Today is decision day for National Express West Midlands (NXWM) on how it responds to the objections to its proposed review of bus services through the Short Heath and New Invention areas of Willenhall.

At the time of going to press we were still awaiting a response from NXWM our objections in support of local bus users.

You will recall that NXWM had proposed to re route their 69 Wolverhampton to Walsall service through the Allens Rough and Beacon Estates by-passing The Square at New Invention and also missing out the loop into the Wood Lane Estate. They also planned to re-route their 41 Willenhall to Walsall service by-passing the Allens Rough and Beacon Estates and stopping the 28 Willenhall to Wolverhampton and the 40 Walsall to Wolverhampton services.

Talks earlier this week looked promising in that it looked almost certain that the 41 service would remain serving the Allens Rough and Beacon Estates and move from two buses an hour to three per hour. The future route of the 69 service was still uncertain in that NXWM were still deliberating on keeping the loop through the Wood Lane Estate but had decided not to re-route it through Allens Rough and the Beacon Estates but to maintain the link with the Square at New Invention.

Things were not so good for the future of the 28 and 40 services though as NXWM were saying that they were almost certain to withdraw them despite the strong representations from bus users supported by Willenhall’s Lib Dem Focus Teams.

All the services under review are commercial services which means the bus operators can virtually do what they want with them so long as they give the appropriate notice.

As a footnote to the above, the change in the Leadership of Walsall Council this week from the Tories to a Labour/Lib Dem Coalition should see a shift in attitude to one which looks toward promoting Public Transport. The new administration should be doing what we can within the current road network to ease the pinch points where buses get snarled up traffic.