First Worcester

First Midland Red Buses,Companies House extract company no 1556327
First Midland Red Buses Limited formerly Midland Red West Limited trading as First Worcester, is a bus company operating services in Herefordshire and Worcestershire in the English Midlands. It is a subsidiary of FirstGroup.

History

In September 1981 Midland Red West was formed with 183 buses operating from six depots in Gloucestershire, Hereford, Worcestershire and Powys as part of the breakup of the Midland Red bus company. In September 1983 the 20 vehicle Bromsgrove depot was closed.Midland Red Depots
MidlandRed.net

Based in Worcester, Midland Red West's main areas of operation were Worcestershire, Herefordshire, parts of Shropshire and parts of the West Midlands conurbation, including Birmingham. Birmingham was also served by the other companies formed from the break-up of Midland Red.

Minibus operations

In November 1985 Midland Red West introduced a fleet of 60 minibuses to operate its urban network in Worcester as part of a new high-frequency service within the City, operating under the Citibus trading name. The distinctive yellow, orange and blue liveried Mercedes-Benz L608Ds displaced larger buses such as Leyland Nationals onto interurban routes. At its launch the service was the UK's largest urban bus service operated by minibuses.

Privatisation

In December 1986 Midland Red West along with the 40 vehicle Midland Red Coaches was sold to Midland West Holdings in a management buyout.

The livery of many of its vehicles changed from the National Bus Company's poppy red to a deeper red and cream livery. The company also sported a new logo of a Wyvern. Apart from being the name of an imaginary creature, the name Wyvern was also a portmanteau of the 2 major rivers which run through Herefordshire and Worcestershire; the Wye and Severn.

In 1987 Midland Red West Holdings purchased the Bristol Omnibus Company from the National Bus Company. It operated urban services around the Bristol area under the City Line trading name, which was kept.

Badgerline Group

In April 1988 Midland Red West Holdings was purchased by fellow Bristol operator Badgerline. The trading names of Midland Red West and Badgerline remained unchanged as did vehicle livery, though many of Midland Red West's Leyland Lynxs sported a badger motif on the rear sides of the vehicle. The merger reunited the two constituent parts of the Bristol Omnibus Company, City Line and the Bristol country services which had been separated from in 1986.
In 1995 Badgerline merged with GRT Group to form FirstBus

HOME


Content is Copyleft
Website design, code, and AI is Copyrighted (c) 2014-2017 by Stephen Payne


Consider donating to Wikimedia



As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases