Service W25 was introduced by the Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus Company Limited (BMMO—Midland “Red” Motor Services) on Monday 3rd June 1935, as an extension to the established Service W5 and serving Brickfields Estate.
At the time the route was introduced in 1935, buses departed from St Nicholas Street in Worcester City Centre and followed the existing Service W5 route over Rainbow Hill to the terminus near the junction with Brickfields Road. They then turned right into Brickfields Road and followed that road to the terminus at the junction with Glenthorne Avenue. The return journey to Worcester traversed the same route.
There were 16 departures from the City Centre each day at uneven intervals between 07:30 and 22:50, on Monday to Saturday, or 14 departures on Sunday from 09:50 to 22:55. Ten minutes in each direction was given for the journey, which was just over 1½-miles each way. The fare for the full route was 2d., or 1½d. between the City Centre and Rainbow Hill.
Although this service was relatively infrequent, both Service W5 and Service W15 also operated along the Rainbow Hill corridor, and their combined timetables saw a bus on that section of the route in each direction every 10-minutes in the mornings and evenings, and every 7 or 8 minutes in the afternoon until 20:00.
After the Second World War, the Brickfields Estate and surrounding areas would see significant new housing development, and with the extra demand the frequency of Service W25 would increase. A low railway bridge near the western end of Brickfields Road would restrict this route to single-deck buses only, so unlike other routes in the Worcester City network it was never upgraded to double-deck operation when the Daimler Fleetlines were introduce to the network in the mid-1960s.
The terminus in Worcester City Centre would change a number of times over the years, but otherwise the route was unchanged until it was withdrawn after the end of trading on Friday 13th February 1976.
BMMO renamed to Midland Red Omnibus Company Limited (MROC) on Friday 29th March 1974, after selling their operations and depots in Birmingham to West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive (WMPTE) a few months earlier. Other than the name on the side of the bus this did not effect the operation of Service W15 or Service W25, which continued to operate until the end of trading on Friday 13th February 1976.
From the following day, a new Worcester City local bus network was introduced, using one-man operated Leyland National buses, and Service W25 was replaced by new Service W35. This new route was a direct replacement for Service W25, running from Angel Place along the same route but extended to Sheepscombe Drive on the Warndon Estate. The Rainbow Hill corridor has continuously been served by Service W35, later simply Service 35, by buses housed at Worcester depot carrying various company names to this day.
Route number W25 was reused by Midland Red Omnibus Company Limited (MROC) from Saturday 13th January 1979, as part of the new “Severnlink” Market Analysis Project (MAP) scheme. This time it was used on the Worcester to Rushwick route, which historically had been known as Service W11, but from Saturday 14th February 1976 had been converted to one-man operation working as Service W56, also with evening cross-city connections to Warndon and Bath Road.
Rushwick had lost their local bus route on Sundays in October 1970, and with the introduction of Severnlink and renumbering to Service W25, they also lost their evening service and cross-city connections. Otherwise the route operated much the same as it had done while numbered Service W56.
Midland Red Omnibus Company Limited (MROC) ceased trading as a bus and coach operator on Saturday 5th September 1981, and from the following day Service W25, along with the rest of the Worcester City local bus network, would be opperated by the newly formed Midland Red (West) Limited. The route would be withdrawn altogether in 1982, and replaced by diverting Service 420 to run via Rushwick, but it would return again in 1985 as Service 25, when minibuses were introduced to Worcester City.