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

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updated Thursday 11th October 2001
Coach & Bus 2001 at NEC, Birmingham
the next full update will be on Monday 15th October 2001
(There will also be a short update after I visit the on Wednesday next)

   Issue nr. 167  

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.

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I have found a solution which does work normally - 
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Coach & Bus 2001.
Show report.

Welcome to issue 167, which is a short update on

I spent the best part of a day and a half looking around and liked a lot of what was on show. There were however a couple of vehicles which stood out in my view as pretty awful. One was a coach for Wallace Arnold and the second was the new Trans Bus offering with the most awful colour scheme of yellow  inside. I have given a selection of photos which I hope gives an overall flavour of what we may expect in the coming months.

The only remotely local operator with a coach on show was Weavaway, who had a new Bova. Bob Vale Coach Sales had a stand but other than that I suppose Eminox who have a depot in Didcot were all that was local. Tellings Golden Miller had a new Caetano Nimbus bodied Dart and Clarks of London were the only operator to have a Volvo B12B on show. (more on that subject later)

Stagecoach had an M A N bus on show, this one for Fife but identical to the new Oxford deliveries. One double decker which interested me was one a delivery of seven Volvo 6 wheelers with East Lancs coachwork for Arriva in Copenhagen. I had ridden on the Traffik ones from Kastrup into the city earlier this year and it now seems some UK interest is being shown in this large bus.

Notably there were no 15 metre buses or coaches on show and I was told by several sources that there is little or no UK interest in this length of bus.

TransBus had a combined Alexander/Plaxton stand with a Trident II on show. It was painted up for the show externally but appeared, from the interior, to be a standard Stagecoach 10.8m delivery for London.

There was no stand for Jonckheere but Alf Moseley had a stand for Van Hool and showed one of the latest National Express T9 Acrons on a Scania for Durham Travel Services.

Oxford Bus took a group of Engineering staff and a couple of Express Road Steward to have a look at what was on offer. The apparent choice for the next 6 coaches, due in March-April 2001, seems to be the new Volvo B12B. It is not going to be possible to have a Plaxton body as Trans Bus have no plans at this stage to body the B12B. This leaves a limited choice which seems to fall between Van Hool and Jonckheere. Certainly both coaches on display had a lot to offer and from a drivers point of view there was several innovations. One I liked on the Van Hool was a small screen to prevent glare on the drivers rear view mirror, a problem on the current "Joncks". Another seemingly trendy thing is to have a "leather" insert on the head rest which can look very nice indeed. I always felt it was a retrograde step to remove the head rest covers from the Oxford Coaches.

Possibly the most unusual looking coach was a Volvo B12M with Sunsundegui Sideral body work for Wallace Arnold. The driving mirrors, especially that on the nearside were somewhat bizarre but it will doubtless turn some heads as it goes about its business.

Well, short but sweet. There was lots more but time and space limits us. Suffice to say there will be a lot interest for us locally in the coming months.

Please let me have reports for inclusion in this weekend's report by Sunday evening at 7pm.

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

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