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

Your reports are welcome at malcolmhc@aol.com

updated Monday 10th September 2001
Apologies for the delay - my new copy of Front Page 2002 played up!
the next update will be on Sunday 16th September 2001

   Issue nr. 162  

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 162, which includes news this week of a successful campaign to restore a bus service in Oxford. Also included is first photos of Oxford Olympians at work in the North East. There is also a report on the Bus Driver of the Year 2001 event in Blackpool, where one local company has sent two drivers and a their bus to compete.

On last weeks page I suggested we might be in for some more roadworks when the guided busway was constructed. I received a note from Philip Kirk of Oxford Bus that "Reading the web page this week, please be aware that the guided busway proposal has NO street-running guidance and so there will be no construction work as with Croydon etc". Thanks to Philip for that correction. I am sure everyone will be most relieved.

Work in St Clements, Oxford, draws to a close with all but the final top surface to be completed. Work however continues in the Botley Road causing much delay.

It is interesting to note visitors comments when the come to Oxford. David King says "Oxford was a very interesting place, the OTS seemed to be working in my opinion as when I was down their picked up a copy of the Oxford Mail which had a story about a million more people travelling by bus in Oxford. I spent a few hours in Gloucester Green and was amazed at just how much was coming and going". So, it is indeed useful to have a second opinion.

The Oxford Times ran a story this weekend on the restoration of a bus service. The residents of Herschel Crescent have been lobbying their Councillors for the 18 service to run again. The County Council has agreed a subsidy to reinstate the service and Oxford Bus are expected to have the 18 running again shortly.

A picture of the the blind display for the 18 shown on an Oxford Volvo.
New lower case blinds are being fitted and look quite good and clear.

I was pleased to receive the under mentioned Email from Alan Balam and appreciate his comments therein. There are some most interesting points made.

Just a quick message to say Thank You for all your hard work on your Internet Bus Pages, which I have recently discovered, and am much enjoying. I used to live in Wycombe (and still work there) and used to be a regular user of Wycombe Bus. Being interested in most forms of transport, I like to know what is going on and how things work. Reading through your news archive I've learned all sorts of interesting things.

I now travel up the M40 everyday from Ealing to Wycombe, and see numerous Oxford Tubes and Oxford Expresses. I have enjoyed your section From the Driving Seat about your sorties on the Expresses. Several years ago I used to regularly use the Tube to travel from London to Oxford when I was training to teach in London and my girlfriend was studying in Oxford. I used to enjoy chatting to the drivers whenever possible and finding out about their life on the coaches.

One interesting point I would like to share with you - on Wednesday this week travelling up to Wycombe I spotted a "Bendy Bus" in First corporate colours heading towards London at Northolt. With the exception of at airports, I've hardly ever seen bendy buses in England. I'll keep an eye out and if I see any more I'll let you know.

Driving regularly on the M40, I must agree with your recent point about drivers in the middle lane. That is one of my pet hates, and it does seem that more and more people are doing it. I've felt for a while that we need more awareness of how to drive on motorways. It seems to me that a lot of delays are caused because the slow lane is hardly used, the middle lane is full of drivers who should be in the slow lane and are hardly going any faster than the few in the slow lane, and the fast lane is full of people who should be in the middle lane. The result is that the fast lane is barely doing 60mph. I see this so often.

Once again, many thanks for all your hard work. I look forward to keeping up to date in the future, and finding out more about what I see around me. I'll drop you a line if I spot anything that may be of interest to you. Regards Andrew Balam

Thanks for that Andrew, your comments are interesting in the light of my comments below.

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

This week it is back to the Motorways and driving coaches thereon. On a return journey from London I had the pleasure of the company of a white transit van which spent the journey from the beginning of the M40 as far as Wheatley, where thankfully it carried on towards Birmingham, by running tight on my back or keeping pace with me alongside my cab window. This meant that although I clearly and correctly signalled my intention to pull out into the third lane, from the fourth - at Loudwater, I had great difficulty as the wretched white van remained alongside. I am still trying to work out if it was deliberate or the guy driving was just asleep! Regardless of my speed he was always there. I was reminded of a film called "Duel" where a guy in a car has great problems with a truck.

