Midland Red (West)
First Midland Red
Midland Red West (First Midland Red) Wrightbus StreetLite - Vehicle Livery

Midland Red West (First Midland Red)
Wrightbus StreetLite — Vehicle Livery

FirstGroup “Urban” Livery

Vehicles new in 2014

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All the Wrightbus Streetlite single-deck buses that entered service in 2014, fleet numbers 47513–47520, carried the standard FirstGroup livery at that time, which was known within the group as “Urban” livery. This livery had first been seen in 2012 on vehicles used during the London Olympics and is therefore dubbed “Olympic” livery by many enthusiasts.

These were the first vehicles operated by First Midland Red to carry this livery from new, although it was already in use on some older vehicles that had received it on repaint. By the time they entered service large “Worcester” fleet names were shown on the offside, while the nearside had an advertising panel and small “First Worcester” fleet names above the passenger doors.

FirstGroup “Urban 2” Livery

Vehicles new in 2015

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By the time the longer Wrightbus Streetlite Max buses arrived in late 2015, the FirstGroup policy on vehicle livery had been relaxed to allow individual operators more control over the livery used on their fleets.

These vehicles were delivered in a new version on the corporate livery, known as “Urban 2”, which still used the standard group colours along the sides and rear, but allowed the front to be painted in a solid colour of the operator’s choice. While some FirstGroup operators used this option for colour-coded route branding, First Midland Red opted to have their entire fleet in the colour Fuchsia.

Like the earlier WrightBus Streetlite buses, a large “Worcester” fleet name was shown on the offside of the vehicle, with an advertising panel on the nearside. Above the windows on these vehicles, “Worcester” was shown on the nearside, while the offside had advertising for FirstDay tickets. The advertising for day tickets was also shown inside the nearside advertising panel and was visible only when no third-party advertising was fitted.

Because of the mix-up with registrations, some of the initial vehicles at Worcester should have been at Leicester, and these vehicles entered service with no fleet names or markings.