Oxford, High Wycombe & surrounding areas

updated - Sunday 18th June 2000
corrected 20/6/00 - Arriva photo and Heyfordian VR.

The next update will be on Sunday 25th June 2000

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 !

Another trip to Amsterdam during the week produced the opportunity to catch a glimpse of one of the more modern Dutch buses sued on and around Schiphol Airport. The buses run to surrounding towns and villages, passing by the various airport workers parking lots. In the case of this bus it is going by P30 and travel is free. 

A scoop news item of the week concerned a cat which had somehow got itself well and truly stuck up on the roof of one of the Oxford Bus Company's buildings. Its owner visited the garage office on Sunday afternoon in a distressed state, saying that she could hear her cat up on the roof and had been looking for the poor animal since Thursday. The heat was around 30 degrees C and staff of OBC called the fire brigade to assist. Blue Watch turned up from The Slade and went into action. Staff and neighbours joined Mr & Mrs Tierney, the cats owners, in watching a real life drama as the cat, named Jones - its partner was called Indiana !!! - was rescued by the trusty lads and a lass from The Slade. A "Chimney Box" was used to lower the cat back to street level and the creature and its family were reunited. 

Seemingly none the worse for its adventure, Jones tucked into a hearty meal and another day in the life of OBC drew to a close ! Who says that there no excitement in bus operations.

Saturday night was spent watching England enjoying more the luck than of late and after a pleasant night's sleep, an 0530 start saw me on coach 53 operating the 0610 to London Victoria. The second part of the duty was the 11140 to Victoria, this time with coach 1. The air conditioning was a welcome relief to the very high temperatures affecting much of the UK this Sunday. It is interesting to note that duty card G on the X90 service starts from the garage at 0545 and actually finishes at 0630 the following morning, more than 24 hours later. This gives some idea of the mileage and hours worked by the Oxford express fleet. 

Fleet News week ending 17/6/00

Oxford Bus Company (City of Oxford Motor Services)

The latest repaint is Volvo dual door 631, the first of that batch 629-643. Awaiting attention in the bodyshop Trident 120, which had some minor accident damage. It says a lot for the company that they are most reluctant to let any bus on the road with damage. The fleet certainly looks immaculate.

Accident damaged Dart 408 has been sent to Willenhall for repairs and work on Trident 108 is well advanced. OBC has certainly had its fair share of bad luck over the past few weeks and will now be looking forward to period of calm and normal operations. However such events are and always have been, the very nature of bus operation.

Coach 52 was operating the X70 to Heathrow today, Sunday. This vehicle is branded for the X90 now !

Stagecoach Oxford.  

An item of significant interest is expected within the next few weeks, so keep watching this space !

Olympian 526 was damaged in an manouvering episode at Gloucester Green during the week. The other vehicles involved are not known at this stage.

Staff at the company must have been surprised when a Titan turned up from Selkent last week. Leyland Titan KYV492X in Stagecoach Selkent livery but, not to worry, its was actually en route to another group company and had broken down. It was towed into Oxford for repairs.

Wycombe Bus Company.

Volvo 625 was noted on the 275 to Oxford on Saturday, still with the temporary blinds first fitted to these transfers. Other Wycombe news includes the return of Lynx 305, freshly repainted and having had a lot of bodywork attention whilst in Oxford. Although these buses are in the latter days of their service with Wycombe, they are now looking very smart as a batch.

I will be pleased to receive your reports for this section
Please send your reports to MalcolmHC@aol.com and thank you for all your sightings, they are most welcome.

  PHOTO CORNER
If anyone else has a digital camera and wishes to submit photos for this page please send them to the above email.

Oxford's Volvo/Plaxton Verde dual door 631 seen at Cowley road after a repaint. 
The work done by the paintshop really is excellent, no spray painting here !!

Oxford Volvo B10BLE 801 put in an evening turn on 13B last week.
This route is normally the haunt of the SLF Darts.

SLF Dart 403 seen at the terminus at The J R !
The size of this hospital can be judged from the picture.

Wycombe's Lynx 305, fresh from repaint. Seen outside Tesco, 
by the Newlands Bus Station, this whole area is due for redevelopment.

Seen leaving the same bus station is Olympian 227, its green livery 
bringing echoes of its Park & Ride days in Oxford.

Magpie of High Wycombe now have this white Mercedes Vario with Plaxton Beaver 2 bodywork.

Heyfordian's Wycombe depot now has two Leyland Olympians from Go Ahead 
in the North East. They are JTY373X and JTY375X.
The nearer of the two worked with Go Coastline, a brand image, 
which used to be Tynemouth & District.
These two buses would appear to have replaced two Bristol VRs which came from 
the Brookes University service in Oxford. The remaining VR can be seen at the end of line.

Arriva Olympian 5135 G132YWC leaves Wycombe on the 372 to Chesham.

Since Airlinks took over the Cambridge Coach Service, variety has become the name of the game. 
All sorts of coaches turn on most routes and the discipline of using 
the latest coaches on the long Gatwick service seems to have lapsed. 
323 was one of the last deliveries to the old company and is seen here 
on a mid afternoon service to Oxford last Saturday. 
Before the take over the only time these coaches ventured to Oxford was on the night services.

 If anyone has any further news please email below.

Malcolmhc@aol.com 

It adds to the interest of the page which I'm sure everyone appreciates.

THE OXFORD BUS MUSEUM