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Service 418: Service History

Service 418 (2001–2010)

Operated by First Midland Red Buses Limited

Service 418 was introduced by First Midland Red Buses Limited on Monday 3^rd September 2001 as an evening variation of Service 420, running between Hereford Bus Station and Bromyard via St Peter's Square, Ledbury Road, Lugwardine and Bartestree to Whitestone, then over the same route as Service 420 to Bromyard.

The service was run as part of a Herefordshire County Council contract, with journeys towards Bromyard departed Hereford Country Bus Station at 18:45, 20:15, and 22:45 and return journeys departing Bromyard Pump Street at 19:27 and 20:55.

On Sunday 5^th September 2004, the funding for Service 418 and an hourly frequency on Service 420 ended. From the following day, all but one morning journey on Service 418 was withdrawn, and Service 420 returned to being operated every two hours in each direction. The Service 419 variation was withdrawn.

Service 418 (2018)

Operated by First Midland Red Buses Limited

New Service 418 was introduced on Saturday 9^th June 2018, as a variation to Service 417, running on Summer Saturdays only direct between Cradley and Worcester. The services is intended to provide additional capacity between Bosbury and Worcester to accommodate large number of Seasonal Workers who used Service 417 from Mathon Turn, sometimes overloading the bus and prevented passengers on other parts of the route from travelling. With this in mind, a double-deck vehicle was allocated to the route and the village of Cradley was omitted to avoid low trees.

Initially the timetable had the service running a few minutes before the first Service 417 of the day, but when this was shown to the farm where the Seasonal Workers were based they asked for it to run later as it would allow the workers to visit a local market. This was done but unfortunately the workers mostly ignored Service 418 and continued to use Service 417 and the problem of overloading continued.

It is believed that for the 2019 season, First are in negotiations with the local authorities to cut back the trees in Cradley Village to allow all Service 417 journeys to operate with a double-deck vehicle on Saturdays, hopefully solving the overloading problems.