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

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updated Sunday 16th December 2001
the next update will be on Sunday 23rd December 2001

  Issue nr. 177

Please note that any comments made in this news page are those of the Editors' and in no way constitute 
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Welcome to issue 177, which covers a number of very interesting news items this week, a change of flavour from the usual. Saturday morning saw me in Wallingford and Goring. The latter is fascinating for the enthusiast of trains and buses, since the line is very busy with First Great Western, Thames Trains and Virgin running through on high frequency services. Thames Travel operate a rail connecting bus service to Wallingford and RAF Benson. So of the later buses on weekdays make guaranteed connections.

Thames Travel also operate the rail booking office during the late shift and maintain constant touch with Thames Trains regarding the arrival of trains.

Here we see a Thames Travel Solo X385VVY arriving on a Saturday morning 132 service.
It will depart for Wallingford and Benson at 0950hrs. Passengers off the bus will have a
connecting train to Reading and London - Paddington at 1000.

Another operator to call at Goring Station en route to Reading is Chiltern Buses. I have tried to get a timetable for their services without success and the service I saw bore no route number only the destination Reading. I am thus not sure where it had come from?

This nice little Dart MPD - with a 4 cyl engine I am told but it is very fast - has just been
delivered to Chiltern. KP51SXU pauses at Goring Station en route to Reading.

The morning last Saturday was nice and sunny but Oh so cold. -3°c in Goring and not warm enough to hang around. So off we went to Chiltern Buses Garage which was busy with coaches preparing for work, though several of the newer coaches were back after hires into Europe. None of the newer service buses were in but I had already caught their new MPD on digital so I was happy.

We then moved on to Thames Travel at Wallingford and after a quick look in the depot pressed on to the town square to see if one of the two Solos in Thames Trains livery were to be seen. I was most surprised by Wallingford at around 1025 on a Saturday morning becuase the place was full of TT buses coming and going.

One of the elusive Thames Trains liveried Solos shares the square with two Varios,
one en route to Oxford on the X39 and the one on the left bound for Henley.

I counted EIGHT buses working services in and out of the town and must conclude this must be the busiest for bus movements than it has been for many a long year. One has to admire Thames Travel who now claim to be the third largest bus operator in Oxfordshire.

With the temperature warming a little we now pressed on towards Watlington via Benson where I had hoped to catch a Stagecoach on the 101. Changes are a foot and from February Thames Travel have been awarded the 101 Oxford-Watlington, 103 Oxford-Little Milton and the 19 service to Witney. More changes are that the service 10 in Oxford to the John Radcliffe presently operated by Chiltern Buses (evenings and Sundays) will go to Oxford Bus from February 2002. Stagecoach have retained the 44 and 64 services. Back to looking around Watlington I was not in luck and my Saturday morning wanderings had to be curtailed as I was to drive for Oxford Bus later that day.

Well, on to company reports and news. Within this section I have included further pictures of my visit to Wallingford.

News from the companies - 16th December 2001

Arriva serving The Shires & Essex

Arriva's 3819 waits time in Marlow this Sunday morning. Buses now proceed directly ahead
and then turn right twice to get back to the main road to High Wycombe.
I seem to remember that they reversed into the area to the left of the shelter before
returning to the main road in the background.

ex Oxford 504, now 3834 has had its rear dot matrix display worked on.
It now displays Arriva instead of any route details!

Looking through some photos I had taken back in the early '90s I came across
this summer shot of D822UTF, in the then Bee Line livery, working a 323 service from Aylesbury
towards Princes Risboro' and High Wycombe. The location is Little Kimble.

Steve Warwick wrote with some notes on Arriva this last week.

Monday 10th December

Oh what a day! where do I begin.

Firstly, yes indeed a Leyland Olympian did operate the 1640 275 service to Oxford on Saturday. It was G232 VWL (5832) they needed a Volvo for a Reading so something had to give. Dennis Dart SLF (3821) was involved in a serious RTA this afternoon at about 12.45pm at the junction with Whitelands Road and Whitelands Way. It was on ex 1240pm from the bus stn to Castlefield, as it was coming up Whitelands Rd from the Half Moon a car coming down Whitelands Rd hit the bus head on.  So there have been a variety of vehicles on 303's today (Darts 3812,3817 & Olympian 5823.

