Following a thorough review, the City Council’s Cabinet Member for Transportation & Street Services has now authorised, that the bus lanes on the Tyburn Road, between Kingsbury Road and Hawkesyard Road, should not be brought back into operation. Some minor works will be required along the route in the coming months including the removal of the redundant road signs, and provision of facilities for cyclists such as advanced stop lines. The green bus lane surface will remain for the time being. Further details will be available from this webpage in due course.

History of the Scheme Bus lanes were introduced on Tyburn Road in 1999 as part of the Route 67 Bus Showcase scheme with the aim of improving bus journey times and punctuality on the route. Since July 2004 the bus lanes on the section between Kingsbury Road and Hawkesyard Road have been taken out of operation. This was to accommodate the increase in traffic while work was being carried out on the M6. During and after the M6 works, some car users reported better journey times without the bus lanes. This has led to a review of the longer term use of this route and whether any priority lanes should be provided.

Consultation To help decide the future of the Tyburn Road bus lanes, Birmingham City Council consulted with the public, bus passengers, bus operators and stakeholders to gain their views. The options were: reinstate bus lane for buses, cycles, motorcycles and taxis, 7am-7pm, Monday to Saturday; reinstate bus lane for buses, cycles, motorcycles and taxis, peak hours only, Monday to Saturday; reinstate bus lane for buses and HGVs, cycles, motorcycles and taxis, 7am-7pm, Monday to Saturday; reinstate bus lane for buses and HGVs, cycles, motorcycles and taxis, peak hours only, Monday to Saturday; and permanent removal of the bus lanes. In total, 2248 responses to the consultation questionnaire were received, in either leaflet form or via the internet. The most popular single option was permanent removal of the bus lane with 1165 or 51% of respondents preferring this option as shown in the graph below.

Monitoring Detailed monitoring of the route found that: Without the bus lanes, the corridor is carrying more vehicles (up to 60% during the evening peak); Journey times are quicker than with the bus lane (for example, car journey times from Chester Road to Salford Circus are 3-4 minutes faster in the morning peak); and End-to-end (city centre to Castle Vale) bus journey times have improved despite the bus lane being suspended.