"Ironically though, the lure of the new rail service took so many cars off the roads that the bus services initially speeded up!"
Bournville station was one of many locations that lost its best photographic vantage points when the electric wires were installed.
It’s funny the things we end up missing. If someone had told me when the West Midlands Cross-City line opened in spring ’78, that this was as good as travel between Longbridge and Four Oaks would ever get, I’d have categorised them as insane. And yet nothing has recaptured the charm of the Tyseley diesel mechanical units which characterised the first 15 years of Cross-City service. In this post I’m publishing some of my pictorial memories from the Cross-City’s diesel years, and summarising the story up until the point of electrification.