Birmingham bus routes 2 & 3

Yardley Wood Road
Routes
2Birmingham - Warstock / Maypole
3Birmingham - Yardley Wood / Shirley / Shirley Green
Via:Sparkbrook, Wake Green, Billesley
Operation
Operator(s):National Express West Midlands
Route map
Birmingham City Centre
Sparkbrook
Stoney Lane (3)
Sparkhill (2)
Wake Green
Billesley
Yardly Wd, Garage
Trittiford Road
Warstock (2E eve)
Yardley Wood (3E eve)
Solihull Lodge
Shirley Station
Highter's Heath
Shirley (3E Sun terminates)
Maypole (2 term)
Shirley Green (3 term)

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.[1]

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 6 and 37).

Service 2 then runs via Yardley Wood (garage), Warstock and Solihull Lodge to the Maypole, whilst service 3 runs via Yardley Wood, Shirley Station and Shirley to Shirley Green, both services therefore operating partly within the borough of Solihull.[1]

The 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.

History of the routes

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.[2]

No changes to service 24 were made by WMPTE. In October 1987 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 as the service additionally ran through to the Maypole via the end of Yardley Wood Road and Maypole Lane. Originally, and under the Travel Your Bus branding, these didn't serve Warstock, however for a while in the mid 1990s they were diverted via Greenford Road.

In 2000 the 2Y service was discontinued, however by then all Mon-Sat daytime journeys of service 2 had 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).[3]

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 October 1987 West Midlands Travel renumbered service 38 to service 12, then in 1989 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 Shirley Station with The Baldwin, all daytime services were extended instead 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 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).

In October 2011 the Solihull route was withdrawn and the Acocks Green route renumbered to service 3.

A final change on 28 April 2014 saw the withdrawel of the Acocks Green link with the route instead serving the full length of Shirley 'High Street' (Stratford Road) to terminate at the Green Business Park. On Sundays daytime journeys continue to terminate at the northern end of Shirley at the junction of Haslucks Green Road and Stratford Road.

Current Route

2 - NXWM

3 - NXWM

References

  1. 1 2 http://jp.networkwestmidlands.com/centro/XSLT_SELTT_REQUEST?sessionID=0&requestID=0&language=en&anySigWhenPerfectNoOtherMatches=1&locationServerActive=1&stateless=1&locationInfoActive=1&coordListOutputFormat=string&coordOutputFormatTail=0&privateTransport=1&privateTransport=2&hideBannerInfo=1&convertStopsPTKernel2LocationServer=1&convertAddressesITKernel2LocationServer=1&convertCoord2LocationServer=1&convertCrossingsITKernel2LocationServer=1&convertPOIsITKernel2LocationServer=1&w_regPrefAl=6&coordOutputFormat=MRCV&mergeDir=1&deleteAllLines=1&selTTODVActice=1&selTTLineByNameActice=1&selTTAllOperators=1&mergeOpName=1&useAllStops=1&outputFormat=0&excludedMeans=checkbox&exclMOT_0=1&exclMOT_4=1&lineName=&type_seltt=any&typeInfo_seltt=invalid&useHouseNumberList_seltt=1&nameState_seltt=empty&nameInfo_seltt=invalid&itdLPxx_nameText_seltt=City%2C+Town%2C+Postcode%2C+Address%2C+Station%2C+Airport+or+Place+of+Interest&nameDefaultText_seltt=City%2C+Town%2C+Postcode%2C+Address%2C+Station%2C+Airport+or+Place+of+Interest&name_seltt=wake+green&anyObjFilter_seltt=0&opName=
  2. ↑ A transport history of Yardley, by P L Hardy Acocks Green History Society, 1972
  3. ↑ Keeley, Malcolm. Birmingham Buses: Route by Route 1925-1975. p. Route 13. ISBN 978-0711036338.

External links

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