Celebrating blog no 997 riding Britain’s second highest numbered bus route. As you do.

Tuesday 29th October 2024

Today marks an important milestone in BusAndTrainUser blogging. This is blog number 997.

And by a happy coincidence, ignoring Stagecoach’s contrived route number 1066 (Hastings to Tunbridge Wells), 997 just happens to be the highest number taken by any of Britain’s scheduled daily bus routes (numbers 998 and 999 are school day only routes).

So to mark this auspicious occasion I’ve taken a ride on route 997 in the West Midlands to explore its key characteristics for a milestone blog special.

And if, like me, as a youngster you got excited when the milometer in your parents’ car edged ever closer to a 000s number then please try and quell your understandable excited anticipation for next Tuesday’s post in three blog’s time, when the blog counter will similarly make for a round number display.

It promises to be a post that’ll go down in transport blogging history. Set your alarms for 06:00 on Tuesday 5th November to be the first to read and comment. It’s sure to go off with a Bonfire Night bang.

But for today, it’s all about number 997.

It’s one of National Express West Midlands’ ‘Platinum’ branded routes running between Birmingham’s city centre and Walsall bus station.

Instead of taking the direct route via the A34 and Great Barr, as routes 51 and X51 do, and which are overdue to become part of the ‘Sprint’ branded route, route 997 takes a more leisurely circuitous 17 mile route serving the residential areas of Old Oscot, Pheasey, Streetly and Aldridge lying to the east of the A34.

Ironically it approaches Walsall from the north, such is its wandering nature having set out 10 miles south east of the town on a direct trajectory.

Buses are on the road from 05:00 to 01:00 and run every 15 minutes between Birmingham and Pheasey with alternate journeys continuing half hourly through to Walsall.

Frequencies are halved in the evenings and on Sundays and a 20 minute frequency applies for the first hour or so of the day.

Enviro400 buses dating from 2015 used on the route have comfortable seating and good leg room, as a passenger on the back seat of the upper deck found.

The 997 performs many different functions with passengers making overlapping journeys throughout the route making for busy buses and a varied clientele. On the journey I made we stopped at most of the designated bus stops to either pick up or set down passengers, and in some cases I noticed just how close some bus stops are to each other in the West Midlands.

Leaving Birmingham’s busy Old Square/The Priory Queensway terminal point at the northern end of Corporation Street the bus passes Aston University before taking on an express type feel as it runs non-stop to Perry Barr.

By using underpasses on the A34 thus avoiding the congested junctions above as well as benefitting from many sections of bus lanes…

… you really get the feel of a bus that’s going somewhere.

Indeed on my journey (the 10:11 ex Old Square on a Friday morning earlier this month) we reached Perry Barr in 11 minutes compared to the scheduled 13.

The bus then turns right on to the A453 toward Royal Sutton Coldfield…

… before turning left immediately after passing under the M6 to begin its wanderings through Birmingham’s northern residential areas of Old Oscot and Pheasey.

The first residential area we pass through is noticeable for its greenery (albeit turning a rather autumnal shade of brown) as we head north along Aldridge Road…

… passing the Birmingham Metropolitan College James Watt Campus…

… and a little further on turning right into Dyas Road with its typical West Midlands suburban semi-detached houses and the local custom for cars to park on the pavement…

… then making a left turn into Oscott School Lane and seeing passengers waiting for a bus in the Birmingham direction confirming this is a popular route.

At the end of Oscott School Lane we turn left into Shady Lane which brings us back on to Aldridge Road, and after crossing the A4041 Queslett Road, we find more autumnal brown foliage developing with the road now called Beacon Road and more passengers waiting to head into Brimingham including two wheelchair users who I hope were able to catch the same bus.

It’s now time to leave Beacon Road and turn right into Colingwood Drive and the residential area of Pheasey, which is as far as alternate journeys on the 997 go.

It’s another area dominated by semis and cars taking advantage of pavements.

After Pheasey it’s a left turn on to the A4041, Queslett Road, and the first stretch of dual carriageway since leaving the A34…

… but only for a short way before we turn left on to another Aldridge Road which takes us on the west side of the residential area of Streetly….

… with some nice views across Aldridge Lodge Farm towards Walsall to the west.

After a left and right turn we’re back on to the B4154 where there’s houses only on the west side of the road…

… and we’re now arriving onto the RHS Britain in Bloom Gold Award Winner which is Aldridge Village itself.

Here we do a 360 degree run around the A454 village ‘ring road’ to head south through the shopping area…

… and then westwards along the rather narrow Red House Lane characterised by terraced houses and inconveniently parked cars in the road meaning our progress has to wait for eastbound cars to clear.

We then turn right back on to the B4154 (now called Bosty Lane) and more civilised parking in a special lane set aside especially for it together with more greenery.

