Oxford, High Wycombe & surrounding areas
from THE OXFORD BUS PAGE

Visit the Archive Pages going back to 1998

Your reports are welcome at malcolmhc@aol.com

updated Sunday 7th October 2001
the next update will be on Monday 15th October 2001
(There will also be a short update after I visit the Coach & bus Show at NEC on Wednesday next)

   Issue nr. 166  

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 !

If you wish to be included on a mailing list where I will advise of any mid week news please
let me know on malcolmhc@aol.com

Welcome to issue 166, which has a "country" flavour this week. I have taken the chance to visit Witney, Chipping Norton, Enstone and Banbury and am pleased to bring news and photos from those areas. Sunday saw me at the Amersham & District Running Day, though my stay was brief - it was cold, wet and windy!

Another scoop for this week's page are photos of the latest Stagecoach deliveries, two new M A N saloons, 942 and 943. These are the first PCVs I have seen with the new style registrations from the Oxford area. They are not expected to enter service until 21st October.

I am delighted with the response received from those readers who have requested to put their names on my mailing list for mid week news updates. TWENTY ONE of you have so far replied and I will try to ensure you are kept fully updated as the weeks progress.

The weekend also included a visit to Amersham & Districts Running Day which seems to sometimes have weather more becoming of Showbus. This Sunday was no exception and the wet and windy weather seemed not to deter many from sampling the delights on show. Services were run as usual and each bus seemed to have a good load. This beautiful AEC Regal T792 was not operational during the time I spent at Amersham but I am sure many people would have delighted on being able to ride on such a lovely bus. It was shortly after this picture was taken that the heavens opened and most people retired to the sales stalls situated under cover in the car park. Arriva's local contribution was the recently repainted Olympian double deck coach 5823, which was also acting as Rally Control. It had only just returned from having floor repairs carried out in Birmingham. Other buses seen were a goodly collection of RTs, RFs and an RLH. There was also an RTL in Stevenson's livery with platform doors. The free services were covering many local routes and when I left, I followed a well laden RF, MXX8 down the hill towards Old Amersham.

There were of course more modern vehicles such as a Leyland National and Routemasters plus a First London Volvo Olympian from Uxbridge V55. A delightful old timer was a Brighton & Hove AEC Regent 63, FUF63 still resplendent in its original livery.

I am sure that everyone who went had a good day despite the weather. Indeed if you wait for the weather you could wait for a very long time!

Saturday provided marginally better weather for my trip around Oxfordshire, which started at Stagecoach in Oxford, where I saw the new M A Ns mentioned above and below. Then I moved on to Witney where I was able to see the depot currently undergoing some refurbishment. This will provide better office accommodation and smarten the whole place up. However it is always a case of good and bad and one sadness is the eventual disappearance of the City of Oxford motor Services title still visible on the frontage, which will disappear under the renovations. I took one last shot of the front with a Stagecoach ex London Dart leaving the garage, nr 728, seen below.

The old COMS lettering can just be seen above the doorway.

I had a good look around the depot, having been greeted by a very helpful Duty Controller, before moving down to the town centre to see bus operations in Witney. Most services, apart from the 100 to Oxford seemed to be in the hands of Mercedes mini buses and I saw one operating the 101 to Carterton.  462, seen in the photo here was previously with Stagecoach Manchester and was one of a small batch transferred, most ending up at Witney garage. some of the workings done by Witney can be read about in the excellent work done by Vic Gackowski some weeks ago, regarding Stagecoach services in the area. There is no actual bus station in Witney and services have to suffice with on street loading points. This is not helped by the fact that whilst I was there several people left private cars on the bus stops causing one Oxford bound Olympian to end up loading at near right angles to the bus stop. I think the cause is the bank situated by the bus stop in question, which is the reason so many cars stop in the way of the buses.

Another operator to serve Witney is Worth's of Enstone who operate an hourly service from Chipping Norton using SLF Darts and occasionally coaches. I was to see more of Worth's as I went to Chipping Norton after Witney. Indeed it is a most pleasant ride through Charlbury. On my way I passed Y4WMS operating the 1130 service to Witney from Charlbury, with quite a reasonable load. I was to see the bus again later in Chippy on its way to Banbury as a Thursdays and Saturdays only service 71.