Just got in after a long hard day, not much to report today. 3821 is back at Newlands parked in the back row, it has a bent chassis apparently. Dart 3099 I noticed today on Aylesbury's again.

I had Volvo B6 3243 on the 07.00 328 Reading this morning, took my camera with me but the weather was so dull this morning couldn't get a decent photo, had to have a blank blind because there is no Reading on it, but showed High Wycombe on the return.

Wednesday 12th December

Not much news today I saw Cressex Olympian 5071 on a 301 Flackwell Hth (No blind).

(I mentioned that I had seen 3344 on the Reading 328 tonight. Ed) Steve replied  "not that unusual to have Lynx's on Readings. A lot of it is due to late running, the bus not being back in time and taking what's available at the time. Tonight for instance the 17.20 dep 328 Reading was operated by Olympian 5834.

Friday 14 Dec December

Newlands Olympian 5833 worked the 1710 300 service to Uxbridge.

Matt Wheeler wrote to say......"this evening 280 branded Volvo Olympian 5158 was on 323 (18:45 from Aylesbury), whilst 5156 was on the 17:50 route 54 to Halton Camp, later doing the 18:45 280 to Oxford.

Leyland Olympian 5101 (G651 UPP) which I reported a few weeks ago as being repainted to have an Arriva front end and blue sides/rear, is still wearing that livery, and has yet to receive any form of advertising branding on it.

Finally, the bridge in Oxford Road, Aylesbury, over the railway line, has today (Friday) re-opened in both directions to all traffic. This means that as of Sunday routes 9, 280 and most others that used the bridge before Jan this year will resume their normal routes/timings. The only exceptions are routes 4 & 5 which are keeping their current routing until the end of Jan 2002, and Route 3 which is retaining its extra evening peak journeys, again until the end of Jan 2002."

The only other news is that the 336 is being taken over by Carousel.

The coach seated Metrobus M1432 has had its roof repaired and is back in service
with Carousel. It has nice gold transfers on the nearside with its fleetname.

Martyn Pearce wrote to say "The company has just won the tender for the 336 service from Chesham/Amersham to Watford to start in January. For the first time in Carousel's short life single deckers are to be bought: two Dennis Darts are being sourced at present and drivers recruited.... Red buses on the 336 - what ever next??!!!"

Chiltern Queens serve Henley for town services. Here Y877KDP waits time in Henley.

Oxford Bus operates football services to the new Kassam Stadium. Here we see Olympians 221
followed by 220 awaiting time for departure. Leaving Kidlington, Grovelands at 1340 they are due
arrive at the Stadium by 1430hrs in good time for the match. Loadings are very good.

As mentioned earlier in the News Page, Oxford Bus has been awarded the tendered journeys on
the 10 road. The evening and Sunday journeys are those involved and OBC will takeover
from February 2002. Here we see earlier days and an Atlantean, 985 - MPT315P
MPT314P later served with Guide Friday in Oxford as an open top bus.
985 is seen turning into Cornmarket at Carfax. It joined Oxford Bus (COMS) from Northern General
in 1986, when only 11years old. It had been their 3315. It left Oxford in August 1991
joining the fleet of Ford, Gunnislake.

During late 1986 a brand new Metrorider was loaned by Greater Manchester PTE for trials
in Oxford. 1601 - D601MDB is seen here in St Aldates working the then route 73.
It is fitted with a coach blind and has an Oxford logo on the side window.
The success of the trial led to the purchase of seven similar buses 750-757.

During June 1991 AERE Harwell sold its fleet of Olympians and these were purchased
by Oxford Bus. There were four in total FWL778-781Y and they were given fleet
numbers which followed on from the last Olympian new to Oxford 235. They differed from
normal Oxford buses in having only single doors. New in 1983, joining Oxford in 1991,
they were transferred to Wycombe Bus in October 1995 and eventually withdrawn in 2000.
They are now with Hedingham Omnibuses.

