Midland “Red”
BMMO and MROC

Service 409: Service History

Introduction

Service 409

Service 409 ran between Birmingham, Tenbury Wells, and Hereford on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. One return journey from Hereford was offered on each of these days. In the early 1960s, there was an additional journey on Sundays, running from Birmingham in the morning and returning in the evening.

This service was suspended during the Second World War, and reinstated by mid 1944. The Sunday journey was withdrawn c. October 1952, and the whole service was withdrawn during the mid-1960s.

After the closure of Malvern depot in 1976, route number 409 was reused for a new local area Malvern service operated by Worcester depot.

Service 409 (1976–1979)

Operated by Midland Red Omnibus Company Limited

New Service 409 was introduced by Midland Red Omnibus Company Limited (MROC) as a local Malvern area service operated by Worcester depot from Saturday 2nd October 1976, following the closure of Malvern depot and the withdrawal of all local ‘M’-prefix Malvern area services at the end of operations on the day before.

The service operated from Great Malvern (Worcester Road, near Foley Arms) to Barnards Green via Sherrards Green (Langland Arms), and then a circular route to Peachfield Road (Bus Shelter), running via St. Andrews Road on the outbound part of the journey, and via Poolbrook Road and Brook Farm back to Barnards Green. From there it returned to Great Malvern (Post Office) over the same route as the outbound journey.

Service 409 operated every two-hours, Mondays to Saturdays, with Service 410 running in the opposite direction inter-worked to give a combined hourly frequency. Initially evening journeys were operated, but these had been withdrawn by Saturday 21st May 1977 due to lack of demand. Neither Service 409 or Service 410 ran on Sundays.

On Saturday 13th January 1979, Midland Red Omnibus Company Limited (MROC) introduced their “Severlink” Market Analysis Project (MAP) in the Worcester, Bromsgrove and Malvern area. At this time, Service 409 and Service 410 were both withdrawn and replaced, in part, by new Service M1 and Service M3.

Note
Other new routes introduced on Saturday 2nd October 1976 with the closure of Malvern depot…
Service 408: Great Malvern, Belmont, Malvern Link, Lower Howsell
Service 410: Great Malvern, Barnards Green, Poolbrook circular
Service 412: Worcester, Powick, Malvern Link, Barnards Green, Great Malvern
Service 413: Worcester, Powick, Malvern Link, Belmont, Great Malvern (Sundays only)
Service 478: Great Malvern, West Malvern, Colwall, Ledbury

Route Summary

  • Oct 1976–Jan 1979
  • Great Malvern (Worcester Road)
  • Sherrards Green
  • Barnards Green
  • St. Andrews Road
  • Poolbrook
  • Peachfield Road
  • Poolbrook
  • Brook Farm
  • Barnards Green
  • Sherrards Green
  • Great Malvern (Post Office)

409

Timetable Archive

May1977Great Malvern → Poolbrook → Great Malvern