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

Your reports are welcome at malcolmhc@aol.com

updated Sunday 8th July 2001
the next update will be on Sunday 15th July 2001

   Issue nr. 154  

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 !

Welcome to issue 154, with news of a bumper day on London services.

Radiohead Concert brings large crowds to Oxford.

An old lady's Grand Day Out! - 224 goes to London

More than 40,000 concertgoers came to Oxford to see Radiohead and both companies ran extra services.
Here we see Oxford Bus 224 waiting to go on stand 10 at VCS, London.

One of the Enisgnbus fleet of deckers hired in by Thames Trains at Headington roundabout.
It seats 107 passengers and is seemingly broken down.

South Park, Oxford, saw more than 40,000 concertgoers converge on Oxford with the Radiohead Concert last Saturday. Extra services were run by Oxford express and The Oxford Tube from London with many services fully booked some days in advance. The atmosphere created from a bus and coach perspective brought memories of the heyday of buses back in the '40s and '50s when anything with wheels seemed to be used to clear crowds. Indeed during the exodus from Oxford after the concert ended it was a bus spotters bonanza with many unusual bus and coaches running. Thames Trains were forced to hire in some 30 buses and coaches to take return train passengers back to London. This was caused by overnight engineering work on the line between Oxford and Didcot. According to stories circulating on the night many hundreds were caught out by the fact that the last train ran at 2227 to London and even the Oxford express service to Gatwick at 0200 "burst" by Queen's Lane due to many passengers finding they were unable to reach Gatwick by train. An extra service had to be run. Ensign Bus provided a large number of double deckers and one is seen above, seemingly broken down at Headington roundabout on its way back to London.  Matters for those returning to london was not helped by heavy rain from about 2200hrs onwards in Oxford and also roadworks on the M40 shortly before junc. 3 London bound where it was down to one lane for roadworks which seemed never to take place. What did take place around 0100 was a lengthy tail back towards Oxford in which many buses and coaches were caught up. What a sight it was  to see A Blackbird flyer, several Witney based Olympians of Stagecoach plus an Oxford Bus 8xx Volvo mixed up with Tubes and express coaches lined up, all delayed by the roadworks. At the time I was on my way back to Oxford after my first evening run up to Victoria.

Other local news, more details next week, is of major improvements to Thornhill car park, with improved facilities. There is also a Headington Transport Strategy which includes several significant bus improvements. 

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

A brand new Hallmark Neoplan seen at Gatwick last Monday. Y1HMC.

An interior shot of the 32 leather seats in the sumptuous interior of the Neoplan.
Can't you just smell the leather?

This week started with a trip to Gatwick on Monday evening where I was able to see the really superb coach pictured above. It had everything "bar the kitchen sink", well in fact it did also have a kitchen sink in the servery area. The driver was very proud of his new charge and let me have a quick peek inside. The cost of this beast was stated to be £340,000. Just imagine one of these on the X90 or maybe a reinstated X91 to the City. 

No more driving until Saturday when, fully rested, I started on a marathon day of driving on the X90 where everything available was needed to move the large crowds travelling from London. I was somewhat surprised when signing on for a trip in the morning to be allocated Olympian 224. It seems some delightful little rascal with an air rifle has shot up coach 42 the night before and since the three tacho fitted Volvos (601-3) were already assigned to extra London's, the only alternative was dear old 224. I have to say that she ran very well indeed. An excellent tribute to the engineering skills of Oxford Bus. John Langridge and his team had done sterling work to get every single coach on the road and must be complimented. I had nearly 70 passengers from London and without breaking any speed limits - (the old girl runs at about 53mph max) - was back in Oxford in just over 90 minutes. Having had an 11 hour break I signed back on in the evening for a run to London. This time with a full load of 75 passengers, I once again made London VCS in 90 minutes and no one seemed upset by a slow progress up the Chilterns on the M40 and we bowled along at 53 for most of the remaining part of the journey. It was quite like old times in Manchester - when I was on the Ribble - and the X60 Manchester-Blackpool loaded everything we could lay our hands on. It seems 224 has had a star studded life with a trip to Belgium even on her history card. I certainly enjoyed the day and the old lady (19years old) certainly had a grand day out (Wallace & Grommet style!). Although many other buses were seen on the london road on Saturday, none could quite match 224 for the unusual.

