Bus passengers will be able to travel from Worcester to Birmingham for at least another six months despite a popular route being cut.

But the new solution will involve making two changes to get into Birmingham city centre.

First Bus announced earlier this month that the 144 service from Worcester, which stops at Droitwich and Bromsgrove, would terminate at Catshill instead of Birmingham from Sunday, May 1.

The news shocked bus users who rely on the service to get to work and elderly passengers with no other way of getting around.

Now an agreement between Worcestershire County Council and National Express West Midlands has brought a solution - for now, at least.

National Express will operate a service running between Bromsgrove, Catshill, Rubery and Longbridge from Tuesday, May 3, replacing the sections lost from the changes to the 144 service run by First Bus.

Passengers will now be able to change buses at Bromsgrove Bus Station and travel onwards to Rubery and Longbridge, where they can connect to frequent services into Birmingham.

The service will run hourly from Monday to Saturday and a timetable will be released shortly.

This arrangement will last for the next six months while the county council reviews the network and looks for a longer-term solution.

Nigel Eggleton, managing director at First Worcester, had said the 144 carried few passengers between Catshill and Birmingham in the last 12 months, which led the company to remove the link to Birmingham.

'Very few people' used 144 bus service

He said Covid the fact more people were working from home were among the things having an impact on bus services.

“Our 144 service has been established for many years and has served people very well, linking Worcester with Droitwich, Bromsgrove, Catshill and Birmingham.

“However, for over 12 months now, we have carried very few people between Catshill and Birmingham, resulting in us having to make this difficult decision to remove the link to Birmingham.”

Worcester councillor Richard Udall said the bus route was not only one of the oldest in the country but was once used by the real-life counterparts of the Peaky Blinders.

“Worcester and Birmingham have historically been linked by public transport, to cut the link is short sighted, unprofessional and very damaging,” he said.