We leave the B4154 at Rushall and turn left to head south down the A461 into Walsall…

… passing under the freight only rail tracks…

… and encounter traffic queuing at the Walsall ring road on the northern edge of the town’s central area.

It’s then a short journey to reach the town’s bus station where we set passengers down at 11:26, 12 minutes late, despite not being held up by traffic delays, but just the impact of stopping at most bus stops…

… before a change of driver and continuing to stand L where the journey back to Birmingham leaves.

And beneath the rather interesting circular roof windows the bus, with its new driver, heads back to Birmingham at 11:31, six minutes late.

Leaving the town’s rather large bus station behind.

The journey from Birmingham had taken an hour and fifteen minutes for the 17 mile journey (12 minutes longer than scheduled) at an average speed of 13.5 mph. It had been a respectably busy journey for mid morning and indicates the running time might be a little tight.

Back in Birmingham’s Old Square/The Priory Queensway terminus bus stop the screen on the bus stop shows the four departures per hour on Mondays to Saturdays but you’d need keen eyesight to spot the rather lightly printed code 2 in a circle indicating buses only extend as far as Pheasey on every other journey.

And it’s not quite true buses run “up to every 10 minutes” as promoted on bus rears. And I’m not sure who “Heather” is.

The 997 is a typical busy urban bus route as part of the West Midlands comprehensive network and a route fitting to mark this blog no 997.

Roger French

Blogging timetable: TThS

Comments on today’s blog are welcome but please keep them relevant to the blog topic, avoid personal insults and add your name (or an identifier). Thank you.

26 thoughts on “Celebrating blog no 997 riding Britain’s second highest numbered bus route. As you do.”

  1. l dint ow I’d this counts but there was a number 999 Marconi contract from Marshalswick, St. Albans to Borehamwood which was open to the public during the 1980s.

    John.n Crowhurst

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    1. I thought that particular Route 999 was New Greens to Hatfield Aerospace, although it may have started at Marshalswick. It was certainly an RP from Hatfield (HF) Garage, when I photo’ed it exiting from Catherine Street in St Albans early one morning. ISTR the route didn’t last for long.

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  3. Thanks for this report – nice to have a 997th anniversary celebration, and I look forward to next Tuesday!

    On-road car parking is a problem which will probably not be solved without providing good public transport for all the places that the car-owners need or want to go, at all the times they travel at present: the 997 is obviously doing its best. I gather from the Wikipedia article about Aldridge that it may be getting a rail station at some point, which may help; perhaps, like the London proposal for a shadow express bus for the Bakerloo extension, Aldridge (and other rail-less towns) could get an express bus in the mean-time.

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  4. Roger, with the exception of those buses that are ‘dedicated’ to current long-serving and former staff, and other ‘prominent’ figures in the area, the names on these buses are those of daughters or female relatives of bus drivers and garage staff.

    Stu – West Midlands Bus Users

    Liked by 1 person

  5. Surely, for the 1000th, you’re going to be heading to Exeter or Cheltenham to get the M?

    Suspect that the 10 min frequency might be a consequence of a post Covid dropping to 15 mins? NXWM had acute staff shortages in 2021/2.

    BW2

    Liked by 1 person

  6. Cardiff Bus 57/58 still say “Up to every 7/8 minutes” on their sides but in fact the Mon-Sat frequency is now every 10 minutes, with a couple of extras during the morning peak.

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  7. I don’t think the start of the route is “at the northern end of Corporation Street” as that goes northwards from Old Square for some distance. Maybe better to quote Stop PQ8 which is in Priory Queensway.

    Ian McNeil

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  9. The 997 is part of a family of routes including 934/5/6 that are all fairly recent innovations. Until 1965 there were no through buses at all from Birmingham to Aldridge. The closure of Aldridge station then finally persuaded the TCs to overrule Birmingham City Transport’s objections to allow Walsall Corporation and Harpers of Heath Hayes to start through services. Even in the heyday of West Midlands PTE many of the links that the 997 now covers didn’t exist. Post-millennium NXWM have gained a monopoly of the corridor and have finally welded the ex-Walsall, Birmingham and Midland Red networks to create a network that is doing rather well.

    Phil Drake

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  10. I lived in Birmingham a decade ago and I treated statements like ‘up to every 10 minutes’ with skepticism and got the impression that the minimum requirement was there were two journeys that were ten minutes apart (say in the rush hour). Sometimes it meant a lot more, but not necessarily.

    Jeff

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    1. Looking at the photo of the roadside in the blog there is a period of nearly an hour where there are departures every 10-mins in the morning peak (0746-0836) but the rest of the peak it is every 12-mins and every 15-mins off-peak, so technically correct but as you say slightly over-egging the pudding.

