130 West Midlands bus services to run on Boxing Day
More than 130 bus services will run in the West Midlands on Boxing Day. Bus and tram services will begin arriving in city centres as early as 8am so shop staff can get in and shoppers can get to the sales, transport authority Centro says.
National Express will run Boxing Day buses on more than 80 key routes across the region. This will be boosted by Centro using public money to provide 49 further services, in those places where buses would otherwise not run because their private operators cannot make a profit.
On December 27, 28 and New Year's Eve most buses will run a Saturday service.
Meanwhile, the Midland Metro will operate a 15-min-ute service between 8.30am and 6pm on Boxing Day.
A normal service will run between December 27 and New Year's Eve. New Year's Day will see most buses, trains and trams operate on a Sunday service basis.
Trains will have a two-day scheduled break on Christmas Day and Boxing Day. A reduced service will operate on local routes via Birmingham New Street on December 27 and 28.
Councillor John McNicholas, chairman of Centro, said: "With the winter sales proving extremely popular among shoppers, it is particularly pleasing that so many services will be operating on Boxing Day, one of the busiest shopping days of the year."
Centro started paying for Boxing Day bus services on key routes nine years ago. Before that there had been no services for more than two decades.
Bosses say the move has proved popular and passenger numbers are now so high that National Express West Midlands operates many of the routes on a commercial basis without the need for subsidy.
Full details of public transport services over the entire festive period – incl-uding Boxing Day timetables – are available at the website www.networkwestmidlands.com/xmas
There will be disruption on the rail network between the West Midlands and London this weekend. This is because engineering work will be taking place on the West Coast Main Line.
