Oxford, High Wycombe & surrounding areas

updated - Sunday 23rd 2000

The next update will be on Monday 31st July 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 !

This week has been a very busy one with some spells of driving plus a major update of the Wycombe Bus Company's page caused by a revamp of the services from Wycombe. You can see the result under the following address. http://www.wycombebus.co.uk/ . 

Probably THE news of the week was articles in several national dailies reporting a take over bid of Go-Ahead by Caisse des Depots-Development, a French bus and rail operator and Rhone Capital llc, a New York based private equity firm. It was reported that following a meeting on July 7th with Go-Ahead's Chairman and Managing Director, Martin Ballinger , the bid was rejected by Go-Ahead as "being unwelcome and wholly inadequate. Go-Ahead shares rose to over 660 as a result. The French group owns London United buses and IF such a take over were to proceed one wonders what the Monopolies and Mergers might make of it ?

Next week sees Farnborough Air Show and an interesting report is contained under the Oxford heading below.

The school holidays have begun in earnest and many operators, much involved with school runs, can put their feet up for the break. Travelling along the Thame to Princes Risboro' road I came across an interesting collection of Classic Coaches vehicles and I include a few shots below. No further news is to hand about the future of Classic which has been in financial difficulties for some months now. The buses and coaches I saw seemed not have been on the road for many months.

Continuing with the theme of the total inadequacy of the coach station at Gloucester Green in Oxford, I enclose a further picture of the dangers in using this location. There is no adequate area to load and unload luggage and passengers take their lives in their hands when collecting their bags from the rear of, for example, an arriving airport service. If one tries to use the side lockers, especially the rearmost, one runs the risk of getting the door taken off by a reversing, departing vehicle from the adjacent stand. I know, it happened to me !!!  I wonder how long it will be before something so serious happens, the authorities will HAVE to do something about the matter.

Above we see the crew of an Oxford airport service , having just arrived, trying very hard to get the passengers, many of whom do not understand English that well, to move in and out of the way of a Jetlink departure to Cambridge via Luton Airport operated by CCS 324.

Fleet News week ending 22/7/00

Oxford Bus Company (City of Oxford Motor Services)

Saturday 22nd July saw Volvo/NC Paladin 644 on 2 road and Olympian 208 was on 5 road. Overcrowding on 5 road has been quite bad in recent weeks, with a great number of foreign students staying in the Cowley area. Many passengers complain of having to wait up to 40 minutes for a bus that they can get on in the peak hours. The use of an Olympian seems very sensible to move the crowds on a Saturday.

Oxford Bus will have a participant at the Farnborough Air Show this week, when Volvo 601 operates a shuttle service on the airfield every day. A special blind has been fitted for the occasion. Another special blind has been fitted by a vinyl applied to Mercedes 717 for the Barton Shuttle.

Stagecoach Oxford.  

Olympian  517 was seen operating the 31 service to Abingdon on Saturday, which is unusual for a Witney depot bus. 

Wycombe Bus Company

The major recasting of services taking place from Monday 24th July is now fully covered on the Wycombe Bus site. You can see this at http://www.wycombebus.co.uk . As a result Dart 522 has received route branding for the 326. Lynx 301 is also so treated and following an MoT will return to Wycombe at the end of next week. Other buses will also receive route branding for the 326.

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.

National Express operator Go-Ahead used this Volvo/Plaxton last Saturday on the 304 to Weymouth. 
It is seen arriving in Gloucester Green, where a lunch stop is taken. 7078 - S978ABR is the coach seen.

Tube 66 is seen arriving from London in Oxford passing Nuffield College on New Road.

Stagecoach Swindon & District were using the Volvo/Alexander PS on route 66 
from Swindon last Saturday. I don't think it was time for a Guinness for it's driver though!!
The bus in question is P318EFL, which I think came from the Cambridge area.

Arriva 5157 pauses in Thame centre en route to Aylesbury. These buses still look very good.

Oxford's Volvo 601 displays the special destination for it's duties at Farnborough this coming week.

.... and Mercedes 717 now carries an appropriate screen for its Barton duties.

another shot of Wycombe Bus 522 with the route branding clear for all to see.

Olympian 208 shown on 5 road last Saturday coping with the holiday crowds.

The Classic collection on the Thame - Princes Risboro' road as mentioned above.

The last time I saw this Metrorider was in Stokenchurch when the Marlow 356 service started.
The blinds still show that route but it does not seem to have moved for sometime now.
D463PON.

Memory Corner

The mid '60s saw the introduction of the Daimler Roadliner. Indeed COMS had a bus version.
Little did I realise when I took this demonstrator from Altrincham to Coventry 
that one day I would drive in Oxford. I do remember that the coach was very fast,
about 75mph max (there was no coach speed limit of 62mph in those days) and it was
also very quiet, quite like today's Volvo B10M-62s.

From the previous year I unearthed this picture of Ribble Leyland Leopard 789.
The new Corgi OOC casting is of this model and one hopes they will produce a Ribble version.
These coaches were not so quiet nor so fast as the Roadliner. Max speed was around 58 mph 
and the journey from Manchester to Glasgow lasted for 10 hours !!
789 is seen here at Lancaster homeward bound to Manchester from Keswick on a
a warm summer's evening in 1965, some 35 years ago ! Your editor drove on
the Ribble , based at Manchester for the two years 1964 and 1965.

The above two pictures are by courtesy of Peter Roberts (PSV Circle Manchester)

 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