Phil Clarke of Oxford Bus has been on Radio Oxford talking about cyclists and again on Saturday one noticed how many ride without lights in appalling weather conditions. Why oh why can't the police do something before there is yet another terrible and tragic accident. One just cannot see them in the mirrors in heavy rain or night visibility. I wonder if the government might not consider making it law for cyclists to wear high visibility jackets? 

Well more thoughts next week.

Company reports - to 8th July 2001

AIRLINKS

The new coaches on the 757/767 group of services have additionally fielded D301. It seems that the batch is D301-317. I was not surprised to see yet more YxxxHUAs when during the week I spied two brand new white liveried DAFs near Heathrow. It turned out they were bound for The Heathrow coach Centre located by the M4 Heathrow Junction. They were Y325 and 326HUA and were equipped externally exactly as our ones on the 757/767 route. however the similarity ended there. I was able to get some pictures and they joined Y322 and 324 at Heathrow and part of a batch of SIX destined for Virgin Atlantic crew transfer services. As can be seen below they are fitted with 32 seats and toilets and will enter service after livery has been applied.

Arriva serving the Shires and Essex.

Ex Wycombe Bus National II GUW445W is now with White Rose Travel on services
in the Staines area. It has been repainted in psuedo London livery as LS445 once again.
when with Wycombe Bus it was fleet number 387 and ran from 1996 until 2000.
It has Oxford style seating still fitted.

Lynx 3810 has received Arriva corporate livery and this seemingly leaves two Lynxs to be repainted. 3807(302) is now back in service. The Sainsbury's Merc seems to be withdrawn.

As can be seen in the picture below taken this afternoon in Newlands Bus Station at high Wycombe, there are very few ex Wycombe Buses left in the old red livery. It must be some sort of record to get a fleet of 50 buses repainted so quickly?.

Newlands Bus Station, High Wycombe on Sunday 8th July and not a red bus in sight!
The three coach Olympians remain in red but were hidden away.

Nigel Peach writes to note that after an absence of many weeks due to roadworks, buses will revert to going thru the town centre again wef Monday. (July 2nd). Happened to see Lincoln Rd Lynxes 3068 & 3069 today. They both retain coach seats whereas sister 3070 (now allocated to the bus stn) has bus seats. Merc 2127 now says Arriva on the front instead of Gade Valley. (It's still blue though). Lynx 3810 is back, repainted & so is Dart 3833, now single door.

By my reckoning that just leaves the following still in Wycombe colours:

Lynxs 3807 and 3808 - Mercs 2820/21 (Sainsbury's & Freedom), Olympian coaches 5822-24, the latter two in particular are desperate for a lick of paint!,
Olympians 5827/29/33 (Travelwise, Showbus(Thames Valley) & Honda ad respectively), Olympians 5832/34 - I've never understood why these didn't get included when the others did - it's a long time since they repainted a double-decker!

Many thanks to Nigel for his regular updates.

Oxford Bus Company (City of Oxford Motor Services)

Alexander demonstrator, 929 - V929FMS is seen here being 
cleaned inside after a days service.

Apart from 224 working the X90 last Saturday, Volvos 601, 602 and 603 also
worked up to London. Here we see 602 in Baker Street waiting for a green light.

Saturday, as mentioned elsewhere, provided a lot of interest with the buses used for the extra passengers travelling. In the morning Oxfords own 601, 602,  603 and 224 all worked one trip on X90s . The other extras were provided by a couple of additional coach trips plus Dastardly and Mutley from Weavaway. Also on hire were Cliffs coaches and Neal's both from High Wycombe. 

