Moving to Bromsgrove and now no transport link

FROM April 17 I will be moving from Bromsgrove to Rubery with my two sons.

I work nights at a care home in Bromsgrove and my son works in Kidderminster.

We both need to rely on the 144 to get to work then home.

Why stop at Catshill? Surely they can carry on to the boundary In Rubery if they don’t want to go further.

How are myself and my son supposed to get to work and back without that bus service?

I can’t afford to lose my job as I get a good wage for what I do.

My new place is a result of my landlord selling so don’t want to lose my new home either.

The least they can do is to go to Rubery where the boundary ends as I am sure there are plenty of people.

Linda and Ben Davies

How do I get back from work?

I GET the 144 home to Droitwich from Longbridge island.

How do I get home now from work?

It means I would have to walk to the railway station and get the train and it’s a long walk.

Please don’t take the service off.

Debbie Hyslop

Could Kev’s provide us a service?

REGARDING the axing of the 144 bus to Birmingham – it’s absurd.

Now we are living with Covid, people are being asked to return to the workplace (a city centre university in my case). The bus service will be relied on.

Why axe a service based on old data?

Might Kev’s buses be interested in supplying the service?

Susan O’Sullivan

Use smaller buses and reduce frequency

I THOUGHT the 144 was a public service.

Nobody has mentioned the service was tinkered with a while back by providing a service from Worcester to Bromsgrove.

Then passengers having to wait for a later 144 bus to take them to Birmingham.

Could they not use smaller buses and keep two buses an hour all the way Worcester to Birmingham and return.

This decision also impacts on seniors who have a bus pass for free travel and will for many mean they can no longer afford to go to Birmingham.

Totally illogical and deprivation of a main public service route.

Sue Cook

Disabled daughter relies on 144

MY DISABLED daughter’s career relies on this bus to get to work.

Without her I can’t go to work which will result in the NHS loosing a highly qualified senior nurse at a time when it can least afford too.

I would also like to add that many children make this journey to and from school.

I am sure I am not the only person whose ability to get to work will be affected by this change.

I understand about not going as far as Birmingham as it is out of Worcestershire but Rubery is in Worcestershire and should still be served by the 144.

Catherine Rutherford

Bus was my only means of getting to work

AS I live in Northfield, the 144 was the only way for me to get to work on the high street as the railway station is so far away from the town.

It may affect me having my job.

Other routes are available but it will double my travel cost and in the present financial situation we are all in I will find this hard as I am a family man and the pound is becoming too thin as everything is going up.

Andy Oliver

Why change century old bus service?

A SERVICE that has been running since 1914 is stopping because fewer people have used it over last 12 months?

I wonder what world event and government directives may have had a bearing on this?

Great excuse not to provide an essential consumer service.

Gary Poyner

North Worcestershire residents neglected again by county council

THIS DECISION is outrageous and will affect so many travellers, including workers, commuters, shoppers and school children.

Not everybody has a car- and in any case, we are being pressured to stop using our cars to get into Birmingham – and it will result in social isolation for many elderly people, especially those who have friends and relatives in the south Birmingham area.

Another important loss will be for those having to attend appointments at hospitals, especially the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and the new Dental Hospital at Pebble Mill.

Not everybody can afford taxi fares to these more distant locations.

Another loss will be to leisure destinations like the Hippodrome, Alexandra Theatre and Symphony Hall.

We realise costs are rising and passenger numbers have declined but surely a bus service to Birmingham from Bromsgrove is a social amenity and, indeed, a necessity.

Only this week, we have had circulars from local councillors and from Sajid Javid promising that local transport services will be improved.

This doesn’t seem to be in accordance with these promises.

Come on Worcestershire County Council and look after your citizens in the north of your area.

We cannot lose this important link to Birmingham.

The Residents of Nailers Court,

Ednall Lane,

Bromsgrove.

Second City needs buses to county towns

I, like thousands of other residents in Rubery am writing to express my disgust and annoyance at First Worcester ending the 144 bus route to Birmingham.

It is a disgrace there will be no bus link from our national second city to one of its neighbouring county towns!

What is particularly shocking is that Worcestershire ratepayers in our area will be denied a link to our local town, Bromsgrove, and county town Worcester.

I am a pensioner and because of the dire parking problems at our local hospitals I have used the 144 to get a connection for the Alexander Hospital Redditch and the Princess of Wales hospital Bromsgrove.

How are residents from Catshill, Bromsgrove and back to Worcester City going to get to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham?

I remember when Bromsgrove District Council had the opportunity to join the West Midlands Transport Authority but would not be prepared to contribute.

Now residents from the east in Coventry to the west in Wolverhampton can enjoy the same public service transport pass for bus, train and metro.

