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Service 32: Service History

Service 32 (1914–1925)

Operated by Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus Company Limited

Service 32 was operated by the Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus Company Limited (BMMO—Midland “Red” Motor Services) from Wednesday 4th November 1914, between Worcester and Bromyard, initially using a vehicle housed at Worcester (St John's) depot.

BMMO started operating omnibus services in Hereford on Wednesday 17th March 1920, with three petrol-electric Tilling-Stevens TS3 single-deck buses from Hereford (Black Lion) depot. Soon afterwards, Service 32 was extended from Bromyard to Hereford to provide a connecting service between the two cities. However very few journeys ran the whole route, with most journeys only running as far as Bromyard from either end, typically on market days. The May 1923 timetable shows the only journey running the whole route between Worcester and Hereford was on a Sunday, but by August 1924, there were also full journeys on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

A second return journey over the whole route on Sundays was added by the end of 1924, but passengers were required to change to a connecting bus in Bromyard. By early 1925, the wait for the connecting journey in Bromyard for passengers using the afternoon bus towards Worcester had grown to over an hour, so it can be assumed the vehicle was used on another route while people waited, although the timetable does not show other routes in the Bromyard area at that time.

Until c. 1924, omnibuses departed Worcester from Little Angel Street, but following the demolition of a number of building this was significantly widened and renamed to Angel Place. Services to Bromyard and Hereford continued to depart from this site until Newport Street Bus Station opened in 1946.

On Saturday 16th May 1925, BMMO renumbered their entire network and routes in the Worcester area were numbered into the range 259–301. At that time, the Worcester, Bromyard and Hereford route became Service 301, but this lasted for less than 3-years and following a second renumbering on Saturday 11th February 1928, the Worcester, Bromyard and Hereford route became Service 420.

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Timetable Archive

May1923Worcester ↔ Bromyard ↔ Hereford
August1924Worcester ↔ Bromyard ↔ Hereford
February1925Worcester ↔ Bromyard ↔ HerefordWithdrawn May 1925

Service 32 (1985–1999)

Operated by Midland Red (West) Limited

At the introduction of the service with the new “Citibus” minibus network on Saturday 23rd November 1985, Service 32 ran every 8-minutes during the daytime and every 30-minutes during the evening, Mondays to Saturday, with an hourly service on Sunday. Buses departed from The Cross is Worcester City Centre and ran via Broad Steet, Deansway and Sidbury to Bath Road, turning into St Peter's Drive and terminating at the junction with Kestrel Drive. Buses would the turn around before returning to the City Centre via Bath Road, City Walls Road and St Nicholas Street.

The service operated as “Hail and Ride” between The Hill Avenue and St Peter's and would pick up or set down anywhere along that section of the route so long as it was safe. However, as with other Hail and Ride services, this was not popular with drivers as the public always considered the safest place to be outside their front door and the driver's opinion on the matter was always wrong. The practice was discouraged by drivers and had almost completely died out by the early 1990, but wasn't officially discontinued until the minibuses were replaced by larger Dennis Dart single-deck buses some ten years later.

With the building of the new housing estate along St Peter's Drive Service 32 was extended on Saturday 6th May 1989 to run the full length of St Peter's Drive and terminate at Greenhill, while the opening of Crowngate Bus Station in 1991 saw the terminus at that end of the route move to the new site along with all other “Citibus” services.

By the end of 1989, the daytime frequency had been reduced to run every 10-minutes and would remain at this level for over 10-year. Evening and Sunday service frequency remained unchanged but these journeys were now supported by funding from Hereford & Worcester County Council. In August 1998, Midland Red West replaced their ageing fleet of minibuses with a fleet of new Mercedes-Benz O.814 Vario minibuses, but otherwise Service 32 remained largely unchanged.

Route Summary

  • Nov 1985–May 1989
  • Worcester (Bus Stn.)
  • Sidbury
  • Bath Road
  • St. Peter’s Drive
  • May 1989–May 1999
  • Worcester (Bus Stn.)
  • Sidbury
  • Bath Road
  • St. Peter’s Drive
  • Broomhall Green

Service 32 (1999— )

Operated by First Midland Red Buses Limited

In 1997, Midland Red West Limited became part of FirstBus, and renamed to First Midland Red Buses Limited on Friday 26th March 1999. Changes were not seen immediately, but now under new management the company started to make changes to their services and as minibuses were no longer in favour these soon started to be withdrawn.

On Sunday 18th April 2004, Service 32 was converted to a become a cross-city route, replacing withdrawn Service 21 between Worcester City Centre, Ombersley Road and Bevere. From the same date, all Service 32 journeys on Sundays, and certain early morning journeys on other days of the week, were withdrawn without replacement as funding to operate these journeys ended following changes to the Worcestershire County Council subsidy strategy.