In the evening there were no hire coaches available so the four morning buses were joined by every X90 coach available plus 27 from the airport fleet. A final surprise was 816 off 15 road which made one trip to Victoria. About 1000 concertgoers were carried in both directions and it proved an interesting day for Oxford Bus. It was interesting to note that at 0230 on Sunday morning, there was just one X90 coach in the depot (41), such was the demand for seats on London. Oh, of course 42 was still disabled following the shooting incident on Friday night.

I have received two pictures from Nigel Butchers relating to hired buses and I quote his email below for interest.

Further to your recent correspondence in your news pages regarding bus hire by COMS in the 1970's, I have enclosed two pictures, which may be of interest to your readers. I apologise  for the poor quality of the B&H piccy, but I could not afford a good camera in those days!  However, modern scanners can improve the pictures a small amount.

Maidstone & District   78 YKT   pictured in Abingdon Road May 1970

(I quote a comment from Andrew Dyer last week about this vehicle - Finally I can recall a single Maidstone & District Fleetline 78 YKT (temp fleet no. M1) which I often travelled on into Oxford from Bletchingdon as it was allocated to Bicester Depot. Ed) 

2.  Brighton & Hove  OCD 765 G   pictured at Gloucester Green June 1970

 I must say I am delighted with the response from a number of readers about this interesting period in COMS history. Thank you all. Anyone else got any memories or pictures, I wonder?

I also note that the City end of the 35 route has be officially extended to Queen's Lane, thereby providing an excellent link for London and Airport services on the Oxford express.

This last week saw some interesting workings in the City with 208, 221 and 222 with 801 on 2 road last Thursday. On the same day Dart SLF 410 worked 4C card. Friday saw 208 on 2 road again, with 222 on 4C card. On that day 514 appeared on 4 road also working 4B card.. 

Stagecoach in Oxford.

News of the week was the fire on Volvo B6 840. We now await to see what happens and if the bus can be repaired.

The Oxford Tube was also busy on Saturday with 14 extra services in the morning. The evening proved most interesting and apart from many extra Tube services, a Blackbird flyer went to town! Also used were 904 or 908 (couldn't see which plus one other Paladin. Olympian 520 was used plus several other Witney Olympians. The seat offer on the Tube service must have exceeded 2000 in the morning and much more at night.

Stephen.le-Bras wrote to say that he had seen Stagecoach Oxford 517 on Oxford Tube duties at Victoria late Saturday afternoon.

Richard Sharman, who I thank for his detailed report, writes to say - 

I have been watching the vehicles used on the new 50 service this week, and they are-  514  727  757  788  915
907 appears to be based at Leamington as it is on the 50 daily.  
725 was operating it on Thursday and freshly painted in new livery, also Leamington's Olympian 915 has done a turn on the 50 in new livery sporting Stagecoach in Warwickshire logos. These are slowly appearing on newly painted vehicles.
Oxford has also extended its operating area as far as Alcester by operating a trip on Midland Reds 26 service. This is the 13.15 departure from Oxford which runs all the way to Alcester Grammar School then back to Oxford as the 16.15 from Stratford, 514 seems to be the norm on this run.

Saturday saw the normal "use anything" allocation of vehicles to the 50. 

Noted the following at work. B6 835, Warwickshire Olympian 920, MAN 934!!  Lance 901, driven by Leamington, so they must have swopped 907 for this.

Loadings appear to be good, as before First MIDLAND RED where the only regular bus service to Moreton-in-Marsh from Stratford.

Other Notes- from Richard Sharman

Whites, Berinsfield have ex United Counties tiger 122,C122 PNV 

Jeffs have on loan JIL 3968 Paramount from Coach Services,Thetford. 

McLeans, Witney are now using Jeffs H164 EFJ.

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

A visiting pair of Spanish coaches wait in the new coach loading zone, on 
Oxford's St Giles, specifically designed with left hand drive vehicles in mind.

For comparison with the new DAFs of Airlinks mentioned under that heading
we see D317 seemingly the last of the Jetlink Cambridge based coaches.
They all have Cambridge Coach Services legal lettering.

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

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