From July 22nd 2018, Lichfield will no longer be a hazy, far off dream for Brownhillians. Let’s go civilise the city, yeah? Image from my 365days journal.

I have some excellent news for those of us who like to visit Lan-di-dah Lichfield and prefer to use public transport – Following a social media campaign started by railway buff Simon Swain (John) of this parish, Councillor Steve Wade has been talking to local bus companies and has reported a positive result.

I’d like to thank Steve once again for his hard work on behalf of our community, and for chasing this up voluntarily – he really is a top bloke. Also thanks to Simon who really set the ball rolling with the idea on Facebook.

This change kicks off on the 22nd July 2018, and comes after years of a patchy service into Staffordshire to Ye Olde City due to cross county border funding issues – so USE THIS OR LOSE IT FOLKS.

I must say, it’ll be very handy for having the odd shandy at Lichfield’s fine range of Inns and taverns, like The Scales….

Steve Wade wrote:

Hiya Bob,

I hope you are well. Just wondered if you could put something on your blog so the good people of Brownhills can be informed of a new bus route to Lichfield.

As you know, I’ve been trying to get a bus service from Brownhills to Lichfield following a social media campaign on Facebook some months back. I’ve met with Arriva who were looking at potential routes and they also advised that Diamond had taken over their old route of a service that went to Lichfield but only via Walsall Wood.

I therefore contacted the person who helped me with the Number 56 service some years ago, Luke Gottard, the commercial manager at National Express about whether they would consider a potential route for Brownhills and they have informed me that they are to implement a change on their existing Number 10A  route from Walsall to Lichfield that will now cater for Brownhills residents as well. This will begin on the 22^nd July.

I have attached the new timetable for the route. The commercial manager asked if I could publicise/promote the new route as much I can as it is a service that will attract no subsidy so will be purely on the grounds that it will be a commercial success. With your blog being the biggest and best anywhere, I hope you would put it on if that’s ok.

There will be some changes to the 10 and 10A routes and I will forward these to you in due course.

All the best and many thanks,
Councillor Steve Wade

If you have any observations, please do comment here or mail me: BrownhillsBob at Googlemail dot com. Thanks.

The new timetable. Click link for a larger version.

The new timetable. Click link for a larger version.

The new timetable. Click link for a larger version.

The new timetable. Click link for a larger version.

The new timetable. Click link for a larger version.