Sites in Kidderminster
Tram depot, off New Road, Kidderminster.
- Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus Company Limited
(BMMO—Midland “Red” Motor Services) 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 depot, Kidderminster (depot code: KR)
- Purpose built steel-framed garage with a capacity for 40 vehicles, brick frontage and two-storey office block.
- Opened by Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus Company Limited (BMMO—Midland “Red” Motor Services) on Friday 30th May 1930.
- BMMO acquired the business of P. Owen & Sons, Abberley, on Saturday 26th November 1938, and with it a bus garage at George Street, Kidderminster.
BMMO never used the George Street 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 Midland Red Omnibus Company Limited (MROC) on Friday 29th March 1974, with a depot allocation of 62 vehicles and approximately 154 staff at this time.
- Control of Kidderminster depot passed to the newly formed Midland Red (West) Limited on Sunday 6th September 1981, with an allocation of 50 vehicles, when Midland Red Omnibus Company Limited ceased trading as a bus and coach operator.
- Midland Red West Limited had a number of outstations, all controlled by Kidderminster depot. These were based at Bridgnorth, Bishops Castle, Hopton Heath, Montgomary, Ludlow, and Bromsgrove.
- Site closed on Saturday 2nd June 2001 with vehicles and operations relocated to a new site at Island Drive, Kidderminster.
- Demolished from June 2001 to make way for road extensions and a Tesco petrol station.
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