in c. 1932, Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus Company Limited (BMMO—Midland “Red” Motor Services) introduced Service 409 running between Hereford, Leominster, Tenbury Wells, Kidderminster and Birmingham. The service ran Thursday only with one return journey starting from the Hereford end at 08:30 to arrive in Birmingham at 11:45. The return journey departed Station Street in Birmingham at 18:30 and arrived back in Hereford 21:45.
In February 1949, the timetable was expanded to run on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, but still with only return journey from Hereford on each of these days, and on Saturday 9th December 1950, BMMO moved the Birmingham terminus for a large number of services, including Service 409, from Station Street to Navigation Street.
In the early 1960s, there was an additional journey on Sundays, running from Birmingham in the morning and returning in the evening. This Sunday journey only ran during the Summer Season.
In 1964, the route was cut back to run only between Leominster and Birmingham. Connecting journeys for the withdrawn Hereford to Leominster section were advertised on Service 432, Service X34 and Service X35 in the Worcester Area timetable, but these connections were omitted from the Birmingham Area timetable.
By May 1967 this iteration of Service 409 had been withdrawn.
| 4 | 0 | 9 |
| September | 1932 | Hereford ↔ Tenbury Wells ↔ Kidderminster ↔ Birmingham | |
| June | 1944 | Hereford ↔ Tenbury Wells ↔ Kidderminster ↔ Birmingham | |
| March | 1947 | Hereford ↔ Tenbury Wells ↔ Kidderminster ↔ Birmingham | |
| May | 1960 | Hereford ↔ Tenbury Wells ↔ Kidderminster ↔ Birmingham | |
| October | 1964 | Leominster ↔ Tenbury Wells ↔ Kidderminster ↔ Birmingham |
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 and Lower Howsell
Service 410: Great Malvern, Barnards Green, Poolbrook circular
Service 412: Worcester, Powick, Malvern Link, Barnards Green and Great Malvern
Service 413: Worcester, Powick, Malvern Link, Belmont and Great Malvern (Sundays only)
Service 478: Great Malvern, West Malvern, Colwall and Ledbury
| 4 | 0 | 9 |
| May | 1977 | Great Malvern → Poolbrook → Great Malvern |