| 11A / 11C | |
| Outer Circle | |
 |
|
| Route 11C seen in Acocks Green Village | |
| Service | |
|---|---|
| Start | Selly Oak |
| End | Selly Oak |
| Via | A4040 |
| Length | 27 miles (43 km) |
| Operation | |
| Operator(s) | National Express West Midlands |
| Vehicle(s) | Wright Eclipse Gemini |
The Birmingham Outer Circle is a roughly circular, 27 mile (43 km) bus route in Birmingham, England (a small section crosses into Sandwell). It follows the city's outer ring road, the A4040 with some small deviations.
Buses on the Outer Circle travel both clockwise (service 11C) and anti-clockwise (11A). Operated by National Express West Midlands usually with new Wrightbus Volvo double decker buses (Metrobuses are known to occasionally come onto the service). The number 11 is Europe's longest urban bus route and first came into existence as two routes in 1923: the no.10 ran from King's Heath to the King's Head (Hagley Road) via Cotteridge, and the no.11 from Six ways Erdington to Acocks Green and Moseley. The route was first operated as a complete circle on 26th April 1926. [1] The route passes such landmarks as Cadbury's in Bournville, one of the world's largest chocolate factories. The service is run commercially.
A full circuit takes 3hrs to complete, and the service carries 50,000 passengers each day[2].There are 280 bus stops on the route, 140 in each direction. The route serves 233 schools, colleges or universities, 69 leisure and community facilities, 40 pubs, 19 retail centres and 6 hospitals. It also links some 15 commercial centres.
Following de-regulation in 1986 several companies have competed on sections of this route. However only Falcon Travel and Serverse Travel have traversed the entire route.
The route is also traversed, annually, by a cavalcade of vintage buses.
Contents |
Route
(Clockwise from the A34, in the North of the city.)
- Perry Barr
- Witton (for Aston Villa)
- Erdington
- Ward End
- Stechford
- Yardley
- Swan Shopping Centre at South Yardley, where the route crosses the A45 road from Birmingham to the National Exhibition Centre and Birmingham International Airport
- Acocks Green (Passing Acocks Green Bus Garage)
- Hall Green (for Sarehole Mill)
- Billesley (Outskirts)
- Kings Heath
- Cotteridge
- Bournville (for Cadbury World)
- Selly Oak (for University of Birmingham and Selly Oak Hospital)
- Harborne
- Bearwood (in Sandwell)
- Winson Green (for Winson Green Prison and Winson Green Outer Circle stop on the Midland Metro)
- Handsworth
Other Operators
AM PM Travel now operates on the service every 20 minutes, operating as a rival company. Six re-furbished Leyland Olympian buses have been entered onto the new service fitted with Wi-Fi technology.
In pop culture
The Birmingham band Woodbine's eponymous 1999 album features the track "Outer Circle", a tribute to the bus route.
Comedian Frank Skinner wanted to add this bus route to BBC Radio 5's "Room 101" (radio series) when he appeared on the show's 27 August 1993 edition.
The tenth series of the reality show "Big Brother" shown on Channel 4 in the UK in 2009, featured a Bus Stop in the Big Brother House Garden. The Bus Stop advertised the 11A Outer Circle.
External links
- Kings Heath to Kings Heath in Five Minutes - a film of the complete outer circle bus route
- 11-11-11 An art project encouraging people to spend 11 hours on the bus on 11/11
References
- ^ D.Harvey, M. Hanson and P. Drake Outer Circle - Birmingham's No.11 Bus Route". Tempus, 2003
- ^ D.Harvey, M. Hanson and P. Drake Outer Circle - Birmingham's No.11 Bus Route". Tempus, 2003
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