History
The route south of Oldbury originally formed part of Midland Red's Service 217/218 route between Oldbury, Whiteheath, Blackheath, Halesowen and Hayley Green, with buses operating every ten minutes between Oldbury and Blackheath and every 20 minutes between Oldbury and Hayley Green. West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive extended these routes into West Bromwich in the late 1970s, renumbering them Service 415 (West Bromwich-Oldbury-Blackheath-Cradley Heath) and 417 (West Bromwich-Oldbury-Blackheath-Halesowen-Hayley Green).
A competing service on the 404 was launched by Pete's Travel between Walsall and West Bromwich in 1994. This was the company's first ever bus route.
In 1999 the route was made part of the Centro Bus Showcase scheme. A year later, Travel West Midlands introduced brand new low-floor Mercedes-Benz O405 single-deck buses onto the route.
A new route, numbered 404A, was introduced by TWM to link Blackheath and Cradley Heath in 2003. In 2006, Pete's Travel was taken over by the Go-Ahead Group and began to trade under the Diamond Bus brand. 2007 saw A2Z Travel start a short lived Sunday service on the 404, between Walsall and West Bromwich, but this was withdrawn by the end of the year.
Diamond Bus introduce two new services in 2008, numbered 404B and 404H. Both ran at irregular regular frequencies from West Bromwich to Blackheath and Cradley Heath/Merry Hill Centre respectively. At the same time, National Express West Midlands rerouted the 404/A so that journeys into Walsall no longer served Caldmore, following complaints from residents. The frequency was also increased on the 404 to every six minutes.
In September 2008 Diamond Bus (now owned by Rotala Group) started using new Volvo B7RLEs with Plaxton Centro bodywork on the 404, 404B & 404H, using a new trading name, Black Diamond. However, the 404B was withdrawn in November 2008, with the 404H changed to operate at a steady 30 minute off-peak frequency between West Bromwich and Merry Hill Centre. In January 2009 the 404E was extended into Walsall.
In March 2009 National Express West Midlands introduced using the first of a batch of fifteen Scania OmniLinks onto the 404/A. October 2009 saw Diamond Bus completely withdraw the 404H. From the same date it was announced that NXWM were to introduce a Sunday service on the route, which extended from West Bromwich to Walsall. However, for unknown reasons this is postponed until late November 2009.
On 22 November 2009 National Express introduced a special £2 day return ticket on the 404 and 404A routes, a fare option only available on one other service in the West Midlands. A week later National Express West Midlands revived the 404H service on Sundays only, extending it to Walsall from West Bromwich in place of the 404A.
In December 2009 the departure point of the 404, 404A & 404E is moved just outside of Walsall Bus Station, to minimise congestion in the Bradford Place area. March 2010 saw National Express convert Saturday daytime journeys on the 404A service into 404H's.
Read more about this topic: West Midlands Bus Route 404
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