100 British Bus Routes: Route 87
Birmingham to Dudley
26 July 2025
ABOVE: National Express West Midlands 6990 (SK19 ERY, "Sheira"), an ADL Enviro400 MMC, calls at the stop at Tividale Hall, Hopkins Street, in Tividale, whilst working an early morning journey on route 87 from Dudley to Birmingham. I would love to think that the driver is waving for us, but it's far more likely to be for his colleague, I suspect! Photos in this article, including this one, were taken on Sunday 16 June 2024, except where stated.
Runs: Daily, with full evening service
Operator: National Express West Midlands (NXWM)
Weekday daytime frequency: Every 12 minutes
Weekday Vehicle Requirement: Approx 12 buses at any point
(interworked with route 82, Birmingham to Bearwood)
Off-peak journey time (weekdays): 61-72 minutes
Estimated route length: 12-13 miles
In all the years, and with all the redevelopments that always seem to be going on in the City Centre of Birmingham, it’s remarkable that no-one has built a Bus Station. There’s a Coach Station (Digbeth) for long-distance coach services, but buses using the City Centre have to navigate and park up in the streets, with no focal point to call “home”.
Many of these buses don’t even have a proper terminus here. They have to undertake a one-way loop within the city and, whilst they will probably stand for a minute or three at one of the stops on the loop, passengers can join for the outbound trip before all of those from the inbound trip have left, anywhere on the circuit.
ABOVE: NXWM 6989 (SK19 ERX, "Gurneet"), an ADL Enviro400 MMC, is pursued by a second vehicle on route 87 in Bull Street, Birmingham City Centre. They are flanked by two buses on route 82 to Bearwood, which parallels route 87 out of the city. Taken on Friday 21 June 2024. This road was closed on my most recent visit, in connection with tram extension works, and buses currently - maybe permanently - follow a different route through this part of the city.
Route 87 to and from Dudley is one of these services. It makes a circuit via Suffolk Street, Smallbrook, Moor Street and Colmore Circus. All of these roads are suffixed with Queensway – a reference to the old Inner Ring Road.
The lack of a clear terminus may explain why there’s a man asleep across the upstairs back seat of my bus. He is spread right across the row such that none of the five seats are accessible, and no-one wants to disturb him.
It’s a curious thing to find at not long after 8.00 on a Sunday morning. I’m expecting a quiet journey but the inside seats have all been taken by the time I pick the bus up at the Priory Queensway stop, and I estimate that there are about 40 passengers on board at this point.
The Priory Queensway stop is adjacent to the rather striking “Wesleyan” building, home of the Wesleyan Provident Assurance Society. In April 1841, members of the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Birmingham founded the society, to help factory workers save for sickness and funeral expenses.
This Head Office building, shaped like an X, opened in 1991, the Society’s 150th year, on the same site as its previous offices had stood since 1900.
ABOVE: NXWM E189 (LF24 ZNU), a BYD D8UR-DD ADL Enviro400EV, stands in front of the Wesleyan building, working a service on route 7 (Birmingham City Centre to Perry Common). This is looking at the building from a different angle, on Colmore Row, with Birmingham Snow Hill station's entrance just out of sight on the left.
As I have said before, I’m familiar with this area as my employer has an office here, and I work in it from time-to-time (to be honest, it’s a nicer environment than our London branch - you can sometimes even get a meeting room when you need one)! Being several floors up allows an unusual angle on the 87, from one side of the building:
ABOVE: Looking down on the Priory Queensway stop on Monday 19 May 2025, as an 87 departs for Dudley.
... or the other:
ABOVE: An 87 heads past the Wesleyan building on Wednesday 27 March 2024
The 87 shares the roads out of the city centre with route 82 (to Bearwood), and the timetables are co-ordinated to give a six-minute frequency on this corridor on weekdays. The routes are operated by ADL Enviro400 MMCs with subtle, non-intrusive, branding.
This early Sunday morning journey is certainly surprising me. As we head out of the City Centre, the bus is getting busier and busier.
