| Tram depot, off New Road, Kidderminster.. |
- Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus Company Limited
(BMMO - Midland
Red ) vehicles housed in tram sheds
belonging to the Kidderminster District Lighting & Traction
Company Limited near the end of 1914, when the company took
over routes abandoned by the Worcestershire Motor Transport
Company Limited after that company’s vehicles were commandeered
by the War Office in following the outbreak of the First World
War.
Before the First World War, the Worcestershire
Motor Transport Co. Ltd. operated all buses in Kidderminster.
At the outbreak for the First World War, BMMO operated a fleet
of Tilling-Stevens “petrol-electric” motorbuses, which
the army did not considered suitable for use in France.
Because of this, the BMMO fleet remained intact and the company
was able to expand in a number of areas, using surplus vehicles
from the Birmingham area, at the expense of less fortunate operators
who had their vehicles requisitioned.
- Vehicles later housed in buildings adjoining the tram sheds.
- Operations moved to new depot at New Road in 1930.
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| New Road, Kidderminster. |
- Purpose built steel framed garage with a capacity for 40 vehicles,
brick frontage and two-storey office block.
- Opened by the Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus Company
Limited (BMMO - Midland
Red ) on the 30th May
1930.
- BMMO acquired the business of P. Owen & Sons, Abberley
on 26th November 1938, and with it a bus garage
at George Street, Kidderminster.
BMMO never used this site operationally
due to poor vehicle access and more modern facilities at the BMMO
depot at New Road, only a short distance away. The site
was use for occasional overnight vehicle storage, mainly pre-1934
single deck buses, until the late 1940s. Part of the site
also saw use by the Ministry of Aircraft Production during the
Second World War for the manufacture of small parts.
- Allocation included two ambulance buses and one producer-gas
equipped SOS FEDD during World War II.
- The ex-P. Owen & Sons garage at George Street is sold in
1957 after several years of disuse.
- BMMO depot at New Road is extended at the sides and modernised,
re-opening in 1962 with a capacity for 63 vehicles.
- Company renamed to Midland Red Omnibus Company Limited
(MROC) on 29th March 1974, with a depot allocation
of 62 vehicles and approximately 154 staff at this time.
- Depot control passed to Midland Red (West) Limited when
the Midland Red Omnibus Company Limited split up on 6th September
1981.
- Control of a number of outstations at:
- Bridgnorth
- Bishops Castle
- Hopton Heath
- Montgomary
- Ludlow
- Bromsgrove
- Closed in 2001, vehicles and operations relocated to site at
Island Drive.
- Demolished in 2002 to make way for road extensions and a Tesco
petrol station.
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| Island Drive, Kidderminster. |
- Purpose built by First Midland Red Buses Limited in the
centre of a large traffic island, with outdoor parking only.
Indoor servicing area for three vehicles and refuelling bay not
suitable for double-deck vehicles as the door height is only 12ft.
- Opened in 2001, replacing the old building at New Road.
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