MidlandRed.net

Midland “Red”
BMMO and MROC

• Service M12

• Search
• Service History
• Current Timetable
• Timetable Archive2
• Timetable Changes
• Routes
• Route Maps
• Photographs0
• Fares
• Stopping Places
• Miscellaneous

Service M12: Service History

Introduction

Service M12

By the mid-1930s, the BMMO network was expanding rapidly and the company were starting to run out of available service numbers. To free up numbers for new services, local area networks were renumbered with a prefix letter to represent the area when the network operated, so thus on Monday 7^th January 1935 all local Malvern area services were renumbered in the range M10–M30 (with service number M13 being omitted for some reason. Unlucky?).

Service M12 (1935–1976)

Operated by Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus Company Limited

With the renumbering of local Malvern area services on Monday 7^th January 1935, Service 372 running between Great Malvern, Belmont and Malvern Link became Service M22 for the full route and Service M12 for the short-working route between Great Malvern and Belmont only.

After the Second World War, very few journeys ran as Service M12 with most journeys running over the full route to Malvern Link as Service M22. In 1948, Belmont had a bus every 20-minutes on weekdays, but only six of these ran as Service M12 with the rest being Service M14 to Wedderburn Road via Barnards Green, or Service M22 to Malvern Link.

Certain Service M22 journeys were extended to Lower Howsell (Gas Works) on Saturday 1^st July 1950, as new Service M42. From Saturday 29^th December 1956, the overall frequency between Great Malvern and Belmont was reduced from every 20-minutes to every 30-minutes. Most Service M12 journeys were withdrawn, but one morning peak-time return journey remained for the benefit of Malvern Link County Primary School, departing Great Malvern at 08:43 and returning from Belmont at 08:52.

On Monday 10^th March 1958, the route for this sole Service M12 journey was changed on schooldays only to run via Church Street, Albert Road North, Cockshot Road, Worcester Road and Howsell Road. The return journey and journeys on non-schooldays remained unchanged.

The sole remaining Service M12 journey continued until the closure of Malvern depot at the end of operations on Friday 1^st October 1976. At this time all local Malvern ‘M’-prefix were withdrawn and replaced with a new network operated by Worcester depot.