Realising that I was only 3 miles from Enstone I thought I would pop into Worth's to see what was on offer and I was pleased that I had done. They really do have a very nice and well cared for fleet and I was able to photograph, as below - ex Oxford Volvo coach 51 - now repainted in silver and blue. It looked really smart and is a credit to its new owners.

Dart SLF, S2WMS was waiting to operate the 1210 from Chippy to Witney and was also immaculately turned out. I then went on to Chippy and having heard quite a bit about it from various readers, I was pleased with what I saw. SCiO 514 was operating a 50 service to Oxford, followed by a Stagecoach Merc minibus to Banbury. Shrtly after I got to West Street, S2WMS arrived to take up service to Witney. Later SCiO 906 passed through on the 50 to Stratford followed by a Worth's Volvo B10M bringing children from orchestra practice which I think is off the Cowley Road in Oxford. Y4WMS then flashed through on its way to Banbury. Unless the timetable is wrong it was running about 15 minutes early by the time it got to Banbury but maybe my watch was wrong.

Y4WMS shows two route numbers as it arrives in Chippy.

A nice shot then presented itself of a Pulham's Volvo en route to Cheltenham. It paused in West Street and seemed very lightly loaded. It did make a nice picture though as seen below. It carried a cherished registration LDD468 and first saw the light of day as F150RFH and was new to Pulham's. This company appear to operate a Banbury-Cheltenham service.

Moving on to Banbury I found myself following Y4 again as it sped along the country roads. We passed Worth's L150HUD working the 1240 71 service from Banbury to Oxford. It takes nearly two hours for this service to reach Oxford and had it not been for my wish to see the football on TV I could have visited Banbury, taken my photos and, using the M40 got down to Oxford in time to see it arrive in St Giles! L150 was also in fleet livery and looked every inch as smart as L151.

Certainly if anyone wants a nice day out I could recommend a trip from Oxford to Banbury via Witney and Chipping Norton, using bus services which offer seemingly reliable and nice modern buses.

The scenery is also very nice with Cotswold stone building all around.

Arriving in Banbury I took a few minutes to find the bus station. Stupid of me really, since I went there with Oxford coach 59 earlier in the year, on my way back from Rugby (see these pages). I eventually was able to park my car on a 15 minute bay right by the bus station and get a nice few shots for a 10p parking fee. I have received a number of e-mails from you about Banbury and thought it was time I visited to see what goes on. The Stagecoach garage is in Canal Street and was, I think, at one time a Midland Red outpost. It is now home to a fleet of Volvo B6BLEs, Mercedes 709D and 811D minibuses plus an odd Volvo B10M, a single Olympian d/d  and a Leyland Tiger coach in Chiltern Trains livery. Oh and they have a few Darts which I did not see. The bus station as can be seen in the picture below is modern and well built. It has lovely green railings which seem to make it so much better than Gloucester Green in Oxford. It is also much larger for a less utilised station but I suppose they had the space!

Local services use a street close by an it is here that one gets a continual parade of buses from a variety of companies. It seems that three operators serve the local needs of the Banbury inhabitants. Also Geoff Amos comes in hourly on his Great Central connection to Rugby. He uses Caetano bodied Dart SLFs as does Cheney on their local service.

Cheney W3CTS ,a Caetano Dart is followed by SCiB 857, an ex Cambus Volvo B6BLE.

A surprise for a first time visitor to Banbury was this First Northampton Merc.

Geoff Amos X198FOR operating the GA02 to Rugby.

After taking a number of pictures which will provide stock for the coming months, I ran home on the M40, which was clear for once I time to see England scrape a draw against Greece in my old home town. Ah well that's life or so they say. But I had a great day out and Sunday also proved most interesting.

  FROM THE DRIVING SEAT  
A weekly commentary on your Editors favourite pastime.