How miserly and short-sighted has this been!

This is just another example of Rubery being neglected under the management of the controlling Conservative authority.

If it is true that Birmingham is not subsidising the fare on the Birmingham part of the route, why stop the service at Catshill?

I would think the sensible thing and equitable thing to do is to stop the service at the county council border Rubery or again don’t we Rubery ratepayers matter?

Where is the money from Government to improve our public transport service which has been trumpeted recently?

Alan Cooper

Rubery

We need to contest 144 bus cut

Is there anyway of disputing this decision?

My daughter commutes from Catshill in Bromsgrove, using the 144 to Northfield to get a bus to Newman teaching university so she is going to be completely cut off as I

work and she doesn’t yet drive.

How can this be justified? It is going to effect so many people especially our younger generation.

I have no idea what she is going to do now as she would have to leave ridiculously early to get the bus to Bromsgrove, a bus to the railway station then a train.

It really is a joke.

Fiona Dockerty

I regularly use service to get to towns, city and hospital

I WRITE to express my concerns over the planned actions to terminate the 144 bus service between Worcester and Birmingham.

Whilst I cannot admit to using it on a daily basis, I do regularly access the service to travel to Worcester, Bromsgrove and Wychbold from Birmingham.

I also used it regularly to visit a terminal friend whilst at the Princess of Wales Community Hospital.

Due to these proposed changes this will no longer be possible other than by using taxis or the more difficult to access Bromsgrove railway station.

Can I urge that you take this cause up and oppose it most strongly?

It is a vital service for many and the changes are totally unacceptable.

MJ McGinley

Astounded that link is being lost between two vital Midlands cities

I AM astounded in times where we are rightly encouraged to use public transport we’re losing a vital link between two of the Midlands’ main cities.

For us, the 144 was the only way for our newborn child’s grandmother to visit him from Solihull.

He’s soon to start at nursery and she was going to catch this bus in order to collect him from nursery before we finished work.

I literally have no idea what we are now going to do with my wife due to return to work in just a few weeks – not to mention baby’s grandmother will be heartbroken.

Please do what you can to raise the profile of this issue and bring public dissatisfaction to the attention of our democratically elected council.

Tim Prosser

Upset about Birmingham stretch being withdrawn

I AM really upset to hear the 144 service to Birmingham is being withdrawn.

I have a job in Bromsgrove and have used it to travel six-days-a week for last four years.

If that bus service terminates how do I get to my job?

The railway station is too far to walk in the rain.

There is no other bus service to get to the other National Express services to get to Birmingham.

Like me there are so many other people travelling on this service – please don’t stop this service, without giving any other option.

Name supplied

Bus needs to go to Rubery at least

IF THE 144 route has to be altered I think it is thoughtless they intend to terminate it at Catshill rather than the county boundary which is Rubery.

This is the only means of getting to Droitwich and Worcester by public transport for people living in the village of Rubery, which is after all part of Worcestershire and thus should be served by a county bus route.

Roger Johnson

I’ll struggle to get to hospital, doctors and other medical appointments

THIS SERVICE is a lifeline to me being a senior citizen and a disabled person.

How do I get to Bromsgrove for my hospital and medical appointments, my shopping and meeting up with friends?

How do I get to my doctors in Rubery?

How do I get to Worcester for my leisure days?

Even if they turned the bus at Morrisons or Longbridge Island would be a Godsend.

I have a concessionary pass, I cannot afford taxis to fulfill my appointments.

With the ridiculous prices of fuel the taxi fare from here to Bromsgrove is approx £16 one way.

I can hardly afford to eat or keep myself warm, my life is so stressful without this added pressure. Which way do I turn?

Disappointed and disgruntled.

Alan Smith

EDITOR’S NOTE – THANK you for all your letters on the changes proposed to the 144.

We have published as many as we could accommodate in this week’s print edition. We will be putting any extra we have received on our websites – bromsgrovestandard.co.uk and droitwichstandard.co.uk.

We will also be submitting them to Worcestershire County Council and operator First Worcester.

EDITOR’S COMMENT

THE TERMINATION of the 144 at Catshill so it no longer serves Rubery or Birmingham has led to one of the biggest reader responses we have ever had – and rightly so.

Many face extra essential travel expense while some may lose their jobs or not be able to get to school or college.

It shows Worcestershire County Council’s active travel schemes and the Government’s ‘levelling up’ agenda to be more nothing more than PR bluster with no substance.

Urgent steps are needed to help.

We welcome your letters…..

What pressing issues do you feel need addressing in Bromsgrove, Rubery, Droitwich and South Birmingham? Send us your views to [email protected] or [email protected]