We cross the Spring Hill Roundabout, which means we are also crossing the route of the 8A / 8C “Inner Circle” – a route that has so far evaded me. Just beyond that is "The Rock – New Testament Church of God":
The 87 progresses along Spring Hill, with a nice rear view of the city centre that we have left behind. We're full-and-standing by this point. Perhaps there's been a cancellation ahead of us, or maybe there's something special on somewhere. Or perhaps it's always like this. No-one is being left behind, but space is tight and every seat is fully utilised, apart from the five back seats upstairs, of course, where our slumbering passenger is still spread across the row.
ABOVE: NXWM 6992 (SK19 ESF, "India"), an ADL Enviro400 MMC, calls at the College Street stop on Spring Hill, working a route 87 service towards BIrmingham City Centre.
We pass through the Summerfield area, where we reach Birmingham City Hospital and cross the route of the 11A / 11C "Outer Circle".
ABOVE: An unidentified NXWM ADL Enviro400 MMC calls at the City Road bus stop near Summerfield Park, heading for the City Centre.
The bus proceeds into Cape Hill, a suburb of Smethwick and reportedly Smethwick's busiest shopping area. In the 19th Century, Henry Mitchell bought a large plot of land here and built a brewery. He entered into partnership with William Butlet in 1897 and this became Mitchells & Butlers Brewery. A descendent company, Mitchells and Butlers plc, now runs several well-known pub, bar and restaurant chains and is listed on the London Stock Exchange.
The brewery grounds included a county standard cricket pitch, where Worcestershire County Cricket Club played an annual match.
It's here that companion route 82 goes its separate way, just before the Windmills Shopping Centre.
ABOVE: 6977 (SK19 EPN, "Natasha") calls at the Windmill Shopping Centre stop in Cape Hill.
At the High Street / Claremont Road bus stop there is a mass exodus of passengers - and I do mean a mass exodus. We have arrived here with a full-and-standing load, and leave with probably only 10% of that. Everyone who has left the bus is heading in the same general direction so this has obviously been the key draw that has brought so many people onto the route.
ABOVE: The people crossing the road have all come off my number 87, and many more are about to follow them...
I have now secured the front seat on my much-quieter bus as we head towards Smethwick itself. A brief one-way system takes us towards the centre.
ABOVE: One-way system between Cape Hill and Smethwick itself. Note the short-cut available to cyclists here!
Smethwick, four miles west of Birmingham City Centre, is a busy, bustling suburb. The world’s oldest working engine, the Smethwick Engine, was installed in the town, and was brought into service in May 1779.
The "Red Cow" public house, with its distinctive mascot, has stood here since 1930.
At Smethwick Rolfe Street station, what looks like a bypass, Tollhouse Way, has been built alongside the High Street, enabling people to slip through the town quickly if they don't intend to visit. There is a tollhouse here, on the High Street itself, built in the late 18th Century on what was once the Birmingham to Dudley turnpike road.
Based on my previous visit, on a Friday evening, the fast road might be useful, as the area was difficult to traverse due to a lot of traffic and illegally-parked vehicles.
ABOVE: The entrance to High Street, Smethwick, is in the foreground. Those who do not intend to call in can stay on the main road and join Tollhouse Lane by turning left at the T-Junction (on the right of the picture).
It's calm here on a Sunday morning, though...
Smethwick has a few claims to fame in the political world, with what is described by Wikipedia as a "turbulent" political history. Christabel Pankhurst failed to become one of the first female MPs in Britain when she was narrowly defeated here in 1918. Sir Oswald Mosley was the Labour MP here from 1926 until 1931, when he resigned the party whip and was subsequently defeated in the next General Election. He then founded the British Union of Fascists.
And a terrible tragedy befell Alfred Dobbs, who won the seat for Labour in 1945. He became the shortest-serving Member of Parliament ever when he was killed in a car crash the next day. And that's only the start of it - the sixties were even more politically unsettling (see Wikipedia for more).
Back to the 87, and the High Street has morphed into St Paul's Road as the bypass starts to diverge from the town centre. We merge back onto the main road, now Oldbury Road, near Smethwick Galton Bridge station.