Another interesting item from some months ago now was a report that an Oxford Tube driver had been booked by police for using the outside third lane on the A40 between Hillingdon and central London. Now whilst it is indeed illegal to use the outside lane on Motorways, it is not so for A roads. I checked this with our Training Manager and he gave me a photocopy extract of the relevant rules. I have not heard if the Tube driver got let off but it does show how much at the mercy of the law one is when driving these days. Another matter is the dreaded radar cameras. This week there is news in the Telegraph motoring supplement of Gatso and Truvelo Cameras, many more of which are due to increase our enjoyment of driving! Many of you may never have seen a Truvelo camera as only 25 exist in the UK. You will not be surprised when I say a lot of those 25 are around the Oxfordshire area, with one only a short distance from the Oxford Bus depot on the Cowley Road. They take a picture of you from the front so that you cannot dispute who was driving. Nice heh? Their sales manager reports increasing demand due to driver identification problems. It seems that some people are now paying others to say they were driving, when the person has been nabbed for speeding. Figures as high as £700 are quoted. However if you get caught then it's a life ban. Not a good idea after all.

News from the companies - 9th September 2001

Airlinks

I was speaking to an Airlinks driver in Victoria Coach Station who had broken down for the third time in a week. He told me that all the new DAF coaches on Jetlink work out of Cambridge are due to be reallocated to Crawley and Heathrow, some in connection with a new service from Southampton. I expect this will happen at the end of September when the Oxford-Luton-Cambridge is withdrawn (His comment). It seems the revised service will have increased running time but also have many more stops. As it will only be two hourly they will need less coaches but it does appear that we will not have new coaches as now. Well, let's wait and see.

Arriva serving The Shires & Essex

Arriva 3842 working the 275 in Oxford, turning into Speedwell Street at the start
of its journey back to Wycombe. No more reports of Darts working this route in the past week!

Saturday morning was spent at Kwik-Fit in Wycombe and I took several photos including
this BCC Solo rushing off to do the 181. It had some people on but it also said NOT IN SERVICE.
0442 - Y42HBT

Olympian 5823 has not yet reappeared and is still away for repaint.

No other news from my correspondents on Arriva this week and I only had a few moments to spare to get the update on 5823.

Chiltern Buses.

Volvo B6BLE Y313KDP another one running the 10C/D services in Oxford.

It appears that the white M A N has now left the Chiltern fleet. Thanks to Neil Gow for his picture and update.

City of Oxford Motor Services (The Oxford Bus Company)

Progress Report - Lynx C66HOM in the paint shop and nearing completion.
Is there a similarity to the old Bee Line livery? Anyway no one should miss seeing
this bus when it is performing its duties.

News of the week was the departure of three Oxford Olympians to Go-Ahead North East. 208, 223 and 224 left last week and we have a report this week of what has happened.

David King wrote to say "This is what has happened to the Oxford Bus Olympians, now on loan to Go-North East. On 5th September 208 and 223 were noted at Go-Northern's Chester-le-Street depot. Both were in as acquired condition and were being given the once over by the fitters. On the 6th September 223 moved to the Go North East, Central Body and Repair Shop on Saltmeadows Road in Gateshead.

By the 7th September 223 was still at Saltmeadows Road but had been fitted with a Wayfarer 3 ticket machine and a Magnetic Card Reader (for Go North East's version of the Freedom Ticket). When I inspected 223 it still had Oxford ticket rolls left in the cab, however a new blind was resting on the dash. The fitters at Saltmeadows told me that 223 was the only one they were working on as the other 2 were in better condition and needed no work done to them. It would seem that the Olympians will operate for Go-Northern (legal lettering) most likely out of Chester-le-Street depot. So far I have seen none in service but as soon as I do I will let you know."

David then wrote to say "223 entered service today with Go-Northern on the X8 between Sunderland- Chester-le-Street. I've attached a photo of 223 at Saltmeadows works.  

 He continues to say "I'm quite a big Go-Ahead fan and over the summer I did a big Go-Ahead bash, where I went around all the companies. I was very impressed with Oxford Bus, you could tell they are a real quality outfit. Oxford was a very interesting place, the OTS seemed to be working in my opinon as when I was down their picked up a copy of the Oxford Mail which had a story about a million more people travelling by bus in Oxford. I spent a few hours in Gloucester Green and was amazed at just how much was coming and going. After an enjoyable day in Oxford, I boarded an Oxford Express X90 to London, not bad for £5! Then I sampled, Go-Ahead in London it was then onto Brighton."