The press this week has be full of an RAC survey on what annoys drivers the most. What causes road rage etc?

It seems the most annoying thing is the members of the Centre Lane Owners Club who use our motorways. This is followed by Tailgaters and thereafter such things as those who don't indicate, drive too slowly or again too fast.

Now tailgating is really foolish but however is often caused by someone going slower than they could do, or passing a member of the CLOC. When driving coaches on the motorway CLOCs are perhaps the most irritating, especially when they speed up just enough to give you hope, before slowing down again.

Regardless of the RAC survey I am sure the CLOC will continue to exist and since it seems they are not breaking any law, we will all have to put up with the members wherever they may be.

Of course there is that other club, IPWIDWL or I'll park where I damned well like, especially if its a bus stop. See my visit to Witney above.

Well enough of my ramblings for this week.

News from the companies - 7th October 2001

Airlinks

Edmund Trensham sent me a photo which now has some value. It is of a Jetlink in Oxford. Unusually it is in Broad Street, diverted due to St Giles Fair and secondly it is on the 767 now defunct. Also of course the service is now rerouted via High Street. D319 is the coach in question.

Arriva serving The Shires & Essex

Arriva 5823 acted as Rally Control at the Running Day. It is seen here loking
resplendent in its new coat of paint. The upper deck floor has also been fixed.

Arriva 5103 passes through Headington on its way into Oxford last week.
Photo sent in by Neil Gow , for which I thank him.

Olympian 5822  is still away and has now been joined by Traveline bus 5827. which has also gone for repaint. We don't yet know if this will retain its advertising livery.

Nigel Peach wrote to say "Olympian 5833 was outside the bus stn at lunchtime with 326 noted on a piece of paper in its windscreen. Further investigation showed that its blind for the third digit was damaged & was therefore only showing    32_.

Unusual working today was Olympian coach 5824 on the 303, usually only the preserve of the SLF Darts, although these are straying onto other routes more regularly now. SLF Dart 3822 was in the bus stn minus an offside front panel by the driver's cab."

Matt Wheeler wrote to say "In Aylesbury Bus Station this morning (weds), waiting time before going out on the 8:25 service 54 to Halton Camp was Alexander bodied Leyland Olympian 5099 (G 649 UPP), which has been refurbished, and is therefore now in Arriva livery."

Thanks to both of you for those notes. 

Beckwith's Coaches.

This company now operate the 290 service from Stokenchurch and High Wycombe to London. They have gained a licence for 5 years according to company sources.

LOA346X, the WM Fleetline mentioned under Magpie.
Next to the Fleetline is the Tiger normally used on the 290 and pictured on this
page two weeks ago. It came from a Bristol firm.

City of Oxford Motor Services (The Oxford Bus Company)

Michael Penn sent in this shot of 23 arriving at Duxford.
Your Editor can be seen watching points in the front.

Coach nr 1 is a favourite amongst the drivers on X90s. This coach eats up the miles
and will climb "Stokenchurch" at 62mph.

The running shift at Cowley Road carry out routine maintenance on the fleet and
here we see Dart 409, Volvo coach 57, now the oldest coach in the fleet and
a Volvo B10B 649 all under attention.

None of the new training buses are ready yet and work seems to have slowed down for the time being. 66 remains in A2 awaiting MOT, 63 remains in the paint shop seemingly awaiting work to start and 64 remains in G garage with nothing started so far.

Steve Annells writes to note "Been scouting Welsh sites while re-jigging my Welsh links page - have you looked at http://www.buses.net lately?  Cracking photograph on the front of Western Welsh 1269 (on hire to City of Oxford) on 44 at Gloucester Green, circa 1973 - un-credited.

Thanks Steve, I'm sure a few people will look to see.

Ben Found wrote regarding the Olympian loans to Truronian earlier this year. He says "Just thought I'd let you know that Truronian were so pleased with CUD 220Y and CUD223Y that the company has now purchased six Olympians (C812 BYY, C819 BYY, C23 CHM, C74 CHM, C83 CHM, and C87 CHM) all ex Stagecoach London!!

