2011 - Day Out 25: West Midlands

Date: Saturday 01 October 2011

It is the first day of October, but it doesn't feel like it, with leaves on the ground it looks as if it is autumn, but the temperature is 29 degrees celcius, and the sun is shining with no sign of cloud or wind, it looks like it is going to be a good day out, and today we will be having a local trip around the West Midlands.

As it is so hot, I decide not to put a coat on, so I walk from Wollaston in just a t-shirt, and make my way to Norton to meet up with Mr UKBuses. After about ten minutes, I end up on the junction of Shenstone Avenue and Westwood Avenue, and it is not long before Mr UKBuses makes an appearance. Mr UKBuses had purchased our DayTripper tickets yesterday, so I briskly pay my debts, and I receive my ticket, and just in time too, as from around the corner our first bus of the day arrives, a National Express West Midlands service 276. We board and we make our way through Stourbridge, passing the new interchange which is looking like it won't be too long before it will be finished, and along Red Hill where we alight outside The Labour In Vain public house, and it is just a short walk to Stourbridge Junction. One of Mr UKBuses aims today is to catch a #shinynewtrain (as Mr Phil Tonks puts it on Twitter), and we make our way to the Birmingham platform to see if one will turn up. On Platform 3 (The Kidderminster/Worcester Platform), there is a Class 150 waiting, and upon inspection of the departure board it turns out that the #dulloldtrain on Platform 3 is our first train of the day, bad luck Mr UKBUses. We make our way to the other platform, and we soon depart after boarding. So London Midland is running our first train, and we make our way through Cradley Heath and Rowley Regis, before alighting at Smethwick Galton Bridge.

We make our way to the lower platforms where we wait for our next train, there seems to be a hold up towards Birmingham on the line as there is a problem with one of the trains, this also seems to be holding up the Walsall train, the one that we could do with catching as we are on our way to Aston and this will go straight through Birmingham New Street, which means that we don't have to change. A bit of luck happens to be on our side as the trains seems to be swapping over on the track, as our Walsall train seems to have past the stricken train and is moving to the top line of the departure board. The Walsall train arrives and we board, this is a relatively new train on this line, but it is not a #shineynewtrain that Mr UKBuses wants to catch. The trains departs Galton Bridge, and we pass through Smethwick Rolfe Street, Birmingham New Street and Duddeston before we arrive at our destination, Aston. We make our way down to street level, and cross the main road outside the station, and Mr UKBuses leads the way, and after a 5 minute walk up Holbourn Hill, we arrive at Rotola headquarters, and also home to Central Connect. We take a few photographs from the top of the ramp, using the zoom on our cameras to get a few photo's of vehicles that are parked up in the depot. Photographs over, we decide to make our way back into Birmingham, and Mr UKBuses leads the way again, and we walk up one of the roads situated opposite Rotola HQ, and we soon arrive at a bus stop and as soon as we arrive, our bus arrives, National Express West Midlands Service 66, which takes us through the Aston streets back into the City Centre. We take a seat on the bus towards the back, and as we make ourselves comfortable, a young woman decides to make a phone call, which in the end will last for the entire journey. It seems that she doesn't need her mobile as the volume she is causing, the person on the end of the phone should be able to hear without their phone switched on.

