Mercedes Benz 609D

1412-36, 50484/5 & 1439 E412-39KUY

The second batch of Mercedes 609D minibuses also featured B20F Reeves Burgess bodies, although with detailed differences to the first batch. These included the flap over the destination gear inside the bus being in two halves and the screen behind the driver being Perspex and not the black coated mesh screen of all the older minibuses. 1412-1437 entered service on 23rd April 1988 at Hereford depot in yellow, green and orange Hereford Hopper livery for the new minibus service in the City of Hereford. The remaining two, 1438 and 1439, were delivered in white and were immediately put into store as they were not required for the initial Hereford minibus network. They both found use as driver trainers before moving to Hereford depot after service revisions called for four more vehicles. These being 1438 and 1439 plus 1410 and 1411 from Kidderminster Garage. Kidderminster had two extra Mercedes 608D minibuses as replacements in the shape of 1361 and 1440. Virtually all of the Mercedes 609D minibuses at Hereford carried names which were latter removed when they were reallocated to other depots. In 1991 Centro were becoming concerned with the reliability of the Ford Iveco minibuses that Midland Red West were operating in Birmingham from their Digbeth depot. To keep the Centro happy and to gain long term minibus contracts Midland Red West moved ten Mercedes 609D minibuses (1420-1429) from Hereford to Digbeth, replacing them at Hereford with the Digbeth Ford Ivecos. More of Hereford depot's Mercedes 609D minibuses (1417-1419 &1430-1434) were moved to Digbeth depot in 1993. This time they were replaced at Hereford by older, second-hand Mercedes 608D minibuses that Midland Red West acquired from Bristol Cityline. When Digbeth depot stopped operating minibuses in October 1995, all of their Mercedes 609D minibuses were reallocated to Kidderminster depot. Most remained in service there until late-2001 when they were replaced second hand Mercedes 709D minibuses from Bristol and a number of Mercedes Varios which had become surplus to requirement at Worcester depot.

1463 D763DWT

South Wales Transport took delivery in 1987 of two prototype minibuses based Mercedes Benz 609D chassis. D763DWT as 363 was fitted with a Reeves Burgess body and D764DWT as 364 was fitted with a Robin Hood converted body. In 1994 both became surplus to South Wales Transport requirements and D763DWT passed to Midland Red West and D764DWT passed to Thamesway. On joining the Midland Red West fleet D763DWT was allocated the fleet number 1463 and was repainted from its South Wales Transport green livery into the standard Midland Red West livery of red and cream before entry into service at Digbeth depot. When Digbeth garage stopped operating minibus services, after operation on Saturday 27th October 1995, 1463 moved to Kidderminster depot with the other Digbeth Mercedes 609D minibuses. It remained in service at Kidderminster depot until October 2001, when it was withdrawn and sold like many of the other surplus First Midland Red minibuses at the time to Erith Commercials in April 2002. 

Various between 1606 and 1671

The original vehicles formed part of a 35 vehicle batch 1406-39 (E406-11HAB,E412-39KUY) which were originally allocated to Redditch, Kidderminster and Hereford Garages. Some of these vehicles lasted in service for nearly 14 years. Even when the vehicles were built in 1987 the bus industry was moving towards larger minibuses and so it was strange that in the early 1990's that First Eastern Counties should have a batch of Mercedes 609D vehicles converted by Frank Guy into 20 seat minibuses. Many were used on services that the company had taken over when it purchased a competitor call "Flying Banana". The vehicles were made surplus with service revisions and the transfer of larger Mercedes 709D based vehicles into the fleet. First Midland Red acquired 25 of the vehicles for use at Hereford Garage to replace both Mercedes 608D and older 609D vehicles. Initial examples acquired from Eastern Counties were painted into the then standard Red and Cream fleet livery. However,  in April 2001 N615GAH became the first company vehicle to be painted in the new corporate Firstgroup livery. All the vehicles have been withdrawn as service revisions at other garages have allowed the larger Mercedes 709D and Mercedes Vario vehicles to be transferred to Hereford Garage. This process has also helped the Company dispense with manual gearbox vehicles. Operation of Mercedes 609D minibuses finally came to an end with First Midland Red on Saturday 3rd May 2003 after nearly 16 years use of this type of minibus.