Midland Red

Origins

In 1899, British Electric Traction (BET) acquired the assets of the Birmingham General Omnibus Company, which had been formed three years earlier to acquire a number of horse-drawn omnibus operations in Birmingham. When the BET ordered new buses for Birmingham the next year, they were painted red to make them stand out. In 1902, the BET acquired the City of Birmingham Tramways Company, which operated omnibuses as well as trams.

The Birmingham & Midland Motor Omnibus Company (BMMO) was formed by local businessmen in November 1904 to operate motor bus services in Birmingham. When the directors failed to attract sufficient investors, the BET acquired control of the new company, and in 1905 transferred its local omnibus operations to it. The company also acquired a motor bus company which had started in 1903. BMMO started operations under its own name in July 1905. However, the company experienced problems with its motor buses, and in 1907, reverted all its motor bus services to omnibus operation.

In 1912, the company purchased some Tilling-Stevens petrol-electric buses. Further motor buses followed, and by June 1913, only 17 horse-drawn omnibus remained. The company adopted for its motor buses the red livery used by Birmingham General, and the buses carried the fleetname "Midland". They soon acquired the nickname Midland Red.

Expansion outside Birmingham

By 1912, the Birmingham Corporation Tramways had used its statutory powers to acquire the city's tramways which it did not already own, and wanted to consolidate the operation of bus and tram operations in the city. Since it was going to be difficult for BMMO to expand in the city, it reached agreement with the corporation to operate services from outside Birmingham into the city and transfer its services within the city to the corporation. The company then expanded outside Birmingham, and moved its headquarters to Bearwood in Smethwick.

During World War I, the company took over BET operations in Worcester and elsewhere, and after the war opened depots in Walsall, Coventry, Wolverhampton, Hereford, Stafford, Banbury, Bromsgrove, Shrewsbury, Nuneaton, Leamington Spa and Leicester. Starting with the replacement of services in Worcester in June 1928, during the late 1920s, the tramways owned by BET in the Black Country were gradually replaced by Midland Red buses.

In 1930, the Great Western Railway and the London Midland & Scottish Railway together acquired 50% of the company. The few GWR bus services in the area were transferred to Midland Red.

Coach services

Midland Red started express coach services in 1921 with routes to Weston-super-Mare and Llandudno. Coach services expanded, and after the acquisition of long-distance Cheltenham coach operator Black and White Motorways Ltd in 1930, in 1934, Midland Red became a founder member of the Associated Motorways consortium.

Coach services were heavily reduced during World War II, but expanded again after the war. When the M1 motorway opened in 1959, Midland Red started non-stop express services between Birmingham and London, and later between Coventry and London. For the service, the company developed Britain's first high-speed motor-coach. A fleet of ten, capable of speeds of up to 85 miles per hour (140 km/h), were built at the company's workshops at Edgbaston. The opening of the M5 motorway enabled the operation of express services between Birmingham and Worcester.

Nationalisation

When the railways were nationalised forming in 1947 under the Transport Act 1947, Midland Red became 50% state-owned. In 1968, the BET's UK bus interests were sold to the state-owned Transport Holding Company, which in turn became the National Bus Company (NBC) the following year. Under NBC ownership, Midland Red's livery was changed from a deep red to NBC corporate poppy red.

Following the passage of the Local Government Act 1972, in 1973, Midland Red's garages and routes within the new metropolitan county of the West Midlands, with the exception of Digbeth Coach Station, Bearwood and Cradley Heath, were transferred to the control of the West Midlands Passenger Transport Authority, leaving Midland Red with country and local routes mainly in Derbyshire, Herefordshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire and express services. With the loss of garages and services in and around Birmingham, the company was renamed the Midland Red Omnibus Co. in March 1974.

Rebranding

From 1977 onwards, after extensive passenger research the company was rebranded into local area names under the Viable Network Project, something that was soon renamed as the Market Analysis Project and widely adopted throughout NBC and elsewhere in the bus industry. Starting in Evesham, each new network spawned a localised brand, as follows:

Privatisation

As part of the privatisation of the National Bus Company, each of the companies were sold between 1986 and 1988:

• Midland Fox was sold on 18 August 1987 in a management buyout, with independent Stevensons of Uttoxeter taking a share of the company and purchasing the Swadlincote depot. Today, all have been reunited as part of Arriva Midlands.
• Midland Red North was sold on 27 January 1988 to the Drawlane Transport Group. It was included in the sale of Drawlane to British Bus, which in turn became part of the Cowie Group. Today, it is part of Arriva Midlands.
• Midland Red South was sold on 10 December 1987 to the Western Travel Group, the holding company for the Cheltenham and Gloucester Omnibus Company. Today, it is part of Stagecoach West and Stagecoach Midlands. Midland Red (South) Ltd is the legal name for Stagecoach Midlands.
• Midland Red West was sold on 22 December 1986 in a management buyout led by managing director Ken Mills to Midland West Holdings, who also took over Midland Red Coaches on the same date. After being purchased by Badgerline in April 1989, it is today part of First Midland Red, however it has only one surviving depot in Worcester; the Kidderminster and Redditch operations were sold to the Rotala Group in January 2013 and integrated into Diamond West Midlands as the FirstGroup withdrew from operating in Hereford.
• Carlyle Works, formerly Midland Red Engineering, was sold to Frontsource Limited, who also purchased the engineering divisions of an initial eight and later nine NBC subsidiaries. After having built numerous minibus bodies and also acquired the rights to build Duple Coachbuilders' body design for the successful Dennis Dart midibus chassis, later renamed the Carlyle Dartline, Carlyle Works collapsed into liquidation in October 1991 after a sharp fall in orders amid the early 1990s recession.