I have memories of making an interchange at this station; I arrived hoping for an easy same-platform interchange or similar.
No such luck! There are two distinct routes through this station - Birmingham New Street to Wolverhampton, and Birmingham Moor Street / Snow Hill to Stourbridge, Kidderminster and beyond. The routes are at different levels and broadly at right angles to each other. I can't remember where I was heading, but I came in at the lower level, and had to climb to the higher level, then climb again to cross the higher level before going down the other side!
No such ordeals today - I can just sit tight!
ABOVE: Another unidentified bus on route 87 at the Leasowes Care Centre stop on the Oldbury Road.
The Oldbury Road becomes the Birmingham Road, as we stumble across a convoy of four Wright StreetDeck Ultroliners belonging to Diamond Bus, passing the opposite way, heading somewhere to provide a Rail Replacement service.
ABOVE: The rear two buses in the four-bus Diamond convoy are Wright StreetDeck Ultroliners 40835 (MX21 ATV) and 40818 (MX21 AUP), seen at the junction of the Birmingham Road with Rood End Road. Both buses began their careers with Diamond's Manchester operation.
We pass underneath the M5 motorway (the gateway to the South West of England), and enter Oldbury. The songwriter and music hall entertainer Jack Judge (1872–1938) was born in Oldbury; his best-known song is "It's a Long Way to Tipperary". Comedian Frank Skinner MBE (b. 1957), who did such a great turn in "Doctor Who: Mummy on the Orient Express" (2014), grew up here.
ABOVE: NXWM 4956 (SL14 LSO, "Anmol"), an ADL Enviro400, passes through Oldbury Bus Interchange with a service 13 from Blackheath to Birmingham City Centre
ABOVE: NXWM 6976 (SK19 EPL, "Harmony Grace"), passes the Sandwell Children's Trust offices near Oldbury.
Route 87 heads on into Tividale, a district that straddles the borders of the towns of Dudley, Tipton and Oldbury. With canals being built across the area, Tividale became a centre for industries such as iron and brick manufacture, and a lot of housing was developed here. Tividale Tram workshops opened along the main Tividale Road (a tram route) in 1907 and operated until 1930. The tramway closed in 1939, as trams fell out of favour.
ABOVE: I imagine a few novice drivers could go wrong here! Dudley Road East turns into Dudley Road West (left, the route of the 87) and Tipton Road (straight ahead).
We pass through the busy junction that is Burnt Tree Island:
We're onto the final approach into Dudley now, and get a view of the Keep of Dudley Castle. This Grade-I listed ruined fortification was originally a wooden motte and bailey castle, but was rebuilt as a stone fortification during the 12th century. It was demolished on the orders of King Henry II of England, but rose again in the second half of the 13th century. The residential buildings were destroyed by fire in 1750, and Dudley Zoo is now located in its grounds.
As we enter the town, the tram tracks for the new extension from Wednesbury to Merry Hill are already in place - the first part as far as Dudley is due to open in autumn 2025, according to the MIdland Metro Alliance.
ABOVE: The Station Hotel in Dudley Town Centre.
Normally, buses would head for Dudley Bus Station, but it's closed for redevelopment into a new Bus / Tram Interchange. In the meantime, buses on route 87 are picking up on Ednam Road, adjacent to Coronation Gardens. Mine has dropped me off a little short of this, on The Broadway. A mere handful of us have remained to the end of the journey, including sleepyhead who remains on the back seat!
ABOVE: 6973 (SK19 EPE, "Susan Kay") parked up on The Broadway in Dudley
The local authority has done a good job in finding a nice road to act as an interchange for buses displaced from the Bus Station, with a row of bus stops on Tower Street covering many of the affected services. Signage and information has also been clear and plentiful.
ABOVE: Tower Street in Dudley is deserted early on a Sunday morning but its five stops, all visible here, will see plenty of life at other times of the week!
I find route 87 to be a great example of a major urban bus service in our second city. A fascinating ride through a range of different districts, all with their own stories to tell. Well worth a ride!