Oxford, High Wycombe & surrounding areas
Oxford, High Wycombe &
surrounding areas
updated
Sunday 25th March 2001
the
next update will be on Sunday 1st April 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 !
Bucks County Council invests in buses!
Three brand new Optare Solos
await delivery at Optare's Rotherham works.
Y42, 47 & 46HBT line up for the camera. There are to be five in service by
22nd April.
Matt Wheeler
kindly sent this photo of 42 and 46 on public view in Aylesbury last week.
Lighting in this shot more correctly captures the colour which is ORANGE and
blue.
News of the week is
the arrival of the first three of five Optare Solos for service in Aylesbury and
High Wycombe. Paul Goodwin wrote to include some photos and say " The
first 3 (of 5) Optare Solos were collected today from Rotherham. The vehicles
are owned by Buckinghamshire County Council and will be operated on our behalf
by a local operator. The name of the successful operator will be announced early
next week. In the meantime we have been able to secure temporary parking at
Arriva in Aylesbury. The
vehicles are fitted out to carry 23 passengers and 1 wheelchair although 4 seats
can be removed and 2 wheelchairs carried. they have kneeling suspension and have
an electrically operated ramp. they are also air-conditioned. The
easybus network of services will start on April 22 and will take over a
small number of current rural services, and will see the introduction of many
new ones throughout the whole of Buckinghamshire. Timetables will be available
very shortly."
Paul also
mentions that "they are a very nice drive and it was very easy to forget
that you were driving a fairly small bus."
Many thanks to Paul for this welcome input, I am sure he will keep us all posted on developments. I must also thank Matt Wheeler who also wrote and included photos of the launch in Aylesbury.
Matt wrote saying that "Today (Thursday), the NFBU (National Federation of Bus Users) were having a Bus Users Surgery in conjunction with Arriva the Shires and Bucks County Council. It was held in Market Square, Aylesbury, and on display were 2 of the new fleet of Low Floor Buses owned by Bucks County Council." (Thanks to Matt Ed.)
Buses returned to Cornmarket for
two days last week when the National Federation of Bus Users
held a Bus Users Surgery. Many interesting and useful views were put to company
representatives
during the two full days the surgery took place. Seen above are Oxford Bus 816
and Stagecoach MAN 914.
Both buses are low floor accessible and represent a major investment by Oxford's
two major bus
operators in the past few years.
Speaking of The Bus Users Council, a similar exercise was held in Oxford's Cornmarket last Friday and Saturday when Oxford Bus and Stagecoach provided two buses and various Managers from the two companies to field questions from passers-by. I dropped in on Saturday afternoon and overheard one lady asking questions about the Oxford Bus X3 service. she noted that it seemed not always possible to put a double deck on the 8am departure from Abingdon and passengers were often unable to get a seat. Due note was taken by Phil Clarke, Commercial Manager of Oxford Bus. I am sure action will be taken. Stagecoach fielded M A N 914 repainted in the new livery. A full management team was on hand including the Managing Director and Marketing Manager, David Whitley. They were also fielding questions about service levels and frequency. It certainly seemed a useful exercise and I await comments from both companies with interest.
Phil Clarke- Commercial Manager
Oxford Bus and David Whitley - Marketing Manager Stagecoach Oxford
exchange views during the NFBU Surgery last Saturday. Both gentlemen often drive
buses for their
respective companies and as such have first hand experience of problems facing
operators.
Following my notes last from the Oxford Consumers Group Spring Magazine, Philip Rumsby wrote to add comment to this subject of the Oxford Tube service and I do hope he will not mind my quoting his letter on this page. I find his thoughts most interesting. He writes:
Dear Malcolm,
I write to you regarding your request for views during last weeks 'News' about the item written in the Consumers Group magazine. I work irregular shifts and have travelled regularly on the Tube at all times of the day and night for many years.
I agree with
the correspondent that the frequency is excellent but I have never
had a problem with any swaying on the upstairs deck - neither have I noticed
anyone else being sick recently! The journey nowadays (on both company's
coaches) is infinitely more comfortable than on the old CityLink coaches in the
80's - like the Leyland at the bottom of your 'Buses in Exile' page. When
sitting at the back I can remember actually leaving the seats on many
occasions!! The only swaying I did experience was when I was travelling back to
Oxford during one of the big storms in one of the old Metroliners. At one point
the coach got blown from lane 1 into the crash barrier in the central
reservation. We limped on and stopped under a bridge for the driver to recover
and for the wind to die down a bit.
