Oxford

updated Sunday 6th May 2001
the next update will be on Sunday 13th May 2001

Please note that any comments made in this news page are those of the Editors' and in no way constitute
any official points of view from the bus companies mentioned, or indeed any other official body.
As a news page we reserve the right to make valid comments as seen from an editorial point of view.

Problems with the pictures ! - sometimes it seems that the pictures do not load.
I have found a solution which does work normally -
RIGHT CLICK ON THE PICTURE AND THEN CLICK ON "SHOW PICTURE"
Good luck !

Even MORE congestion in Oxford
Roadworks in George Street bring city buses to a standstill.

Last Monday saw the commencement of roadworks in George Street to repair a collapsed sewer. Expected to take 11 weeks, some congestion at busy times was expected. I took time on Friday afternoon to see how things were going and witnessed a period of virtual gridlock in the affected area. Traffic cutting through from Beaumont Street to George Street, supposed to be mainly buses, was mixed with cars and taxis and at 4pm had come to a complete standstill. The jams, in fact, extended from St Giles, in the north, to Park End Street in the west. Buses were taking up to 60 minutes to get from the Randolph Hotel to Queens Street, a journey normally of less than 5 minutes. The havoc caused to the schedules on routes such as the 2, 7 and 300 had a knock-on effect for some two or more hours. The police seemed unwilling or unable to resolve the problem and if this is to happen for the next 11 weeks the impact on bus services in the rush hour period will have an impact throughout the city. The delay indeed spread to New Road and Park End Street resulting in delays to many other services. The temporary bus exit from Worcester Street eastbound towards Beaumont Street was being abused by many vehicles and delays to services using Gloucester Green Coach Station were inevitable. To illustrate the problem I show photos below of Oxford Bus 643 on the 2 road to Barton taking 40 minutes for a journey of less than a quarter of a mile.

It did seem to me, as just an interested bystander, that had the police controlled the junctions at New Road/Worcester Street and Park End Street/Beckett Street plus cars being excluded from George Street most of the delays could have been avoided.

As a result of the problems Oxford Bus will introduce a revised timetable on 2 road services between Kidlington and Barton with effect from Monday 7th May until at least July 1st. Buses are being retimed to operate 5 minutes earlier throughout.

The extent of the congestion can be seen here with lines of stationary buses telling their
own tale. The drivers stance in the car nearest the camera speak volumes!

A photo in this weeks Oxford Mail shows the new coach unloading bays featured in my report last week. That photo clearly shows the restriction to the road width in St Giles adding yet another hazard to the already congested northern approach to the city. This combined with the George Street works and the onset of the tourist season should make for great frustration and time consuming delays in the coming months.

Beaumont Street opposite the Randolph Hotel and the temporary stops for northbound services.

Another place facing roadworks, this time hopefully resulting in reduced delays, is the exit from the Rail Station. The roadway there is to be made into two exit lanes at a cost of £35,000. and should make getting out of the station, only recently re-modelled, much easier.

with hindsight it does seem a pity that the closure of Gloucester Green Coach Station for planned repairs could not have been timed to coincide with the George Street repairs, thereby reducing traffic flows in the area. One can only hope that sufficient thought and planning goes into that work before the fatal day.

May 1st saw a massive police presence in London and High Wycombe had its own small day last Saturday when the town's home team, Wycombe Wanderers hosted Colchester United. Colchester fans spent sometime drinking in a pub by the railway station and when the time came to make their way to the ground at Adams Park, police decided to WALK them there. A group of some 50 fans were escorted by a near equal number of police in riot gear escorted by police vans and an empty Arriva bus (5832) which had been scheduled to take them from the station to Adams Park. Severe traffic congestion resulted but no incidents were seen or reported. The game ended in a 1-1 draw. I did not stay to see the return of the fans to the station!

Wycombe is also subject to major roadworks in the town centre with all bus services routing round the outskirts. delays seem minimal however, except for the incident mentioned above.

A Wycombe Running day will offer travel on many historic buses including Routemasters and many other interesting buses.

2001 - a Bus Odyssey

Wycombe Running Day

Sunday 27th May 2001
10 until 5

Rover ticket £5
Child/OAP £3
Family £9

This year's routes are:
36 Frieth Schools
305/42 West Wycombe
363 Penn
455 Beaconsfield

A DAY OUT FOR ALL THE FAMILY
Timetables available from Newlands Bus Station

The Wycombe Bus Running Day promises to be a bumper extravaganza this year and will probably the last time that the Wycombe Bus Company livery will be seen in at such an event. Thames Valley livered Olympian 5829 which was due for a repaint will it seems remain in its commemorative colours, at least for the time being and will be one of the stars of the open day. So don't miss the fun from ten 'til five , timetables can be obtained from Wycombe Bus Station.

Your editor took the opportunity to use the 757/767 service for a journey from home into High Wycombe on Saturday afternoon. 308 was the coach operating the 1300 from our village and for my return I planned on the 1455 from Wycombe. Some 60 minutes later at nearly 4 pm green livered V19 (K90SAS) turned up and the driver told us that the preceding service had broken down. This does highlight the frustration caused to passengers waiting in remote areas without shelter who have no way of knowing where the coach is!