      Dwarfer

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  11. Not that long ago the Birmingham-Pheasey shorts used to be numbered 998, then became numbered to 997E, main reason is the turning loop on the Pheasey journeys is different from the full route, as southbound 997s from Walsall can’t turn right from the Queslett Road to access the Deers Leap area, so have to go the full length of the Queslett Road to Pheasey Church instead.

    Incidentally there was a 999 which ran from Walsall Bus Station to Manor Hospital

    SM

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  12. If the 1066 is the highest number, does the AD122 count as Britain’s longest bus route number? I can’t think of any other five digit route numbers. Although I fully expect now to be proven wrong.

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  13. Heather would be a member of the WM staff. Dozens, if not humdreds of their vehicles, are thus named.

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  14. Why do the routes from Birmingham to Walsall have such high numbers? It’s quite an oddity from an outsider.

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  15. Just out of interest, why have the remaining nxwm 9xx number series never been renumbered to an X??, as all others have?

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  16. Back in pre deregulation
    Wumpty days 9xx series were
    effectively peak services to
    Birmingham suburbs that really
    were limited stop. (Source 1979 Birmingham Area timetable).

    In 1983 a one week travelcard valid on ALL bus and RAIL services cost £5 (£16.52 in 2024), £16 for four weeks (£52.86 in 2024)

    Deregulation ushered in the
    Timesaver revolution with West
    Midlands Travel creating 900
    series limited stop routes operated by supurb coach seated Metrobuses.

    The 997 was created in 1990
    out of former Midland Red and
    Harper Brothers services as
    explained in Mark Fitchew’s excellent Timesaver Metrobus blog, which despite many attempts to paste a link here failed 😦

    Times have moved on with National Express adopting what I call “Cost Centrevisation” of routes.

    My perception of Platinum
    Enviros has mellowed over the
    years as they have been cascaded to more suitable routes, however a ride on a
    Timesaver Metrobus at Wythall
    Transport Museum running day made me realise how cumfy
    and bright Timesavers indeed
    all Metrobuses were compared
    to drab modern buses.

    Your experience on the 997 is reflected across the West Midlands where even the X1 from Coventry to Birmingham now calls at all stops so that parallel routes at each end could be reduced to meet the needs of accountants.

    Walsall’s hydrogen buses have begun reappearing in service with occasional forays on the 997. They have yet to join the graveyards of hydrogen buses around the world.

    https://cleantechnica.com/2024/10/24/how-many-hydrogen-transit-trial-failures-are-enough/amp/

    Birmingham really is car city as your blog implied. 997s were travelling at walking pace outbound on the dual carriageway last night while making my way back into the city.

    I’m pleased to say National Express West Midlands has moved on from the basket case it’s then Managing Director openly admitted he inherited, also stating the partnership with Centro was to prevent nationalisation.

    Transport for West Midlands has TWO members of staff who valiently produce all the publicity for the whole of the West Midlands. You may have noticed the hub diagrams for stops in an evolving City Centre are out of date. They were created with best of intentions but unsustainable using the manpower made available.

    NXWM has its faults but weekly bus ticket prices remain low compared to other areas considering the area covered and have become available on all buses. As a local rate payer the only positive from Franchising would be a brighter livery for buses as period tickets are now valid on all services again including the vestiges of competion on a few routes like the 16 and 50.

    In 2024 the all zone bus, tram and rail ticket costs £40 for a week, £141 for a month. A multitude of less flexible local tickets are available

    John Nicholas

    Written while travelling on Nottingham Tram where flat fare single is £3.30.

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  18. The useless TfWM are so poor that the bus stops don’t mention that this route and others are Limited stop or where the next stop is.

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  19. Not bus related, but I guess the 997 passed under the “Freight Only” railway that that a new Open Access Operator wants to start services to Wrexham via Walsall. I really hope that service gets the go ahead, would be a great addition to that area of the West Midlands and give them a direct service to London without having to go into Brum, not mentioning the benefits for Telford, Shrewsbury and Wrexham.

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  20. Looking at the picture of the timetable posted there are departures on a Mon-Fri at 0806/0816/0826/0836 so yes there is a period where the bus does actually run “up to every 10 minutes” although for one hour during the AM.

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    1. it is like the victoria underground line which runs at capacity of 34[?] Trains for 10 minutes!

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  21. At 20:17 & 20:27 Tonight Fifty Years Ago 21 people were murdered by the Irish Republican Army & 182 others injured in Brum City Centre at the Mulberry Bush & Tavern in The Town Pubs when Two Bombs Expolded after a warning was sent to Birmingham Post & Mail a short time earlier. 

    I was SIX at the time & that evening was with my parents in the City Centre in the BULL RING BUS STATION 

    A Third Bomb failed to explode on Hagley Road the route we were taking home.

    Today is a day of thought , remembrance & hope for Brum.

    The Victims of The Brum Pub Bombings must NEVER be forgotten.

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