We arrive in Birmingham, where we alight in Morris Way, around the corner from our first refreshment stop of the day, and the old faithful J D Wetherspoons. Before we whet our thirst, we take a few photo's of the buses in service along Morris Way. I leave Mr UKBuses as I need to get some cash, and spot the Tesco Express, so I go the cashpoint, and it is out of order, I inform Mr UKBuses that it is broken, and we go to our Wetherspoons, "The Square Peg", where as I have no cash on me it turns out to be Mr UKBuses round, and as it is hot we both decide to have a quenching pint of Pepsi, see picture right, and the ice makes it more refreshing and cools us down on this unusual hot October day. We get down our pints in record time, and Mr UKBuses recommends that we catch Arriva Midland's new service the X31 to take us to our next destination. We have to find Carrs Lane, and I know where it is, so we make our way there. As we arrive at the stop, we have near enough 30 minutes to wait, so we make our way down Birmingham High Street, where I find a Barclays to get some cash, I try and get out of buying the next round by informing Mr UKBuses that I have to use a Santander cash machine as it is my bank, but he doesn't fall for it and states that I can use any cash point - it was worth a try! Cash machine used, we make our way back to the bus stop, stopping off at WH Smiths along the way so that I can top up my phone. We still have to wait and a couple of National Express West Midlands X51's pull up which take a few passengers away from the stop, but even though there is more room, we both get pushed and shoved as people make their way past. Our Arriva Midland X31 is next to arrive, and we board ready for our journey to Willenhall. We make our way back through Aston, and through the Spaghetti Junction where we end up on the M6. We end up at Junction 10, and as soon as we are off the motorway, we alight at the nearest bus stop. Only a few minutes to wait and we decide to catch National Express West Midlands service 529, which takes us through Willenhall, past The Malthouse that we have come to like in Willenhall Town Centre, and onwards to Wolverhampton.

We arrive in the new bus station, I admit that I like the look of the building, but I just don't like the atmosphere, it seems to have been lost when the old bus station was torn down. We make our way to Lichfield Street, and as we make our way out of the station we notice that they already have the floor up insdie the station building to do some repair works. We decide that it is time for food, and we head into the second Wetherspoons of the day, "The Moon Under Water", and the place seems to be packed with people wearing orange shirts, Wolves must be playing at home today, the sign on the door gives it away, saying "no away supporters". We do find a table towards the back of the pub, and we opt for the ususal, Mr UKBuses has his BBQ Chicken Melt (without the cheese), myself the Beer and Burger, and I save a pound by having a coke with mine (I don't save a pound at the end of the day as Mr UKBuses stills owes it me from his change!). The food doesn't take long to arrive after we order it, and it goes down quickly, and washed down after with our drinks which have been served in plastic glasses, something that Mr UKBuses doesn't like. After our food has gone down, we make our way to St Georges and the Midland Metro terminus. As we arrive a tram is waiting to go, and we board "Sister Dora" and make our way through Bilston and West Bromwich before arriving at The Hawthorns. 

The Metro was my choice as I wanted to use all three modes of transport that we can use on the DayTripper tickets, and we make our way from the Metro platforms, accross to platform one to catch hopefully a #shinynewtrain back to Stourbridge. A train is soon due as we arrive on the platform, but it doesn't seem to be Mr UKBuses lucky day, as another Class 150 #dulloldtrain turns up. I persuade Mr UKBuses to wait another ten minutes for the next train, just as I did at Birmingham Snow Hill the other week in the hope that a #shinynewtrain would turn up, for me it worked, will the same principle work again today for Mr UKBuses, we will wait and see. As the station announcement blares out that the next Stourbridge train is on its way, Mr UKBuses has a smile on his face, as it seems that in the distance heading towards us, is a Class 172 (172338 to be exact) or in Mr Tonks' words a #shinynewtrain. We make our way towards the back of the train so that when we arrive at Stourbridge Junction, we can take a few steps and get some photgraphs before it leaves the station. As we boarded, we notice that the new train smell is still in the air, and we take our seats, which seem to be more comfortable and more spacious. As it is still record temperatures outside, we feel the benefit of the air conditioning cooling us down on our journey, the only thing that was not working today was the computerised announcements, and the guard seems to be doing these today. After a pleasant trip, we arrive back in Stourbridge Junction and we get our #shinynewtrain picture before the train carries on towards Great Malvern. With a thumbs up from Mr UKBuses after his maiden voyage on a Class 172, we make our way to Platform one, where we sample the Class 139, otherwise known as the Parry's People Mover, a journey which is not as smooth as the #shinynewtrain as we arrive back at Stourbridge Town. 

