On Saturday 14th, I travelled with another seasoned bus fellow on the NXWM 144A, along with a few other routes out of Bromsgrove. Firstly; the passenger numbers out to Longbridge and back into Bromsgrove appeared to be really good, especially for a Saturday morning. The interesting part is already people have discovered NXWM’s daysaver tickets (unless they’ve already used it previously within Brum) and it appeared that there was a good split between concessionary passes and day saver tickets. As to be expected (and noted here previously) with something new, a few passengers were asking the driver how it all worked, and to be fair…he was very helpful explaining about where to get on or off the stops and tickets etc.
Overheard conversations (not only on 144A, but on others we ventured on in the area) seem to be about passengers hoping folk use the 144A service, because naturally thoughts are now starting to focus on what will happen after this six month period ends. There is a concern that after all the national media coverage of the split has passed, the route will eventually disappear. Another thing which is evident was how much anger there is about First. I overheard them mentioned a few times but in quite derogatory terms!
The one thing we noticed was a ‘Salt Road’ 144 departing the Bus Station bound for Catshill, with no passengers on board. We noticed everyone get off at the Bus Station, with a few going onto the 144A. But, of all my years using the 144 on and off, I have never seen this. This could be a one off, and more regular users of the 144 and 144A will be able to notice any trends emerging. But stranger things have happened and six months is a long time.
Needless to say we will return to this…
The general state of Bromsgrove Bus Station, left a lot to be desired. The large timetable display had nothing regarding connections to/from the Railway Station - not even an advertisement for it or the WOD (which seems to have very few passengers on it, when observing). So the Kev’s journey’s onwards from the bus station to the railway station are to ‘Bromsgrove’, or again…is this a one off? Stand 1 had no 144 or 144A identifiers on the WCC bus stop flag (infact it still said it was Stand 2 on the flag!). The display case perspex had all kinds of half scrapped off adverts, graffiti and looked genuinely unappealing to anyone. So whilst it had an updated timetable, this was far from user friendly and wasn’t the easiest to read. Stand 3 didn’t even have a bus stop flag! But this wasn’t all. Beyond Catshill along the 144A route there were ‘Salt Road’ flags with stickers over ‘Birmingham’. So a route which has been curtailed is still getting publicised in Rubery for instance, before you cross the imaginary line into TfWM territory (although a lot of the TfWM flags still have a 144 route identifier). The bus stop display cases do carry information about the 144A…but was taped onto the display, instead of getting placed in the case. Which will undoubtedly get ripped off. This doesn’t look good and not a way of enticing new passengers onto the bus - especially at a time of considerable change to the services.
Another thing I noticed on several occasions recently was of how deserted Bromsgrove Bus Station is currently, so even though there is still a considerable amount of routes departing or going through the town…there doesn’t seem to be the buzz around the place, especially in comparison to the 1980s and 1990s when Midland Red West dominated. Maybe Bromsgrove (like everywhere else), is still finding it hard to come out of Covid and haven’t fully re-embraced public transport yet.
Who knows?