 & HE37 via Meriden and HE43 & HE38 via Knowle, and whilst the HE42 & 43 continued to Coventry, the HE37 & 38 headed to Kenilworth.
HES 197 
HET HE37 
MR Coaches 193
However, in early 1986 HET folded, therefore the PTE stepped in for a third time by again recommencing the 192/193/194 & 196/197 but only for a few months as in June, as a test for competitive tendering of non-commercial routes ahead of deregulation in the autumn, a short term contract for operation of the routes was won by Midland Red Coaches. As their fleet consisted, naturally enough, only of coaches, second-hand double decker Daimler Fleetlines were purchased specifically to operate the 192/193/194. When the routes were re-tendered for deregulation, it was WMPTE operational successor West Midlands Travel that won the 192/193/194 and Midland Red West who won the 196/197. The one consistency throughout the period of WMPTE operation was service 159 which continued more or less unchanged throughout, only being renumbered to 900 in 1985.
In a reversal of the typical situation, after the variability of the preceding 12 years, services 192/193/194 remainded essentially unchanged in the 23 years after deregulation (whilst there were inevitably a few changes in this time, these were all minor). Initially the routes were run out of what was now TWM's Coventry garage with the primary service being the 193 via (between Balsall Common and Tile Hill) Burton Green with just a couple of 194 journeys instead via Carol Green, and a few Mon-Fri morning toward Coventry and late afternoon from Coventry journeys running as 192 via Eastcotes (road) in Tile Hile. In 1992 the 193 journeys were discontinued in favour of the 192, whilst the former Coventry service 46 to Berkswell, since 1989 running once a day as service 42, was finally withdrawn (leaving a handful of residents of Back Lane [Four Oaks] and Benton Green Lane [Reeves Green] with a longer walk to a bus stop). In October 1994 WMT subsidiary Your Bus took on the contract for the 192 & 194 before in 1998 the now Travel Your Bus introduced through running from Birmingham (including a briefly reintroduced 193 additionally via the University of Warwicks) although this was cut back to Acocks Green from February 2001 when Travel West Midlands themselves began operating the service out of their Acocks Green garage. A couple of years later the services returned to commencing from Solihull with TWM using two vehicles on a 70 minute (rather than three vehicles on an hourly) headway, and this is how the services remained for the next nearly 8 years until in January 2009 the services were returned to an hourly frequency and renumbered 19W (most Mon-Fri journeys)/19X, regardless of whether routed via Burton Green or Carol Green, as well as running via Canley (19W journeys via Westwood Business Park) rather than Tile Hill in Coventry and operated by National Express Coventry (the 19 itself had previously existed, and continued, as a local City to Canley service).
MRW 197 
Caves Bus 196 
Travel DeCourcey 197
The 19W/19X only lasted 15 months however when to start with it was directly replaced as NXC service 82 for 3 months until today's more direct Solihull-Coventry 82 service was introduced, initially operated by Central Connect Buses, running out to Hampton and Meriden then directly on to Coventry mirroring the 900 (and by adopting the turn toward Coventry on Birmingham Road at Oak Lane, allowing the 900 to save time by accessing the eastbound A45 directly at Showell Lane, over a decade after the right turn across the bypass was closed and the double run of the 900 to Oak Lane introduced), along with NX Coventry service 81 Coventry to Balsall Common. A factor in discontinuing the 19W/19X version of the 82 was that Solihull to Balsall Common had arguably become over bused since January 2009 with the introduction of the hourly NXWM operated S2A/S2C, running additionally via Dorridge (including a second journey an hour from Solihull terminating there as an S2), replacing the irregular 197 (the A and C suffixes representing that alternate journeys from Chadwick End now travelled direct to Balsall Common, returning via Temple Balsall [S2A], with remaining journeys doing the reverse). In fact the 196/197 had always been a single bus operation outside of Mon-Fri peaks pre-c2000 with Caves Buses taking over from Midland Red West in Oct 1988 before Tame Valley Travel were award the tender in 1990. WMT then operated the services for a brief period following their 1992 takeover of Tame Valley until Travel DeCourcey were awarded the tender in 1993. At the same time the 196 became an outbound service only (as well as operating on certain days of the week only) with residents boarding in Barston able to stay on the bus in Balsall Common as it returned to Solihull via Chadwick End as a 197. In 1996 or 1997 Caves Buses again won the contract to operate the services until they ceased trading in June 1999. Around this time all journeys began operating as 197 with residents of Barston village and the hamlet of Eastcote instead advised to use the new Centro overseen Taxibus service. First Zaks Buses then Claribels and finally Central Buses operated the 197 during the 2000s. The July 2010 withdrawal of the short lived original version of the 82 also left Berkswell village in the hands of the now (since 2004) rebranded Heart of England Taxibus service, whilst National Express also withdraw from the S2A/C at the same time with Central Connect's successor company Blue Diamond instead taking on the contract using 'Signature' branded buses, before NX also withdrew from the 81 early in 2012, this being taken on by Johnson's of Henley and renumbered 87 with all journeys now via Burton Green (and Cannon Park in Coventry).