Mark Wilde wrote to ask some questions regarding high Wycombe buses from the time when Oxford were in charge. He also asks some other interesting questions which someone may have an answer to. Mark says "I certainly would welcome being included on your mailing list for all the updates on Oxford/High Wycombe. I only recently stumbled across your website and its great being kept up to date with the fleet news, particularly in High Wycombe. Having been a student in the town for the best part of four years, I used to regularly travel on Wycombe Bus route 326 between my home on London road and the Bus Station. In particularly I remember travelling on the old ECW bodied Olympians FWL 778/9Y that regularly used to serve the route. Whilst I remember 779 disappearing some eighteen months ago I also wondered whatever happened to 778 (the sole example in Wycombe with the square headlights - a rebuild at some time I presume). I'm sure it certainly was still based in HW in January 2001 when i moved from the area.

I read with interest your article recently about the former Oxford Dual door Olympians being relocated in the North East but I would be grateful if you could let me know whatever happened to 778.

Unfortunately I am no no longer living in the area, so sadly I can't provide you with current details in High Wycombe. Here in Derby, where I am now based, we have recently lost our very unusual Northern Counties and Marshall bodied Volvo Ailsas. And it seems since their departure I'm now left with a very uninteresting bus scene around here. (Apart from the remaining Northern Counties bodied Fleetlines - the hangers on in the great cull of interesting vehicles!)

Do you know of any websites that can search for vehicle registration numbers?  Because, again, i would like to find out about the whereabouts of the Ailsas. Whether that inevitable has happened (I know at least one Marshall bodied example STV 122X was scrapped a year ago) or whether they still ply on with probably school duties somewhere. 

Anyway, thanks again for keeping up the great work with the website and keeping us all informed, I look forward to hearing from you soon - Mark Wilde

Can anyone help Mark with his questions?

Heyfordian

Heyfordian 6940MD last seen on a Bova, now gracing this Plaxton whose origins
I do not know? It was on a service into Banbury.

High Wycombe  Olympian school bus B255RAJ ex ANE 7255 has now gained Heyfordian Buses logos maybe as the result of confusion with local Arriva buses. The fleet now seems settled at around 12 vehicles based at Wycombe. The old Oxford Tigers seem to have gone?

Roland Cox writes to say "The Olympians at Wycombe would look a lot better with a re-spray & ex Dunnett's LIL 9664 has been given Heyfordian livery."

Martyn Pearce writes to say "Heyfordian have caused a bit of a stir by having their latest batch of ex-Arriva Olympians painted overall Arriva-blue and have been running an ex-Tees Olympian still in Tees livery on High Wycombe area school contracts."

Magpie

Martyn Pearce also wrote regarding 290 services to London. He says " You mentioned recently on your news page that the Arriva service from High Wycombe to Uxbridge was a replacement for the withdrawn 290 service - probably true but the 290 is still alive and well as a commuter service operated by Magpie Travel of High Wycombe but almost always now subcontracted to Beckwith Coaches of Princess Risborough. Sorry I don't have any registration numbers for you but Beckwith's have been using almost anything on the service from their frontline Jonckheere and Paramount Mark III bodied Volvo B10Ms to a Plaxton Supreme and even their ex West Midlands Mk1 MCW Metrobus spotted on one occasion!! When the 290 was run by Magpie themselves they normally used a smart Mercedes mini coach which had been repainted into the Green Line livery albeit with Magpie Travel fleetnames."

Today I spoke with the owner of Beckwith's and he confirmed that they have now taken over the service on a 5 year licence. I will be publishing an article on Beckwith's shortly , who expect to replace the Volvo F214NLE with a newer coach in the next few weeks. Ed.

Motts

Pete of Showbus fame writes to say "Some news for your page on Motts is that they have acquired another Volvo B12T / Jonckheere Monaco decker coach to replace one of the Skyliners.  It has come from Dunn-Line.  No registration details are known yet but I'm quite sure it will be the one that was purchased new by Impact of Carlisle.