Thanks to David who has proved most useful as he also gave me the contact of Christopher Strong who has provided in service photos of 223 at Sunderland Interchange on service X8 to Chester-le-Street.

Loading up at Sunderland Interchange.

On its way to Chester-le-Street.

AND THEN THERE WERE FOUR!

A line up of the four remaining Olympians, 22, 221, 220 and 214 in that order
taken last Saturday in Cowley Road garage.

Some of you may have noticed the disappearance of the Radcliffe Camera from the Oxford Bus logo on City buses. It seems some people thought it looked like St Paul's Cathedral. The only green Trident to carry the new logo still has it on and will now be the only green one so to do. All remaining Park & Ride Tridents have the old logo still applied.

Tuesday last, was the second day of the annual St Giles Fair. with extra passengers
about, additional services were run. Here 807 operates a relief 300 service to Redbridge
and is seen ready to leave St Aldates. It still carried the camera logo.

Several Volvo B10BLE low floor working occurred this last week, with one on the 35 on Saturday night (last bus) and 808 (otherwise known as BOB) on the X3 earlier in the week.

Alan Angels sent this picture of Bristol VRs from Southern Vectis which operated
on hire in the '70s to Oxford Bus. He says they had no power steering and were
hard work to drive!

Stagecoach Group

Another picture of the new livery applied to coaches working the X5 fromCambridge.

Stagecoach in Banbury  

Keith Wood writes to say " I've heard that the Banbury fleet will still be maintained by Warwickshire Depots (the work Banbury doesn't do themselves). Will this tie the existing fleet in with Warwickshire half of the business ? Also will the official ownership of the vehicles transfer to Thames Transit ? Any ideas? 

Thanks to Keith for his report and his questions relate to some reorganisation which seems likely to occur in the Stagecoach world..

Stagecoach in Oxford

Ralph Adams writes to advise that "Three more MAN / Alexander B42F are on order for delivery this month. They are:-
942     OU51WLK
943     OU51WLL
944     OU51WLN

He asks are there restricted registration letters as OU51WLM has not been allocated - it does not seem a special combination to him.

Is there any explanation of how the letters are being allocated by each traffic area. The Oxford area is allocated OA51... to OZ51... At present I have only seen OU51... I have not heard yet of any .A51... being issued yet. Hope someone can help - or direct me to a suitable place to find what the system of issue is. I understand the 1st letter but not the rest. (I think, but I don't know for sure, that the pre M letters - i.e. OA-OM may be going to be kept for the first half years since everyone I've seen so far are high letters. Ed.)

Seen in Oxford, 930 bears the new logo on its blind. I think the blind is faulty as
it was working 7s on Saturday with a sticker in the window and this blind still showing.

377 now carries the new livery.

Working the 1 last Tuesday and still not going home to Witney.
Olympian 521 seen near the Truvelo camera on the Cowley Road.

Further up the Cowley Road, 939 still carries route branding.
I wonder what will happen on repaint?

Thames Travel

Thames Travel Solo X249VWR which normally works the 18 loading for 1800
 in St Aldates last Tuesday evening.

It appears that on Monday St Giles Fair caused problems with the timetable which also affected most other companies.

Ralph Adams wrote that "On Tuesday, a peak service was operated by the Falcon (now all white), probably the 1725. (This is and will be the regular bus for this service Ed.). The bus in on the 105 at 1755 was a Vario (either 390/399) I saw it unloading from my office. At 1810  (when going home), the 105 was a Solo.  They therefore must be swopping between either the 18 or the X39. (Correct Ralph - they inter work the X39 and 105). Wednesday, I saw the 105 in High Street going to Wallingford at 1825. it was one of the dedicated X39 again.

The company now has its own web site at http://www.busbook.co.uk..

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

Beckwith's Leyland Tiger XIB2679 working a 290 service from High Wycombe to
London Victoria last Friday morning. Can anyone shed light on the history of this coach?

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

  OXFORD BUS PAGE CONTENTS