On Monday 6th September 2004, Service 32 was extended past St Peter's to Kempsey and Baynhall, and a new variation was introduced as Service 32A which ran over the same route as Service 32 between Ombersley Road, the City Centre and St Peter's, and then continued to Norton Barracks. Service 32 and Service 32A both ran every 30-minutes and were interworked to give a 15-minute frequency on most of the route.

The operation of Service 32A was short-lived and the route was withdrawn on Sunday 12th June 2005 due to low patronage. The frequency of Service 32 was increased to every 20-minutes to compensate, which was good news for the small number bus users in Kempsey, but bad news for everyone else on the route. The route at the Bevere end was also changed as the service was now often being worked with larger Dennis Dart single-deck buses and these were too big to make the right-hand turn from Bevere Close into Green Lane. Buses now ran via Grange Avenue and the terminus was moved to the New Inn on Ombersley Road as Green Lane was no longer served.

The extension to Norton Barracks return on Tuesday 1st September 2009, but this time it ran as new Service 32B, with new Service 32A being introduced at the same time as an extension to Worcestershire Royal Hospital. Both of these new variations ran on Monday to Friday at peak-times only.

In April 2012, First Midland Red won a Worcestershire Council Council contract to run Service 362 and Service 364 to Upton-upon-Severn via Kempsey. At this time, the St Peter's to Kempsey and Baynhall section of Service 32 was withdrawn throughout most of the day, with only three peak-time journeys remaining.

On Sunday 10th April 2016 the City Centre to Ombersley Road section of the route was separated and became new Service 37, running over a slightly different route around the housing estate. One journey to Ombersley Road in each direction continues to run as Service 32 on schooldays to take school children to Bath Road for Blessed Edward Oldcorne Catholic College. This journey replaces a journey of Service 37 and is run using a double-deck vehicle. At the same time, Service 362 and Service 364 to Upton-upon-Severn and Great Malvern was withdrawn, being partly replaced by Service 332 running at a reduced frequency of every two hours. To replace buses in Kempsey, certain Service 32 journeys were once again extended past St Peter's to Kempsey and Baynhall to give a 30-minute frequency on that section of the route.

Route Summary

  • Mar 1999–Sep 2004
  • Worcester (Bus Stn.)
  • Sidbury
  • Bath Road
  • St. Peter’s Drive
  • Broomhall Green
  • Sep 2004–Jun 2005
  • Bevere (Green Lane)
  • Ombersley Road
  • Tything
  • Worcester (Bus Stn.)
  • Sidbury
  • Bath Road
  • St. Peter’s Drive
  • Broomhall Green 1
  • Kempsey
  • Baynhall
  • Jun 2005–Apr 2012
  • Bevere (New Inn)
  • Ombersley Road
  • Tything
  • Worcester (Bus Stn.)
  • Sidbury
  • Bath Road
  • St. Peter’s Drive
  • Broomhall Green
  • Kempsey
  • Baynhall
  • Apr 2012–Apr 2016
  • Bevere (New Inn)
  • Ombersley Road
  • Tything
  • Worcester (Bus Stn.)
  • Sidbury
  • Bath Road
  • St. Peter’s Drive
  • Broomhall Green
  • Apr 2016—
  • Worcester (Bus Stn.)
  • Sidbury
  • Bath Road
  • St. Peter’s Drive
  • Broomhall Green 2
  • Kempsey
  • Baynhall 3

1  Between September 2004 and June 2005, Service 32 runs every 30-minutes over the whole route but is interworked with Service 32A to give a 15-minute frequency between Bevere and Broomhall Green.
2  Service 32 operates every 15-minutes to Broomhall Green, with every second bus continuing to Baynhall to give a 30-minute frequency on that section of the route.
3  Certain journeys to Baynhall are run as Service 332 and continue to Upton-upon-Severn.

32

Timetable Archive

June2003Ross-On-Wye ↔ Newent ↔ Gloucester
April2016Worcester ↔ St Peter's ↔ Kempsey ↔ Baynhall

Service 32 (2002–2005)

Operated by First Midland Red Buses Limited

Between c. 2002 and 2005, First Midland Red Buses Limited operated a Herefordshire Council contract between Hereford, Ros-on-Wye and Gloucester. The section of the route between Hereford and Ross-on-Wye ran as Service 38, and the section between Ross-on-Wye and Gloucester ran as Service 32.

The service ran on Sundays-only and was operated by Hereford depot, typically using Optare Solo fleet number 1701 or 1702 as these were part-funded by Herefordshire Council to provide low-floor vehicles on these routes.

32

Timetable Archive

June2003Ross-On-Wye ↔ Newent ↔ Gloucester