The
Kingfisher Bus and Coach Company came about in October
1989 following the break up of the original
Redline partnership between Stan Pemberton and Mick
Elkins. Basically, each had different ideas on how the
Redline company should develop so they went their
separate ways. In granting Mick Elkins his own
Operator's License for the Kingfisher Bus and Coach
Company the Traffic Commissioner unusually put a
restriction on both the Redline and Kingfisher Licenses
which only allowed one or
other
of the company's to run bus services in Redditch at any
one time. The new Kingfisher company took over services
7 and 8 (Redditch and Matchborough Circulars) and
Schooldays journeys from the Newtown to St Augustine's
School from the Redline Bus Company in October 1989. The
services 7 and 8 were expanded on 12th May 1990 when all
day facilities were provided six days a week. Up to them
there had only been an all day service on Saturdays. On
1st October 1990 a Hereford and Worcester County Council
subsidised service 946 from Headless Cross to Longbridge
Works was introduced following the withdrawal of a
similar route by Harding's Coaches. The 946 was
withdrawn after operation on 22 March 1991 due to poor
patronage. Following the reduction of the vehicle
authorization on the Kingfisher Public Service Vehicle
Operator's License because of vehicle maintenance
problems the services 7 and 8 were reduced to every 15
minutes from 5th August 1992. Further restrictions on
the Operating License meant the school journeys to and
from St Augustine's School were withdrawn and taken over
by Midland Red West. Following a further public enquiry
Kingfisher's Operators License was suspended completely
from 22 September 1992 again because of continued poor
vehicle maintenance. Kingfisher reintroduced the service
7 and 8 from 1 November 1992 when the company's
Operators license was reinstated. The services were
finally withdrawn after operation on 30 January 1993 and
the company purely became a coach operator running
between three and four vehicles until the sale of the
business to Dudley's Coaches in April 2002.
The Kingfisher Bus Fleet
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The coach fleet at the time when the business was sold to Dudley's Coaches in April 2002
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All four vehicles were purchased by Dudley's Coaches with the business though only A124MBA and D426BCJ were retained by Dudley's Coaches. Both vehicles retained their blue and white Kingfisher livery until they were replaced with newer vehicles by Dudley's Coaches.