Midland “Red”
BMMO and MROC

Service M44: Service History

Service M44 (1950–1971)

Operated by Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus Company Limited

Service M44 was introduced by Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus Company Limited (BMMO—Midland “Red” Motor Services) on Saturday 1st July 1950. The service ran between Great Malvern, Barnards Green, and Guarlford over the same route as Service M34, but then continued to the military camp at Blackmore Park (No.2 Camp).

The service was extended past Blackmore Camp to Hanley Swan on Monday 10th September 1951, and together with Service M34 was diverted to call at the forecourt of Great Malvern railway station. At the same time a number of journeys on Service M34 were replaced with new journeys on Service M44.

Cuts were made to the Malvern area network on Saturday 26th June 1965 with Service M44 no longer running on Wednesdays, and Service M34 being withdrawn altogether. Further cuts on Saturday 6th January 1968 saw Service M44 running only on Thursdays, and even larger cuts came on Saturday 3rd April 1971 with many rural bus services in all areas being withdrawn, including Service M44.

Service M44 was replaced by Bristol Omnibus Company Limited (BOC), who diverted all of their Service 546 journeys to run via Hanley Swan, although some journeys returned to the original route on Sunday 5th September 1971.

M44

Timetable Archive

October1955Hanley Swan → Guarlford → Great Malvern
June1957Great Malvern ↔ Guarlford ↔ Hanley Swan
January1968Great Malvern ↔ Guarlford ↔ Hanley SwanWithdrawn Apr 1971

Service M44 (1979–1980)

Operated by Midland Red Omnibus Company Limited

With the introduction of the “Severnlink” MAP area scheme on Saturday 13th January 1979, Midland Red Omnibus Company Limited (MROC) extended their Sunday “Motorway Express” Service X43 and Service X44 to The Malverns. To distinguish the Sundays journeys that ran between Birmingham and The Malverns from regular journeys between Birmingham and Worcester, the Sunday workings were renumbered with the extended Service X43 becoming Service M43, and the extended Service X44 becoming Service M44.

Further changes were made to the “Severnlink” MAP area scheme on Saturday 26th May 1979, and at this time the weekday and Saturday operations of Service X43 and Service X44 were also extended to The Malverns, although these mostly only ran as far as Great Malvern and unlike the Sunday journeys they did not continue to British Camp. All journeys on Service X44 were withdrawn and replaced by Service M44.

This change in route number was short-lived and by August 1980, Service M44 and been renumbered back to Service X44.