Trevor Hiles wrote "Mike Stephens has asked me to send you two photos of Oxford City Olympians 220 & 223 at Truro while on loan to Truronian last July.  223 is in Back Quay, Truro and appears to be operating on the T1 route which runs between The Lizard and Perranporth."

Many thanks indeed for this excellent photo.

I hadn't seen this one before today - D207MKK is a Scania K92CRB with
East Lancs 55 seat bus bodywork ex Seamarks of Luton. New in 1987
it arrived with Prestwood in 1999.

Stagecoach in Banbury and Warwickshire

Keith Wood writes "Rugby's surviving 4 Leyland Nationals are now quite hard to ride. Since the arrival of the B6LE's most Rugby - Coventry services are now B10M's (221/223-225) with only a few peak hour / school related journeys now LN. I managed 710 two weeks ago on an early morning 86 to Coventry which returns to Rugby as a school service but the afternoon return diagram (4.40pm Coventry - Rugby) is usually a Dennis Dart (102-105 batch). When 223 goes for a repaint we should see a LN and I'll wager this will be during a school holiday. They can still be found on X40 Rugby - Leicester and 63 Rugby - Leamington (Sats Only) which are both LN diagrams and 772 was working a Hillmorton service early yesterday morning but was replaced with a Dart after the Dart had completed it's school run.

Nuneaton's three LN's (702 / 705 / 727) are used only on school runs although one college run to Atherstone via Birchley Heath (41) is a public service and is usually a LN. It's been nice to hear about 753 roaming Oxfordshire this week on UK Bus Fleetnews. Several people have seen it. Perhaps we could persuade Mr Whitley to give it a go in service?

Stagecoach in Oxford

We will shortly have Vic Gacowskis work on Witney. One route which
runs into Oxford is the X3 and 381 along with 377, 378, 379 and 380 form part of
Witney's allocation of buses.

Another Witney allocated bus is 727, part of the batch 725-730 which are the Dart allocation
now at that depot. It is seen here on the X1 running up George Street, Oxford.

Vario 383 has had three repaints in its short life. It was repainted in stripey livery for the
last episode of Morse and ran on a route into Bicester. It is now in new livery
and is seen entering Gloucester Green after running in from Bicester.

NEWS FROM TRACEY AND JIM this week is ......................................concerns the loaned London tridents. Brookes University term finished last Friday (7/12/01) and from next Monday the 77 runs only hourly needing only one bus. The three London Tridents (528-530) are being fitted with the correct ticket machines and blinds and will run the Bicester services for the next few weeks.( I saw 529 (431) on Saturday on 27 Ed.)

Edmund Tresham wrote to say "This Tuesday lunch time I happened to come across Stagecoach in Oxford 515 Alexander bodied Olympian R415XFC. It was laying over on Magdalen St. East waiting to take up a duty on the 100 to Witney. At first glance it could look like it is displaying 001 but actually it is displaying 100 up side down. I do not know if perhaps the display had had to be taken down for some reason and then put back the wrong way up? I have been on the look out for 515 to see if it has been put back the right way round yet but so far it has eluded me."

Thames Travel, Wallingford.

X49VVY is seen in Wallingford Square painted in Thames Trains livery for the 132 service.

It has full branding for the 132 but was working the 130 when seen.

As mentioned elsewhere Thames Travel, now said to be the third largest bus operator in Oxfordshire, have gained three new routes from February 2002. The 19 to Witney will be worked in conjunction with the 18 to Clanfield. The two east Oxfordshire routes, 101 to Watlington and 103 to Little Milton are a new venture for TT and we can expect additional buses for these services.

Ex Oxford Dart M501VJO is in OBC's paintshop being repainted white. It should be finished later next week.

Z&S Travel, Aylesbury

Ralph Adams wrote to say "the above service from Thame, normally operated by a Z & S ex West Midland Merc from Aylesbury was today operated by Heyfordian using a Scania Coach. I do not know whether the contract has been reassigned, or just Heyfordian assisting for 1 day?

Anyone any ideas?

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

Dunn Line had two coaches for Mansfield supporters at the Kassam Stadium last Saturday
including this Volvo/Plaxton Y337AUT. Mansfield lost 3-2 to Oxford United.

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

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