Midland “Red”
BMMO and MROC

Service 413: Service History

Service 413 (1928–1965)

Operated by Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus Company Limited

From Sunday 8th May 1927, Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus Company Limited (BMMO—Midland “Red” Motor Services) operated a Thursday and Sunday only service between Worcester, The Malverns, British Camp, Ledbury, Much Marcle, Ross-On-Wye and Whitchurch (for Symonds Yat), as Service 296.

On Saturday 11th February 1928, the company renumber all of their services and at this time Service 296 became Service 413, but as this was a Summer Season service operation did not start until Sunday 3rd June 1928.

For the 1934 season, which started on Thursday 17th May 1934, Service 413 was shown in timetables as being extended from Worcester to start in Birmingham, although for most journeys this was simply a connecting bus a Worcester with Service 144 to Birmingham and passengers needed to change buses. There were however a few journeys that ran the whole route and these were operated by Bearwood depot.

By the 1938 season, Service 413 had been extended to run from Birmingham to Symonds Yat for the whole of the season. Following the outbreak of the Second World War, summer season services were suspended from Saturday 23rd September 1939, and surprisingly Service 413 returned for the 1940 season, initially running to Ross-on-Wye, then to Symonds Yat from Sunday 14th July 1940. It was suspended again at the end of the season on Sunday 22nd September 1940 and was not reinstated until the 1946 season. After the War, only one return journey was offered on Sundays only, and these ran the whole route without the need to change buses.

From Sunday 22nd July 1962 the service was rerouted to run via the M5 and M50 motorways, no longer serving The Malverns. This reduced the running time by an hour in each direction, allowing the outbound journey to depart an hour later and achieve the same arrival time, while the return journey departed Symonds Yat at the same time but arrived in Birmingham an hour earlier. The 1965 season ran from Sunday 18th April 1965 to Sunday 26th September 1965, but this was to be the last as Service 413 did not return for the 1966 season.

413

Timetable Archive

September1929Worcester ↔ Great Malvern ↔ Whitchurch
July1930Worcester ↔ Great Malvern ↔ Whitchurch
June1938Birmingham ↔ Worcester ↔ Great Malvern ↔ Symonds Yat
July1938Birmingham ↔ Worcester ↔ Great Malvern ↔ Symonds Yat
June1940Birmingham ↔ Worcester ↔ Great Malvern ↔ Ross-On-Wye
July1940Birmingham ↔ Worcester ↔ Great Malvern ↔ Symonds Yat
April1956Birmingham ↔ Worcester ↔ Great Malvern ↔ Symonds Yat
June1957Birmingham ↔ Worcester ↔ Great Malvern ↔ Symonds Yat
May1960Birmingham ↔ Worcester ↔ Great Malvern ↔ Symonds Yat
July1963Birmingham ↔ Worcester ↔ Symonds Yat
April1965Birmingham ↔ Worcester ↔ Symonds YatWithdrawn Sep 1965

Service 413 (1976–1979)

Operated by Midland Red Omnibus Company Limited

At the end of operations on Friday 1st October 1976, Malvern depot was closed and Service 144 was converted to one-man operation and cut back to run only between Birmingham and Worcester. To replace the Worcester to The Malverns section of the 144 route, a new Service 412 was introduced which ran daily. For Sundays only, new Service 413 was also introduced as a variation to Service 412, running between Worcester, Malvern Link, Belmont, Link Top and Great Malvern. This ran an hourly frequency, inter-worked with Service 412 to give a 30-minute frequency on the Worcester to Malvern Link section of the route.

Service 413 last operated on Sunday 7th January 1979, being withdrawn due to low passenger numbers with the introduction of the “Severnlink” MAP scheme on Saturday 13th January 1979.

413

Timetable Archive

New October1976Worcester ↔ Malvern Link ↔ Belmont ↔ Great MalvernWithdrawn Jan 1979