The Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus Company better known as Midland Red produced a series of vehicles designed specifically for use on their extensive network of routes in the West Midlands. The first D9 prototype was unveiled in 1958 and between 1960 & 1966 345 vehicles were built making it a dominant double deck type in the Midland Red fleet at that time.

In 1973 part of the Midland Red operation passed to the new West Midlands PTE, amongst the fleet of vehicles transferred to the new operator were 90 D9's, many of which received the PTE's new cream and blue livery.

A small batch of D9's passed to the London based Obsolete Fleet where they converted to open top and used on London Transport's Official Round London Sightseeing Tour.

The first OOC D9's were released in June 2001, the closed top version has since appeared in several variations of the Midland Red livery, while the open top version has so far only been released in London's traditional red livery.