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Service M28: Service History

Introduction

Service M28

New Service 378 was introduced by Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus Company Limited (BMMO—Midland “Red” Motor Services) on Sunday 19^th May 1929, running between Great Malvern, Malvern Wells and Upper Welland (Marl Bank). Initially the service ran during the summer season with three return journeys on Sundays only.

On Monday 7^th January 1935, local Malvern services were renumbered with ‘M’-prefix route numbers. Service 378 was not considered a local service so was not included at this time, but the company later changed its mind and Service 378 was renumbered into the local Malvern sequence as Service M28 on Sunday 3^rd July 1938.

Service M28 (1938–1939)

Operated by Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus Company Limited

Service 378 running during the summer season between Great Malvern, Malvern Wells and Upper Welland (Marl Bank) was renumbered to Service M28 on Sunday 3^rd July 1938. The service ran on Sundays only throughout the 1938 and 1939 summer seasons, but was then withdrawn due the fuel rationing introduced shortly after the start of the Second World War.

Route Summary

¹  Service M28 ran only on Sundays during the Summer Season.

Service M28 (1946–1971)

Operated by Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus Company Limited

After the end of the Second World War, BMMO started to reinstate some of the services that had been withdrawn at the end of 1939. Due to continuing shortages some services did not return for several years, but Service M28 was one of the first to return in the Malvern area. The service was reinstated over the original route in early 1946.

While the pre-war Service M28 ran only on Sundays during the summer seasons, the post-war Service M28 ran throughout the year on Mondays to Saturdays, with no service on Sundays. Two return journeys were offered each day, and from Monday 4^th November 1946 the route was extended from Upper Welland (Marl Bank) to Welland (Cross Roads).

The first journey in the morning was operated with a vehicle from Worcester depot which departed Worcester as the 08:10 Service 144, arriving at Great Malvern (Belle Vue Terrace) at 08:44 where it would change to Service M28. However, the Service 144 timetable showed this journey running through to Malvern Wells, so confusingly sometimes the vehicle would depart Great Malvern showing route number 144, and other times it would show route number M28,

By the end of 1949, an additional return journey was offered on Friday mornings. The only other change was on Monday 10^th February 1958 when the route was extended to Welland Court Turn, which resulted in journeys towards Great Malvern running nine minutes later, but otherwise the timetable remained unchanged until 1965.

From Saturday 2^nd October 1965, the morning Service M28 journey on Saturdays was diverted to call at St. Wulstans Hospital, and an additional Saturday-only short-working Service M28 journey from Great Malvern to the Hospital was introduced, departing at 11:35.

Economic problems saw one-man operation introduced at Malvern depot from Saturday 2^nd May 1970, but Service M28 was never operated as such, and was withdrawn on Saturday 3^rd April 1971 as part of a general cut in rural services.

Route Summary

¹  The extension to Welland Court Turn was not always shown on timetables.
²  Certain Saturday journeys divert to, or terminate at St. Wulstans Hospital.