Stagecoach Group

David Whitley sent me these shots of a line of the new Solos mentioned by Keith Wood.
This was taken at the launch of the new services described.

Keith Wood writes "Stagecoach in Warwickshire's Optare Solos on Friday on Service 66 Warwick - South Farm. started on 1/10/01.was previously in store at Banbury.

Imminent transfer of Volvo B6LE'S 831-837 (P321-327 JND) to SiW at Rugby depot for service 4 Admirals - Brownsover.

Also major service revisions at Nuneaton at the end of of October are likely to see council gains and more vehicles required. More drivers are being recruited.  

Some of the service changes in Nuneaton have been announced. A new service between Nuneaton and Birmingham International via Coleshill will start on 29/10/01 Service 717 will work in tandem with new service 17 to replace services 42/43/44/45/46 serving villages west of Nuneaton. These services will be marketed as Bournebrook Bonus (don't ask me why). Service 41 to Birchley Heath will be extended to run every hour.  This is very useful as the Church End Brewery has just moved to Ridge Lane which is served by this route !

Other changes include two new Nuneaton-Bedworth locals via Attleborough (54) and Collycroft (52) partly replacing services 4 and 55..

More service changes in Nuneaton at the end of October include the anticipated start of the Camp Hill (50/51) Showcase route using low floor buses (expected to be B6LE's). As per the 500 in Banbury these buses are guaranteed for this service two buses per hour of which will be extended to the George Eliot Hospital, Bedworth and Keresley Pro Logis Park (and I presume Keresley Village). Service 55 between Nuneaton and Keresley will be dicontinued being replaced by this service and by previously reported new services (52/54).

Stagecoach in Banbury

SCiB 457 carries a new style route branding for the 500 service between
Banbury and Brackley. Maybe this a new house style. The Volvo B6BLEis seen
leaving Banbury Bus Station last Saturday.

Stagecoach in Oxford

The appearance of a Leyland National, seemingly off the 50 from Stratford, caused
no little surprise to onlookers. The National in question was received from
Manchester but started life with Crosville as CFM342S.
It is seen at Horspath Garage last Saturday morning.

SCiO received two of the three expected M A Ns last week. 942, OU51WLK  and 943 OU51WLL.
They are not expected to enter service before 21st October and their use of not yet confirmed.

The interiors are in the new corporate style, with new style seating and floor coverings.

Security screens are fitted. They are of much improved style and will
give the drivers added safety, which I am sure will be appreciated.

Last week one of my correspondents asked why deckers could not be used on the Blackbird Flyer. David Whitley of Stagecoach Oxford responded saying "I was interested to read Neil Gow's comments on the use of the Tridents on service 77 instead of on other services such as the Blackbird Flyer.  

The new Brookes contract, which was finally signed off by the university in early September, requires a number of extra vehicles at key times as a result of the relocation of a number of university departments from the Headington Campus to the Wheatley campus. All extra journeys are contracted for double-deck vehicles, which, at short notice were very hard to come by.  

As part of the plan to reduce the age of the Stagecoach fleet across the UK, double deckers are generally cascaded from London to replace older Olympians across the group. This is made possible by Transport for London's insistence of brand new low floor vehicles for any new contracts that it awards.  

Due to our contract with Brookes University, we are to receive a number of Volvo Olympians from Stagecoach London, but these are currently unavailable. To help us out in the short term, we have therefore been loaned the three Dennis Tridents, with strict instructions that they are to be kept in pristine condition.  To help us satisfy this requirement, only a select number of drivers are authorised to drive the Tridents and this has therefore precluded their use on certain other busy routes, as has the lack of destination equipment.  

However, in general, we try to use them as intensively as possible on service 77, and they are usually allocated to the all day workings. This, of course, means that the Oxford Olympians - if allocated purely to 'duplicate' work - are available at certain times of the day to undertake 'other duties' should the need arise. Unfortunately, due to the nature of the Brookes contract, they are not available at peak times. 

