MidlandRed.net

Forum member "Red Midland" recently uploaded a Service 144 timetable from 30th August 1986... See here.

If you scroll across to the last journey of the day you will see a short-working from Longbridge to Birmingham City Centre, departing 2335.

Does anyone know which depot ran this journey? It's been puzzling us both!

Bromsgrove closed in 1983 so it wasn't them. Digbeth was yet to reopen so it wasn't them. If it were Worcester the 2232 from Worcester would have run through as one journey. I did think maybe Redditch ran it followed by a 143 back, but there isn't a matching 143 journey.

I can only think it was either Kidderminster or Redditch and the bus ran out-of-service to it's home depot after. That's a lot of dead mileage and the journey even ran on Sundays.

One last point... in the 1985 timetable (not on this website yet) it shows a connection with a WMPTE Service 62N at almost the same time... Did another operator run the short 144 journey under contract??

Did the 85 not run then? It could have been running off the back of that?

I can confirm that for a short period in 1986, around 6 weeks, the 2232 from Worcester to Longbridge was extended to Birmingham, arrival 0000, and then returned to Worcester empty. I did it once, with a coach, and ran as far as Selly Oak but turned round there as I was empty (wouldn't get away with it nowadays!!!), and returned via the M5 whilst the work to make it three lanes was being undertaken. However, at Sixways, the coach ran out of fuel, and instead of going the usual route via Trotshill Lane I coasted around half a mile to the lay-by on the A449 Northern Link where I used the AA telephone to contact the depot and report the breakdown. If I had gone all the way into Birmingham I would have broken down around Junction 5 of the M5, which even at 12.30 in the morning, would have caused a lot of chaos.