We have a bit of time before our next destination, so I take a few photographs of the construction works of the new interchange for the website, before making our way to Birmingham Street and Temporary Stand F to wait for our next bus to Kinver. We have just over ten minutes to wait and The Balmes (David and his wife Emma) make their way towards us. Mr UKBuses is spotted first and David says his hello's before greeting me. Our next bus turns up, Hanson's service 228, which we catch as we thought we would take advantage of the sun. It seems that everyone else has the same idea, including David and Emma, as the bus is packed before we even leave Stourbridge. We start our journey and as we make our way towads Wollaston a few more people board, as they also do in Wollaston itself. We make our way down to Stourton and a first is taking place as the bus stops at the stop just after Stourbridge Rugby Club, a stop that I have never before seen this service use. We make our way through Stourton and Dunsley and arrive soon after in Kinver. We make our way to the front of the bus and Mr UKBuses spots an Arriva bus, which is working on the 588 Service to Perton. Before we make our way to The Olde White Harte, we check the timetable and see that it is due out in a couple of minutes, so we decide to abort sunny Kinver and catch this service as far as Wombourne. After confirming with the driver that we can use our DayTripper tickets, we take a seat, and we head off. We pass through Potters Cross and up towards Enville. At this moment I'm having bad flashbacks as this is the start of the route of the Kinver 10K run that I ran in last week, luckily we head straight on and pass through Enville. The next part of the route is from Enville to Bobbington, and the Dennis Dart that we are on has to go through some small country lanes, I'm surprised that the bus didn't get stuck as some of the corners were very tight, there were no cars coming the other way so there wasn't a fight as there wouldn't be room for the both of them, there was nearly a tractor though.

After the tight lanes between Enville and Bobbington, the bus passes through Bobbington Village, where Mr UKBuses starts thinking as he has seen an old WMPTE bus stop, and he spends the next few minutes wondering what WMPTE route would have used this stop, as he is thinking I am also wonderiong whether the bus is on fire as I can smell burning, but it is Mr UKBuses still thinking. After passing through Bobbington, we nearly drive through Swindon, but the bus bypasses the village and we come through the back end of Wombourne past the new Sainsburys and Waggon and Horses before ending up on the 256 route into Wombourne village. We alight outside the cricket pitch, and Mr UKBuses is thirsty, so I tell him to walk to the corner and he spots The Vine, so we walk a bit further to the pub where we have a well deserved rest. We decide to sit outside in the sun, see picture right, after we order our drinks and spot an opportunity for a cheers photo, I am a bit wary as I use a chair to get the desired shot, the camera seems a bit wobbly, but the photograph is taken with no problems. Mr UKBuses wants one too, and so I have to set up his camera on a wobbly chair, and his camera has not got a flat bottom, so it makes the expereince more nerve shattering, after his photograph was taken, I can confirm that his camera was not harmed. We are refreshed, and Mr UKBuses spots The Old Bush right next door to The Vine, but we take the short walk back to the bus stop, and as we turn the corner, we can hear a bus, and it is a National Express West Midlands 256 that we have missed by seconds. We still decide to wait at the bus stop thinking that a National Express West Midlands service 255 bus will turn up and take us to Kingswinford. After waiting half an hour in the sun, we find out that the 255 does not use this stop as a National Express West Midlands 256 turns up, we wish that we popped next door to The Old Bush now. The 256 pulls up and we board and we head back to Stourbridge. After passing through Wall Heath, Kingswinford and Wordsley, we arrive back at the temporary stops along Birmingham Street. The sun and the heat has got to us, so we decide to call it a day and after walking up to Stand F, we have a little wait before National Express West Midlands service 276 pulls up to take us back home.

Another good day out was had, especially with the unusually hot October sun making a surprised appearance and with us going around in circles a couple of times with the places we visited in specific order. We will be out again in a few weeks further afield in Liverpool, but will the weather surprise us again this time with snow!