Central Connect 82 
HoE Taxibus 
NXC 81
Burton Green is in fact just within Warwickshire and as a result had since deregulation (or shortly after?) also been served by WarksCC tendered service K4 to Kenilworth. For much of the 00s the service ran as circular services 540/541 additionally via the University of Warks. Upon the February 2012 withdrawal of the 81 including all occasional journeys via Carol Green, the 540 was rerouted away from its Cannon Park Shopping Centre terminus, instead via Carol Green to Balsall Common, and then via Temple Balsall and Knowle to Solihull, and renumbered 233. This meant that when, in June 2013 the S2A/C was replaced by service 88, and with the renumbered route (still operated by Diamond Bus) taking the direct route between Chadwick End and Balsall Common, Temple Balsall was, in addition to the Heart of England Taxibus, still served by a fixed time service, all be it the very occasional, 'Flexibus' (A&M Group) operated 233. As well as jointly funding that service, Centro had 5 months previously also reintroduced a fixed time service to Barston and Berkswell with the WMSNT operated service 83 running one journey into Solihull and one out a couple of hours later on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
April 2015 saw the introduction for the first time of a second bus an hour between Coventry and Solihull with the extension of the 87 direct via Temple Balsall (reintroducing a regular bus service to the hamlet), and the only real change to any of the 82, 87 & 88 in the nearly 10 years that followed was the introduction of Mon-Fri peak time 87A & 88A variants additionally via the Jaguar Land Rover Fen End site from February 2019 (with Johnsons taking over from Diamond on the 82 and 88 at the same time). This was a small diversion for the 88 but involved the 87A serving Fen End Road rather than Balsall Street. Other changes saw the 900 renumbered X1 in December 2016, and just before that in September 2016 the occasional 83 and the HoE Taxibus service were replaced by the Mon-Fri 2/3 times a day 89 operated by iGo and running Solihull, Meriden, Berkswell, Balsall Common, Coventry with 'Roaming Zones' in Meriden and Balsall Common where on request (or by pre-booking a pick up) the minibus would serve any street in these two villages (Barston in comparison being left without a public transport service of any kind). In April 2021 the app based West Midlands Bus On Demand was launched. For 18 months this overlapped with a continuation of the 89 (operated by Diamond since April 2019) but eventually, at end of 2022, the 89 was withdrawn. Whilst the On Demand service covers the residential streets of Balsall Common and Meriden along with Berkswell and Carol Green, for some reason the operating area does not (at least officially) cover Barston and Eastcote. August 2022 also saw a Midland Red descended company return to the area for the first time (with the exception of 1986-88) since the demise of service 537 around 1980 when Midland Red South won the contract to operate the 82, 87 & 88.
A final change occurred in January 2025 when the 87A was discontinued and the 88/88A was replaced by the 188, additionally via Dorridge, then extended from Balsall Common (for a few weeks u-turning at the former Hallmeadow Road terminus and via Burton Green, but then from February...) via Berkswell, reinstating a scheduled bus service to the village after a gap of just over 2 years, and Tile Hill to Coventry.
External links[]
Other Photos[]
- Midland Red service 167 at Digbeth depot
- Coventry Corporation Transport route 14
- Coventry CT service 19 timetable 1967 (to 'the delightful Warwickshire Countryside' surrounding Berkswell)
- Midland Red service 167 flanked by ex-BCT and Stratford Blue buses
- Shirley's of Meriden coach
- Some late 70s / early 80s MWM services were operated by coaches of sister company HET
- HES fleetnamed bus c1983 (on route HE73 Sutton-Curdworth-Coleshill)
- MRW service 196/197 timetable 1987 (including school journey 198)
- Centro Solihull map 1990 (showing route of the 196 & 197)
- TWM (Coventry) service 192/193/194 timetable 1989
- WMT map 1987 (showing route of the 192/193/194)
- WMT 196
- TYB service 192Y/193Y/194Y timetable 1998
- NXC 19X - The X variant extended from Canley to Solihull but not via Westwood Business Park (hence it mostly operated on Saturdays)
- iGo 89 timetable 2017
- Midland Red (South) Ltd operator's legal name on side of modern Stagecoach Midlands bus