That said, Neil Gow - and others - may remember that our Olympians (514-526) were actually purchased for route 1, but proved unsuccessful, due to a number of factors, not least the security issue and the time taken for customers to board and alight. Single deck, low floor vehicles are generally very good buses to operate and I would argue that the factors that arose last week were a combination of unusual events rather than the 'norm'. However, in times of driver shortage, short term use of double deckers would be an advantage if we were forced to reduce frequencies. 

David Whitley
Marketing Manager
Stagecoach South Midlands

Thank you David for that comprehensive response.

Ralph Adams writes to say "the outstation allocations are now on a board in the controllers office
CN 903, 514, 410, ,462  -  Harwell   5 B6 (new livery)  Bicester 3 B10 

Just out of the paintshop is MRS 362 from Banbury.  Banbury which is very self contained location, seems to have a very high % of new livery vehicles".

My Chippy correspondent advise that "route 50 changes wef 6/10/01 - Leamington Garage will no longer provide drivers for service 50. City Sightseeing  from Avenue Farm Stratford will supply the drivers. Buses will be parked at the Avenue Farm Depot which is a former midland Red establishment.

Ex Midland Red Mercs transferred to Witney are 415, noted in service 26/9/01 - 422 noted in service 1/10/01 and 423 at Horspath on 3/10/01 but not yet in service.

Neil Gow writes to note regarding the survey on route 50 "

Start Stratford Upon Avon Depot
Dead to Shipston On Stour
50 0750 Shipston On Stour - Stratford Upon Avon
50 0910 Stratford Upon Avon - Oxford Sta
50 1110 Oxford Sta - Stratford
50 1320 Stratford - Oxford Sta
50 1530 Oxford Sta - Chipping Norton
50 1640 Chipping Norton - Oxford George Str
Dead to Horspath Road garage
Dead to Oxford Station50 1840 Oxford Sta - Stratford
finish at Stratford 

Followers of route working patterns might like to know (if they don't already) that routes 10 and 10A interwork at the rail station, with seven buses running on a three and a half hour cycle.  Eight would be required without the inter-working.  Olympian 516 and M.A.N. 932 were running on the service today alongside the usual Dennis Darts."

Thanks to Neil for that update.

Regarding the Bicester services not stopping at certain stops on the Bicester-Oxford A34. I have received a detailed note from Newman Morgan, who writes to say "I thought I'd drop you a line concerning the deletion of certain stops on the Bicester - Oxford Stagecoach Routes 27/28/29.

A revised timetable was introduced 23.09.01 (for a 5 week period only) and this sees a frequency reduction offpeak to every 20 mins Oxford-Bicester with one an hour running as 27 and continuing beyond Bicester Town Centre (Bure Place) to the Glory Farm estate and then on to the newer Langford Village area in east Bicester. One bus ph runs as 28 and runs on to Glory Farm and then Launton. One bus ph runs as 29 and runs on to Ambrosden, HMP Bullingdon, Arncott and St George's Barracks. During the rush hours some journeys run as 27A, 28A or 29A to serve the Bowmont Square area of Bicester and there is also a 29B which serves Bowmont Square, Glory Farm, Langford areas before going on to St George's Barracks.  The journey time Oxford-Bicester offpeak has been lengthened to 40 minutes to take account of traffic congestion on the A34 and A41.

As to the bus stops concerned, the Weston-On-The-Green Turn stop is actually situated in the slip roads of the B430 (the former A43). For some while now this stop has not been used between 7am and 10am and between 4pm and 7pm on the advice of the Police. Effectively, any stopping bus has to pull off the A34 and into the path of traffic on the B430 slip road joining the A34 in order to serve the stop. In practice, during rush hours traffic on the A34 is at a crawl at this point anyway. Indeed, by 12.30pm on Fridays the northbound A34 is normally at a crawl from Pear Tree through to the M40 and often up to J10 at Ardley on the M40. 

