On deregulation, Midland Red West registered commercial services in Birmingham and the Black Country.  Services 83, 84 and 85 provided through services between the Hawkesley estate and central Birmingham, not provided by West Midlands PTE, with 85 extended to Longbridge Station where it interworked with service 86.  Leyland National GOL429N is seen at Longbridge Station in October 1981, in the livery then recently introduced by Midland Red West and now about to be swept away by FirstGroup son of Barbie.  The 83-86 group has also now gone, the victim of poor profitability and the staff shortages of the new millenium.
 
 
 
 

Back to Hereford, where Midland Red West's City services were provided mainly by a fleet of Mercedes 609s with Reeve Burgess bodywork until recently.  E434KUY is seen in the "Hopper Bus Station" beside the Tesco store in central hereford.  The "Hereford Hopper" fleetname and livery was still much in evidence in February 1992 when this view was taken.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Midland Red West's first "minibus conversion" had been one of the earliest, in 1985, when the whole of Worcester's city services were converted to Mercedes 609's like this one shown leaving Worcester's Crowngate Bus Station, much later in May 1994.  The buses carried a blue and yellow livery when new.  Frequencies on City services were increased by a factor of 3-4 times and a significant increase in passengers was achieved.  The fleet was replaced by Varios with Plaxton Beaver bodies in the late 1990's.