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

Your reports are welcome at malcolmhc@aol.com

updated Sunday 22nd July 2001
the next update will be on Sunday 29th July 2001

   Issue nr. 156  

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 156, with news and contributions from various correspondents whom I wish to thank. This week we have news of "two Tigers"

March brings city centre to a standstill.

Oxford's city centre was brought to a standstill on Saturday afternoon, when a group of marchers, escorted by police, paraded through High Street. It was not clear as to what the march was all about but a poster had G4 on it, so one must assume it was connected to the G8 meeting in Genoa, Italy. My picture shows buses queuing in High Street as they waited for the march to pass. The marchers consisted of about 150 protestors, some dressed in yellow.

Within a short space of time things were back to normal and the usual line of buses picking up at the Queen's Lane stop can be seen in the picture above.

News is published this week of the closure of St Clements, from next week, to all traffic, except buses, coaches, taxis and emergency services. Whilst this matter has been made public and with suitable signs, there should be no transgressions, it will be interesting to see just how matters develop. Since the "gate" in High Street is abused by many motorists, it seems very likely that cars etc. will still use St. Clements. Various mini roundabouts have appeared in the area and I will hope to bring pictures of the situation in next weeks report.

Regarding High Wycombe, a most interesting picture appeared in this last week's edition. It shows a line of six London STL's proceeding through the main street during 1940. Reporter Michelle Fleming would like to hear if anyone can bring back a memory on the picture. Her telephone number is 01494 755151.The STLs all look new and the last one can clearly be seen to have a rear wheel trim! 

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

A recent issue of Coach & Bus Week ran an article on Optare Solos exported 
to the USA under the NABI name. (North American Bus Industries)
One of the 75 delivered is seen above at Miami International Airport.
During this part of the year thunder storms hit the area each afternoon.
I was just in time with the photo above to avoid a drenching!

A total of 20 are based at Miami and provide airside transfers
for services operated by American Eagle airlines.

This week was Miami and a flight on my own companies Boeing 767-300ERs from Amsterdam. On landing (on the flight deck - lucky devil) I spied several Optare Solos and was delighted when the chance came to go airside with my camera and get a few photos of these interesting buses. Optare is owned by North American Bus Industries and NABI secured an order from American Eagle for 75 Solos for airside work. The driver I spoke to was most complimentary and said they were very reliable. The buses have Mercedes Benz engines with Alison gearboxes. They have seating for 18 and a lot of room for standees. They are known as model 30-LFN. These buses can be seen at New York (JFK), Los Angeles, San Juan (Puerto Rico), and Dallas/Fort Worth besides Miami.

My Oxford duty this weekend was my usual two trips to London. The 2200hrs journey from London was, as has become the norm., a busy trip. I left Hillingdon with a full load and a relief coach was running behind with a good load following a night of concerts in London. My steed was once again nr 6 which is a very nice coach, especially since it goes up "Stokenchurch" bank on the M40 at near 60mph. 

I saw a most unusual "bus" in London on Saturday, this being an ex army DUKW which offer river tours in London. Quite what it was doing at the back of Buckingham Palace is a mystery to me. Imagine that on the X90? The operator is Frog Tours.

The coming week will see me in Hong Kong so watch this space, since that city must be a Mecca for all bus enthusiasts.  

Well more thoughts next week.

Company reports - to 22nd July 2001

AIRLINKS

I make no excuse for yet another picture of one of the new Jetlink coaches. This time 314 is approaching West Wycombe down a line of Copper Beeches, sadly the sun was missing. I am always on the look out for an attractive picture!

Arriva serving the Shires and Essex.

News this week concerns the Olympian damaged last week - 5824 - which has now been repaired "in-house" and is back in service. Also Lynx 3807 is now away for repaint as mentioned in Nigel Peach's report below.

The Gade Valley Merc in Wycombe is no more, having succumbed to the "paint brush" . 
Here 2127 shows its Arriva logos. It appears that this will shortly be the only Merc at Wycombe.

2821 (711) has now been withdrawn and will doubtless be leaving Wycombe soon.

Nigel Peach writes to say: Saw Lincoln Road Lynx 3074 F404 PUR yesterday - probably on route 300 (it was in the High Street as I drove round into Easton St) but it has one of those ridiculous matrix destination blinds that is impossible to read! It is still in the blue & yellow of Chiltern Rover (with no fleetnames!) but it has an Arriva turquoise lower front panel which makes it look..... unique! One for your camera!

Lynx 3808 has been repainted. My guess is that our old friend 3807 (302) has now gone for repaint as I've not seen it for a few days. That will then be all the s/ds done. Next will probably be Olympian 5832 as that is the only "non advert" bus still in Wycombe livery apart from the d/d coaches.

I don't think that Olympian 5834 has seen service since its recent repaint. It was still in the same position in the bus stn yesterday. Also in there on the back row was Merc 2821 (Freedom) the last remaining survivor from this batch. (We originally had 14; it was due to be 20 but they soon realised that they didn't have enough capacity, so the other 6 became the Leyland National 2s (387-392). 2821 may, of course, just have been resting, but I would think that its days are numbered. 2820 is still in that back row. Lynx 3076, out of action for some weeks, is back in service.

Further to yesterday's note, I saw Lynx 3074 again this morning - just to add to its colourful nature, it has a WHITE front grille!

Thank to Nigel for his report which will his last for a few days as he is off on holiday.

Matt Wheeler writes to say Not much to note for the past week, but here goes anyway...