The next stop in question is the Wendlebury stop. This is situated on the A41 dual-carriageway on the Bicester side of the Wendlebury M40/A34/A41 interchange. The stops are in bus lay-bys in both directions and the stops are reasonably well used.  Bicester-bound I don't what the problem is, because although there is 2 lanes of busy traffic the traffic lights at the Interchange regulate the traffic flow. Oxford-bound it is more of a problem to pull off the stop into fast moving traffic, but again in the morning rush hour traffic is at a stop at this point due to the wretched Wendlebury lights.

Interestingly there is another stop, Chesterton Turn, on the A41 dual carriageway which is little used but did not feature in Stagecoach's desire to delete A34/A41 stops. These stops are also set in a lay-by in both directions and if anything the stops would be more dangerous than Wendlebury as buses would pull into fast traffic in both directions.

On the subject of the Bicester main road services, as mentioned previously, the timetable runs to the end of October when it will likely be revised again. My own thoughts are, firstly, that routes around the Bicester suburbs should be re-thought, and, secondly, with the growth of Brackley, Northants. and the fact that there is much Bicester - Brackley traffic (albeit currently by car or the infrequent X38), coupled with the higher frequency Banbury - Brackley 500 service, I would have thought an hourly Oxford-Bicester-Brackley-Banbury service would have been viable.

 Thanks to Newman for that input on this controversial subject.

Witney town Centre with Olympian 525.

A further advert to appear on some Tubes is this one for Renault.
Seen here on coach 60.

THAMES TRAVEL, WALLINGFORD.

The work done by Vic Gackowski on the 105 and X39 has provoked responses which I quote below.

Neil Gow writes to say "  Further to your correspondent's observations on that route I can go back a little further.  In the late 1970s and early '80s the Oxford-Reading service 5 was run jointly by COMS and Alder Valley.  Alder Valley always provided two Leyland Nationals for the route.  The Oxford vehicles ran from Wallingford outstation and were usually Ford saloons with the occasional Reliance.  In the evening peak the route split at Wallingford with COMS running Fleetlines between Oxford and Wallingford".

Ralph Adams says " Vic has certainly been busy, but I feel that his comments on 1800 in Oxford are not accurate with a different bus coming in on the 105 and leaving at 1810. I would not like this reported however.  It would seem strange for a bus to go empty from Wallingford at 1535 to Clanfield at 1710. The 1610 to Clanfield from Oxford is not noted, but I am suggest it is the same as the 1710.

Incidentally I find his comments very interesting.

Thanks you Ralph

And now Vic writes again to give a Thames Travel (Oxford Operations) Update

Following on from my recent report on Thames Travel afternoon services in Oxford , Some feed back has been received and today , Thursday 4th October , I carried out another survey on the services put into question. 

It appears I was incorrect in that in fact the 1810 105 service to Wallingford does indeed inter twine with 18 road and using my original observations as published I ask those readers with an interest to amend their records - The vehicle numbers are those seen today , update day -

Vario / Beaver   V 399 SVV

105 1651 Cholsey - Oxford 1756
18  1800 Oxford - Cranfield 1900
Dead to Wallingford Depot

Optare / Solo  X 385 VVY

18  1710 Cranfield - Oxford   1752 Via A40
105 1810 Oxford - Wallingford 1904  

Also of note is that card alterations obviously take place from time to time. During my survey update it was noted that Vario / Beaver X 181 BNH worked in to Jericho on the 1540 X39 ex Wallingford due at 1632 but worked out on the 1725 105 to Wallingford. I caught site of an ex Oxford Dart leaving St Aldates on the 1637 X39 ex Jericho which would have been the normal balance of X 181 BNH. I can only assume that services were either adfift or drivers hours played a part in this. Like all operators some operational problems manifest themselves from time to time. 

I believe that the Dart worked in on the 105 1630 Science Park to Oxford Due 1652 and then dropped into X 181 BNH Card from 1707 at St Aldates. the Vario / Beaver then dropped into the 1725 105 Departure.

Thanks to Vic for that useful and interesting update. 

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

Banbury is a stop on National Express services and here we see the 310 to Poole
operated by 3030HE en route to it's next stop in Oxford.

I welcome your photos for inclusion on this page.
malcolmhc@aol.com

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