On Saturday 29th June 1968, Service B87 was renumbered to Service 87. This route was part of the Dudley Road group of services, originally introduced in 1939 to replace withdrawn tram services. The group of services were jointly operated by Birmingham City Transport (BCT) and Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus Company Limited (BMMO—Midland “Red” Motor Services), and the change of route number was following a request by BCT.
BMMO's operations on the Dudley Road services, including Service 87 workings, passed to West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive (WMPTE) on Monday 3rd December 1973, as part of the 1973 BMMO Transfer of Services and Assets to WMPTE. However, that would not be the last involvement by Midland Red on the route, as after deregulation, Midland Red West Limited would operate certain journeys on Service 82 and Service 87 from their Birmingham (Digbeth) depot, under contract from Centro.
See Service B87 for more information on this group of services.