Many people will be aware of the disruption when travelling through Acocks Green on the Number 11 bus. All Number 11s, travelling in both directions, now terminate in the village. Passengers have to get off and then wait for another bus to come down from the bus garage. This can sometimes be quite a long wait. Now the weather is getting cold, it makes the journey even more frustrating and miserable.

The service was ‘temporarily’ changed in 2021 to make the service ‘more efficient’ due to building work going on around Perry Barr and the Alexander Stadium in preparation for the Commonwealth Games. Before this you could, for example, catch a bus at the Swan Island all the way through to Kings Heath. Now such a journey is impossible without having to get off in Acocks Green village and wait for another bus to continue the journey. People have reported they have waited 40 minutes or more for the next bus to arrive.

As the Neighbourhood Forum we set up a petition to put pressure on the bus company, National Express, to reconsider the changes they made in 2021 and look at making the service more joined up once more to improve the service for passengers travelling through Acocks Green. Ged Hughes from the Neighbourhood Forum was invited onto Radio WM to highlight this problem and spoke about the issues on two occasions in the last couple of months. However, there has been no word yet from National Express about any plans to improve the service.

If you haven’t already signed the petition please do so. As of 3rd November we have 440 signatures, can we get it to 500? So many people need a reliable bus service to get around our city. This disruption is proving frustrating to so many passengers.

Please sign the petition HERE