Aldridge - Transport

Transport

Aldridge is served by a local bus service. Many of the buses in Aldridge were renumbered in April 2010 as part of National Express West Midlands' attempt to simplify bus services in and around the Walsall area. Buses to Walsall run frequently several times an hour during the day, namely the 6, 7, 7A, 81 (formerly 381) and 997. The 6, a half hourly service, can also be used to commute to Sutton Coldfield. This service (under its previous number, 366) used to run all the way from Walsall, via Aldridge and Sutton Coldfield to Birmingham Airport. The 381 travels to Lichfield, going via Shenstone, and runs every two hours. There are also two routes that run into Birmingham City Centre from Aldridge: the X56, 56 & 56A and the 997, 997A, 997E & 997B.

Aldridge used to have a platform on the Sutton Park Line running to Walsall that operated services for passengers, though the station was closed in 1966 and since then the line has only been used for freight trains. Recently, there has been talk of re-opening this line for passengers and in the late 1990s/early 2000s, plans were drawn up for a modern station to be built on the site of the old one. The site of the old station lies behind the new doctor's surgery at the bottom of Portland Road, and part of the old platform is still visible. Should the station be re-opened, it has potential to become a park & ride station and could offer services to Birmingham via Sutton Coldfield, or the short journey into Walsall. Despite the plans that have been drawn up, nothing has yet happened. This is mainly because there are too many freight trains and currently no other route to which to move freight traffic.

There are also speculative plans to use the closed South Staffordshire Line as a single track freight line, which would be a quicker route from Stourbridge to Bescot, and this would also clear the way to re-introduce passenger services to Aldridge. This section of line was last used in 1984, and the entire trackbed remains intact, even though the track itself is long gone. There is no timescale for when (or if) the re-opening of this railway through Aldridge will take place, although Network Rail hopes that the bulk of the line between Walsall and Brierley Hill will re-open to goods trains by 2012.