Here we see Plaxton Volvo nr 305 bearing yet another super rear ad.
I know it is a revenue earner but it does yet again clash with the overall
colour scheme. However not like some of the companies other vehicles
such as the decker I illustrated some weeks ago.

Arriva 5102 repainted into corporate livery. It seen here in heavy traffic in Oxford
last Friday on its way to the station. Sources at Arriva tell me this will normally
be used on the 280 and as with the newer NCME bodied versions, not at night times.

The interior has been refurbished, using the latest seat covering
with extensive work having been carried out on the rest of the interior.

This week sees Wright Darts 3816 and 3818 away for repaint and 5824 away for other work.

Matt Wheeler writes to say that double deck 5382 (TPD115X) appeared on Aylesbury town route 5, which is normally operated by one of the Plaxton bodied Mercedes 709D minibuses.

3823 - N523MJO - an ex Wycombe Bus Dennis Dart/Plaxton example
has been repainted into corporate Arriva livery leaving on 3825
to be completed in this batch. The silver wheels are a dead giveaway for repaints.

Matt Wheeler also writes to note , relevant to Aylesbury, that National Express have dropped their route 347 for the summer timetable. It ran from the east (Great Yarmouth) to the west (Taunton) and passed through Luton, Tring, Aylesbury and Thame. Apparently Tring residents are unhappy as although there was only one journey each way per day, they are now rather inconvenienced, as they now have to travel to London or Milton Keynes for coach services to places on route 347.

My own experience of National Express is that they change everything all the time and when my mother needs to travel to Manchester, she used to be able to go from Heathrow on a through coach. Then, with the loss of that service, we found one from Oxford through to Manchester leaving at 0815. That service is now curtailed and she must change at Birmingham, which for an 87 year old is a most unpleasant experience. Again she must go to Luton to get to our village if she wishes to avoid the change in Birmingham. The North Western Road Car timetable for 1939 (62 years ago) gave a service from Altrincham to High Wycombe and did so for the next 30 years. Now unless you want to go to London NatEx seem reluctant to offer a service. Our Government has a long way to go before it can truly encourage the use of public transport.

Oxford Bus Company have just renovated this 1940s AEC Regal
in time for it to be present at the Brighton Rally this weekend.
It is seen here outside Florence Park in Oxford on a test run after the overhaul.

Olympian 223 . long time bearer of Fox FM advertising livery is about
to be repainted in fleet livery. It is seen here in Cowley Road works paintshop.

Just having emerged from repaint is this Volvo coach nr 11,
which has been completed in X90 branded livery.
It was previously an airport branded coach.

Oxford Bus has suffered from the road works in town and many services have been delayed beyond those parameters normally accepted by the company.

Also due to roadworks on 16 road, an exchange of buses has taken place between the 13 and 16 road rosters. Normally two SLF Darts have swopped with two B10BLEs of the 8xx series.

Correcting my earlier reports Olympians 208 and 222 are still away in Cornwall with Truronian whilst 221 is at Crawley. 214 and 224 are now undergoing a full overhaul in Cowley Road works. They will both be repainted during the course of those overhauls. As mentioned above 223 is presently under repaint with 220 completed. This means that 208, 214, 220-224 will be this years fleet of Q busters, a total of 7 vehicles.

Reading Buses operate the 328 service to High Wycombe and normally provide an
Optare for the service. Here we see 503 on Saturday afternoon loading for its return journey.

Coach Rally winner nr 38 has been adorned with new Stagecoach vinyls giving
the very latest corporate identity. The Tube livery will, we understand,
remain, for the time being.

The Tube operate two special journeys each weekday, THE CAPITAL SELECT, at 6am and 6.30am.
They run non stop from Thornhill/Sandhills to Marble Arch, as indicated on the display above.
Newspapers and Fruit Juice are available FREE OF CHARGE.
The coach I saw above was very well loaded and the service is obviously very popular.

The second of the old Thames Transit Darts has emerged in the new livery.
754 was working the 30 last Saturday when caught by my camera.

Courtesy Stagecoach Oxford I am able to bring to you their vehicle allocation for May 2001. This is given in Acrobat PDF format and you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this table.

PHOTO CORNER
If you have a digital camera and wish to submit photos for this page please send them to the me at
malcolmhc@aol.com

The 74 runs between High Wycombe and Heathrow on an hourly headway.
Regular performers on this route are branded Darts such as 207 from first Bee Line seen above.
The bus is leaving Newlands Bus Station on its way to Heathrow.

Tappins run a very well maintained fleet of mainly Volvo coaches.
Following the fleet list published some weeks ago, we now show
this low driving posn. Volvo 504 ECZ3504 which was visiting Oxford Bus depot
in Cowley road a few weeks ago.

Stagecoach Manchester ran a large fleet of Volvo B6s for a few years but more recently
these were cascaded through the group and many ended up in Oxford and latterly
with Stagecoach Midland Red. This one 463 P353JND is based at Banbury and is seen
here outside Debenhams, the Terminus for the X59 Oxford-Banbury service.

Thanks to Matt Wheeler for the picture above. It was taken last week in
the shopping centre at Cowley where the Tesco Store is located.