46 & 46A West Heath to Q.E. Hospital

Bus and Coach operations, new or changed services and timetables for Cheltenham and Gloucester Omnibus Company, and Thames Transit Limited, trading as Stagecoach West and Oxford Tube.
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TimBrown
Posts: 1339
Joined: 05:59 Monday 4th July 2016
Location: Worcester

46 & 46A West Heath to Q.E. Hospital

Post by TimBrown » 06:19 Tuesday 31st December 2024

Driving home from Selly Oak Limb Centre between Kings Norton and Rednal yesterday morning, Monday 30 December 2024, I was surprised to see a Stagecoach ADL E20 single decker in service coming down the road from The Man On The Moon pub. On checking the website I see it was either a 46 or 46 A from West Heath to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital as per timetable link below;

https://tiscon-maps-stagecoachbus.s3.am ... 240831.pdf

Which garage operates these services? Must be quite a lot of dead mileage.

Rich82
Posts: 166
Joined: 19:03 Sunday 3rd July 2016

Re: 46 & 46A West Heath to Q.E. Hospital

Post by Rich82 » 17:33 Tuesday 31st December 2024

TimBrown wrote:
06:19 Tuesday 31st December 2024
Driving home from Selly Oak Limb Centre between Kings Norton and Rednal yesterday morning, Monday 30 December 2024, I was surprised to see a Stagecoach ADL E20 single decker in service coming down the road from The Man On The Moon pub. On checking the website I see it was either a 46 or 46 A from West Heath to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital as per timetable link below;

https://tiscon-maps-stagecoachbus.s3.am ... 240831.pdf

Which garage operates these services? Must be quite a lot of dead mileage.
I believe it is Rugby Depot or Nuneaton but I pretty sure I heard it was Rugby

TimBrown
Posts: 1339
Joined: 05:59 Monday 4th July 2016
Location: Worcester

Re: 46 & 46A West Heath to Q.E. Hospital

Post by TimBrown » 07:07 Wednesday 1st January 2025

Thanks for the information Rich82.

According to Google maps the distance from Rugby to West Heath is between 41.6 and 43 miles depending on the route used, and distance from Nuneaton between 30 and 33 miles. The routes shown are not that straightforward so I am wondering if Stagecoach use an outstation and refuel at a designated local 'retail' garage to reduce the dead mileage? It also poses a question of where the drivers are based, if living in Rugby or Nuneaton, I guess a company car or van is used to transport them to and from an outstation each day. If not it will probably take over an hour in each direction with two or more buses before and after the actual carriage of passengers. Not a simple operation either way on the face of it!

JustinTyme
Posts: 123
Joined: 20:20 Monday 4th July 2016
Location: Solihull

Re: 46 & 46A West Heath to Q.E. Hospital

Post by JustinTyme » 16:30 Wednesday 1st January 2025

I can confirm that these services, along with three others in Birmingham and Solihull (41, 169 and A9), are worked by Rugby garage and have been so since 1 January 2023 when Stagecoach won the TfWM tenders for these services.

During that time buses have travelled dead every day from and back to Rugby garage. I understand that to start with, at least, most drivers on the services were agency drivers who were staying in hotels in Rugby. I do not know if that is still the case.

Rugby garage does not have an outstation. There were rumours that Stagecoach were looking for suitable premises in the Birmingham area, but so far nothing has happened.

Stagecoach Midlands operate a few other services on TfWM tender from Nuneaton garage. For the record these are 82/87/88 Coventry - Solihull and three Coventry city services (51, 60, 703, of which the last two have some double deck duties).

TimBrown
Posts: 1339
Joined: 05:59 Monday 4th July 2016
Location: Worcester

Re: 46 & 46A West Heath to Q.E. Hospital

Post by TimBrown » 06:33 Thursday 2nd January 2025

Thanks for the information JustinTyme.

That's a lot of dead mileage from Rugby!

The tendered work done by Nuneaton garage in Coventry is probably a better fit as the dead mileage much less at 10.5 miles each way.

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