City Buses in Birmingham by canttaketheskyfromme
Birmingham’s bus network is overseen by Centro but operated by a myriad of companies. The vast majority of services, particularly in the city centre, are operated by Travel West Midlands. The fares are flat, , a "short hop" is 80p, everything else within the West Midlands is £1.20.Note that TWM owns most bus stops so if you try to flag down a non TWM bus at a TWM stop it will most likely ignore you. TWM bus stops have blue and red shelters or posts, whereas Centro ones (where any bus can stop) are green and yellow. The rules are not always followed, it can get confuding!
There is no central bus station for urban services in Birmingham. Buses now leave from several grouping of stops that group together roughly by the direction they go in.
Most services heading to the SOUTH leave from either Smallbrook Queensway or from Moor Street, behind the Pavilions shopping centre. Services heading NORTH and EAST tend to leave from Snow Hill Queensway/Police Offices, whilst services heading NORTH and WEST tend to leave from Colmore Row. There is no hard and fast ruler,so pick up the bus route map from the Centro office in New Street Stn. Some destinations:
From Colmore Row:
Halesowen
Wolverhampton
Stourbridge
Merry Hill
Harborne
Quinton
Bearwood
Edgbaston
From Smallbrook Queensway:
Bromsgrove
Redditch
Rubery
Rednal
Northfield
Longbridge
Selly Oak/Uni Birmingham
From Moor Street:
Solihull
Druids Heath
Moseley
Chemsley Wood
From Snow Hill:
Coventry
MegaBus to London
Walsall
Lichfield
Erdington
Sutton Coldfield
If you are going to be using the buses a lot then a pass will be worth it. You can geteither Centro passes which allow the use of all buses (and trains and metro too, for a supplement) or TWM passes that just allow use of TWM buses. You can get cards valid for 7, 14 or 28 days. You need a passport photo to obtain your first card. The easiest place to get cards is at the Travel Shop on the Moor Street level (very bottom floor).
Centro's website has a journey planner for bus, train and metro journeys.
