MidlandRed.net

Kidderminster Depot

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.

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 30^th May 1930.
• BMMO acquired the business of P. Owen & Sons, Abberley on 26^th 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 29^th 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 6^th 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.

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.