Following my report of 5101 last week, 5097 has now also had its electronic destination display replaced by a unit looking to have come from one of the ECW bodied Olympians now out of service. Both 5101 and 5097 (along with similar 5033, 5035, 5038 and 5049) still retain the Blue/Yellow "The Shires" livery.

Of the ECW Olympians at Aylesbury, 5057 (ARP 617X) was still active earlier in the week, appearing on one of the special Tesco services on Monday. 5063 (MUH 290X) the Travelwise liveried example has been parked up in Aylesbury's depot alongside Greenway 3055 (CF Lake ad livery), and neither appear to have moved in the past couple of weeks. As for the other two ECW bodied Olympians, 5056 and 5060 (ARP 616X, ARP 620X), these appear to have been withdrawn as I've not seen either in service or the depot for a few weeks now.

A couple of interesting notes from High Wycombe, on Friday of last week (13th July), i noticed Cressex;s Olympian 5135 was on route 339, whilst on Tuesday of this week 5134 was out on route 310, both routes being, AFAIK, "Wycombe bus" routes.

More information on the service changes I mentioned last week. The updated timetables are now available from the Bucks CC Travelinfo website. Unfortunately, the formatting and accuracy seems to be up to the usual standard, with timing points missed out and journeys appearing "out of order". Of note, however, is that the Sunday services on both routes 261 and 16 (both 3 journeys each way) are to be operated by Star Travel who run town service 36 Mon-Sat.

The change of training buses continues and this week sees this Bedford YMQ
with Plaxton Supreme IV bodywork ex Lee & District. 1205 - NFJ204W new in 1980.

Oxford Bus Company (City of Oxford Motor Services)

Castle Street acts as a terminus for a number of services in Oxford
including 16 road. 805 is seen here waiting time.

Dennis Trident II nr 117 is seen here heading towards the city centre from
Redbridge Car Park. Loaned 929 has escaped my camera for an in service 
picture but I will catch it soon.

Grahame Wareham sent me this nostalgic shot from November 1968. 
The location is The Magdalen Bridge
It shows Dennis Loline/Weymann AAA519C on loan to COMS from A&D during a period of 
engineering problems at COMS, making an interesting comparison with the Dennis above.

Alan Gelson writes to say :-   I am glad that the photo of 41 (last week's page. Ed.) was of use to you. I was driving the National coach in the photo that I sent you. I will give you a better description of the duty incase that you have any inquiries about it. The 929 service started from Oxford at about 9.30am it called at Reading, Basingstoke, Southampton and then onto Bournemouth. I cannot remember the departure time from Bournemouth -  it was around about 2.00 in the afternoon - but it returned the same way to Oxford, where another Oxford driver took over for the journey to Birmingham. It then carried onto Birmingham via Woodstock and Stratford Upon Avon. The return route from Birmingham to Oxford was via Stratford and Banbury. 

I am now sending another picture which may be of interest. It was taken on the 23rd of October 1992 just before it left the garage to do an X40 to Birmingham. It is, as you probably know , coach 100, which came to Oxford from Wycombe. We were told at the time that it was sent to Oxford because it had a plug door and they kept catching it on bus stops and lamp posts. It is in its economy City Link livery. It was not  a very good coach when we got it but I was told it had a replacement engine fitted and after that it was quite a good coach, being mostly used on the X40 service. 

The coach mentioned in Alan's report above. 100 was reg. YPJ209Y starting life on
the Rail Air Link from Reading to Heathrow. It was transferred to Wycombe and purchased
by COMS with the Wycombe company becoming 1757. It was transferred to Oxford in late
1992, staying with Oxford until 1995. It then went to Bennett of Chieveley in the August
of 1995 and was re-registered TJI6301. It moved to Heyfordian in September 1998 and
can still be seen today in and around High Wycombe with Heyfordian. (see below) 

Today Sunday, saw the return of Olympians 220 and 223 from Truro, Cornwall. They will doubtless join the remaining Olympians on Q buster work this summer. Olympians regularly work on the X3 now providing much needed extra capacity on this very popular service.

Coach nr 12 is now under repaint and rebranding to X90 livery. It is also worth noting that the front valances are being treated with stone chip paint to reduce the damage caused on regular motorway work. Nr 9 is back in service.  Volvo/Paladin 650 is having back end repairs and should re-enter service shortly.

Stagecoach in Oxford.

The fleet is repainted

Dart 727 freshly out shopped in the new livery.
Seen here at Gloucester Green last Saturday on the X1 to Carterton.
The work done is excellent and these buses look much better in their new colours.

Keith Wood writes again regarding Stagecoach in Warwick. I quote his letter below. 

I've enclosed the updated new livery list although there is just one new addition 465 at Nuneaton. Strangely repaints started on B10M's then switched to B6LE's and now 709D's plus a solitary OLYMPIAN. About one a week is currently appearing. The quality of paintwork seems to vary some of the early ones already look a bit worn out. I shall be in Leamington next week where there have been some minor service changes so I'll be reporting on those in a couple of weeks.

I was quite surprised to see SiW Olympian 920 transfer to SiO as this and the rest of the batch are for University Of Warwick services. The 87 seats are required for high student numbers at busy times. I'd have thought a Volvo B10M would have been far more suitable for such a long route as the 50. 

Volvo/Paladin 911 seen here turning out of George St. on route 27 to Bicester.
Cornmarket now has the attention of the road diggers! 

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

Swanbrook surprised me on Saturday when the more usual Volvo was replaced 
by this ex Oxford Citylink Tiger B120UUD, seen leaving Gloucester Green Coach Station.

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

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