1905-1981 жылдар аралығындағы «Midland Red» автобус компаниясы

British bus company that operated from 1905 until 1981

Midland Red was a bus company that operated in The Midlands from 1905 until 1981. It was one of the largest English bus companies, operating over a large area between Gloucester in the south and Derbyshire in the north, and from Northampton to the Welsh border. The company also manufactured buses.

In 1899 the British Electric Traction (BET) company acquired the assets of the Birmingham General Omnibus Company, which had been formed three years earlier to acquire a number of horse bus operations in Birmingham. When BET ordered new buses for Birmingham the next year, they were painted red to make them stand out. In 1902 BET acquired the City of Birmingham Tramways Company, which operated horse buses 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. In 1912 the company purchased some Tilling Stevens petrol electric buses. Further motor buses followed, and by June 1913 only 17 horse buses remained. The company adopted for its motor buses the red livery used by Birmingham General, and the buses carried the fleetname "Midland". For the service, the company developed Britain's first high speed motor coach. A fleet of ten, capable of speeds of up to , 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.

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. Each new network spawned a localised brand, as follows:

1904: Formation of BMMO. 1905: First services. 1914–1920: Rapid spread of services outside Birmingham to 'Paint the Midlands Red'. 1920s: Development of long distance coach routes using charabancs. 1923: First production run of BMMO buses, SOS 'S' type – one of the first British buses to have pneumatic tyres. 1927: 'QL' type bus produced, the first Midland Red bus design to have brakes on all wheels. 1930s: Development of petrol and diesel engines. Experimental rear engined buses built. 1940s: Experiments with, and production of under floor engined single deck buses. 1950s: Experiments and developments of integral construction, independent front suspension, air suspension, rubber suspension, glass fibre construction and disc brakes. 1958: Introduction of the D9, a new half cab double deck design incorporating most of the successful features developed in the 1950s. 1959: The introduction of the CM5T, a turbocharged coach capable of almost 100 mph, for non stop motorway services. The Birmingham London express coach service launched on 2 November – the same day that the M1 motorway was opened. CM5T designation indicated by 'M' high speed (Motorway) capability and by 'T' fitted with passenger toilet facilities. 1960: Appearance of the first of the two experimental D10 double deckers, with under floor engines. 1963: One of the country's first fully enclosed city centre bus stations was opened at Birmingham's Bull Ring Shopping Centre, from which most Midland Red services in the City Centre departed. 1960s: Larger motorway coach introduced, the CM6T between 1963–6. Midland Red becomes the first British bus company to make wide scale use of computers in compiling bus schedules and staff rosters. 1970s: Winding down of vehicle production. Last Midland Red built bus (S23 single decker no. 5991) produced in 1970. Split up of the operating area – West Midlands PTE take the West Midlands Metropolitan area garages. 1980s: Midland Red split into five operating companies and an engineering company. Leading to privatisation by buy outs. 1990s: Take over by the current conglomerate transport groups.