Oxford

updated Saturday 12th May 2001
the next update will be on Sunday 20th 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 !

End of season at The Manor
A quiet moment by Oxford United's old ground closing this month.

The road past the Manor Ground at Headington seems unusually quiet as this
Oxford Bus Park & ride Trident makes it way towards Thornhill last Friday.

Oxford Bus will operate a regular service to the new stadium which will be opened for the next seasons football for Oxford United. The new stadium located south of blackbird Leys is presently under construction and will replace the Manor Ground, home of the team for many years now. Certainly it will provide welcome relief to the residents of Headington who were often besieged on Saturday s with crowds of supporters.

Training new drivers is something close to the hearts of both major companies in Oxford. Whilst Oxford Bus have a fleet of retired Leopards sued to train new drivers, Stagecoach have two ex MOD Dodge buses in full livery, clearly indicating ownership. Oxford Bus on the other hand have their fleet discreetly painted blue with no clear indication of ownership. Below we see on of the Stagecoach Dodges proceeding down The high last Friday afternoon.

I was most interested to see how the traffic situation developed last Friday after the previous week's chaos. For no obvious reason I could detect, this week, the jams never happened and traffic flowed freely throughout the rush hour. Below we can see Oxford Bus 642 making its way through Gloucester Street at a reasonable but safe speed, taking some two minutes from The Randolph to Gloucester Green. Last week 643 took nearly 50 minutes!

Volvo 642 passes the Fuggle & Firkin public house during the Friday evening peak.

Worcester Street has been given access to its extension and Beaumont Street
during the George Street roadworks. Here we see ex Manchester Volvo B6 325
now with SC Oxford as their 835 on route 1 proceeding towards St Giles to take up another service.

It seems that the renovation of Gloucester Green coach station surface has been delayed until next year. One wonders if the surface will last that long since the cause of the problem is still there, namely the Oxford Tube tri-axle coaches.

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.

Arriva 5109 is painted in Travelwise livery and now shares the area with 5827,
the ex Wycombe Bus Travelwise bus. It is not known if both buses will remain
promoting this initiative or if one will gain fleet livery.

Nigel Peach writes to note that following a couple of visits to the Newlands Bus Station in High Wycombe this week, Lynx 3345 is still in the same spot at the back showing route 757. It's been there some weeks now. Nigel wonders why? (It seems it is awaiting parts and although allocated Wycombe has only put in one trip since arriving nearly a month ago Ed.). Ex Wycombe Lynx 3807 (302) has been parked up, reversed in, beyond the bays for a week or two now. One of its back panels is missing. For a bus that was only repainted a year ago & branded for the 326, Nigel feels it looks rather tatty.

He noticed that 5834's new Arriva transfer simply says "Arriva", rather than "Arriva serving the Shires and Essex" or anywhere else in the world you care to mention!"!!

One of the newer coaches on National Express services to visit Oxford is this Bova X20NAT
running on the 539 to Bournemouth service.

Oxford Bus Company took delivery of 6 new Excaliburs this year and 24 Y24OXF
is seen about to pick up at Queens Lane on an airport departure last Friday.

Volvo/Plaxton Paladin 910 is seen picking up outside The Randolph on service 27
which during the George Street roadworks is not serving Gloucester Green.

The X50 Stratford service sees a variety of buses and coaches.
Although nominally supposed to see M A N coach operation it is not unusual to see
these route branded buses in use. Barton is indeed a long way from Stratford!

Whilst the Bicester services do not serve Gloucester Green, turnarounds
and layovers are made in Magdalen Street East. Here we see newly repainted
M A N 914 awaiting its next service.

Some weeks ago I published a picture of Stagecoach South 7207. Gordon Brown writes to say we might like to know that after leaving London, 7207 was initially based with Stagecoach Coastline in Portsmouth. The unusual livery it carries was for a special shuttle service from Portsmouth Ferry Terminal to Portsmouth City Centre. The livery (as we probably noticed) is in two languages, French and English, and the destination display on the Hanover blind was also bilingual. Internally, where the second door should be, there is a large luggage rack. After some fleet movements within Stagecoach South East, 7207 moved to Stagecoach South Coast Buses. The new livery meant a new name for SCB, and they are now known as Stagecoach in East Sussex - or Stagecoach East Sussex for the buses yet to be repainted.

Steve Annells writes to advise that an ex Tillingbourne bus has arrived in the fleet. It's now carrying fleet number 184, still in Tillingbourne colours. The fleet list that Steve has shows it as TIL1184, Volvo B10M-55 with Plaxton B55F body, previously K101XPA. Steve isn't sure if it is a replacement for National 770EWL - it's at the back of the yard with a faulty door.

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