West Midlands bus route 16

The 16 and 16A are bus routes in the West Midlands, United Kingdom.

Service 16 links Birmingham with Hamstead and peak hour service 16A links Birmingham to Scott Arms, Great Barr.

History

  • Pre-deregulation - Route 16 was originally part of Birmingham City Transport's Services 15/16 cross-city network linking Hamstead with Yardley (Whittington Oval) via Hob Moor Road. Since 1986 the Hob Moor Road section of route has been opertaed by Travel West Midlands' Services 13/17/.
  • 22 June 2008 - Travel Express withdraw operations on this service.
  • 7 May 2008 - Diamond Bus slightly reduce the overall frequency on service 16 and withdraw the evening service.
  • 27 April 2008 - Diamond Bus night service 16N is withdrawn.
  • December 2007 - National Express West Midlands Scania OmniLink start appearing on the route. These will replace the MCW Metrobus and Volvo B7TL Alexander ALX400 16 branded vehicles.
  • 30 July 2006 - Diamond Bus introduce an evening and Sunday service.

Present

Service 16 currently serves Birmingham, Hockley, Handsworth Wood and Hamstead whilst service 16A does not serve Hamstead but goes off to serve Scott Arms, Great Barr. National Express West Midlands currently runs every 6–10 minutes daytime Monday - Saturday, every 20 minutes evenings and 12 minutes Sunday. The service is usually run by Scania OmniLink (two of which are branded for the 16), however, when needed the service will usually experience MCW Metrobuses, Enviro400s or Volvo B7TL Alexander ALX400s on it. Very rarely will an appearance by Volvo B10Bs be seen. Both services are run commercially.

Service 16 also experiences some competition from Diamond Bus who run every 7–9 minutes during the day and 8 minutes on Sundays with later starting and earlier finishing times. There is no longer an evening service or late night service run by Diamond or National Express West Midlands.

National Express West Midlands & Central Connect currently charge a maximum fare of ÂĢ1.50 on both services.

Future

  • From 5 March 2009 GRS Travel will operate a regular service on route 16A 7 days a week