I do not
believe the seating downstairs is any more crammed than that upstairs
and the space taken by the fridge and (non-functional) drinks machine is under
the stairs so the space would not be any use for anything other than luggage
storage. A bigger waste of space is on the coaches where a block of 4 seats have
been removed for wheelchair fixings. All drivers I have spoken to have never
known this facility be used. Apart from the inconvenience of having to book your
time of travel the day before (to allow a correctly fitted coach to be
scheduled) I am sure most wheelchair users would travel with a companion and be
able to transfer from the wheelchair to a proper seat and the wheelchair would
be folded and put in the boot.
Like the correspondent in the magazine, I too have been left standing for hours at both Sandhills and Shepherds Bush while coaches go by full up. The problem is mainly (but not always) on Saturday mornings going to London (lots of shoppers etc) and Saturday nights going back to Oxford. Although it is most annoying at the time, I cannot see what the company can do at the time, even if they know people are waiting as they can't really refuse people boarding at earlier stops in order to leave room for people at the later stops? With hindsight you can travel into Gloucester Green or Victoria to get a space, but that means almost another hour on the journey and you usually wait in the hope the next coach may have a space . . .
The temperature is often variable upstairs, but the drivers are friendly people and will willingly turn up/down the air conditioning or heating on request. The heating for the upstairs is separate to the downstairs and the drivers position so the driver cannot tell if the temperature is a comfortable level on the upstairs deck. One driver even makes a PA announcement to this effect at the start of the journey (when the PA systems were working, most have broken but I believe more are on order!).
Best wishes, Philip Rumsby
Many thanks to Philip for this interesting input. Driving Oxford express coaches often, I would also note that they have problems with PA systems not working, so it seems it is a wider problem than I had thought. I can also agree that it IS difficult for a driver to gauge the temperature throughout his vehicle.
A note for your diary.
Nigel Peach advises that Richard Bond phoned to advise " that the annual Thames Valley Charity Running Day will be held on Sunday 27th May. Details to be confirmed but there will be some Routemasters covering some of the old London Country routes & they hope to recreate Thames Valley route 36 which ran via Sands to Frieth Horse Pond," Nigel feels quite sure they won't use an RM on those winding roads around Lane End!!
Finally I would note that attacks on buses and even drivers continue in the Oxford area! The worst area seems to be the Barton Estate and more recently the London Road, Headington. It seems that throwing bricks at and through bus windows is fair game. On occasion air rifles have also been used and the latest trick is trying to kick passing buses. It is hard to believe that we are living in a so called ordered society and one wonders how this whole matter can be tackled. Certainly damage to buses results in increased costs and eventually fare rises to cover those costs. Drivers are also attacked and money often taken. I personally feel that the police need to take a very firm line in these matters, since , if it continues, someone is going to get killed and then....
Company reports - to 25th March 2001
Airlinks - Jetlink - Cambridge Coach
A grey and damp morning heralded the start of British Summer Time as the clock went forward an hour. The time is 1045am today Sunday and we see V24, a Volvo/Plaxton operating the 767 Cambridge-Oxford service heading towards the M40 Motorway through Stokenchurch. After seeing CCS liveried coaches predominate for the last few weeks other livered coach are creeping back. An Airlinks Van Hool was in Oxford yesterday and this morning this green and yellow Jetlink Volvo.
Arriva serving the Shires & Essex.
Arriva Lynx 3806 (301) passes
time between duties outside Newlands Bus Station in
High Wycombe earlier today. Many more Lynxs are expected to replace Mercs and
Darts.
It seems that 6 out of the 7 Dart SLFs were out of action one day last week so something must be done soon. Nigel Peach notes that Volvo (ex 624) is back from repaint. He notes how difficult it is to see the fleet numbers now.
Matt Wheeler writes to note that Aylesbury depot seem to have taken over operating the xx45 324 journeys between High Wycombe and Aylesbury, using both Aylesbury based vehicles and crews. Last Monday this included Mercedes mini's 2139 and 2145 (N 369/75 JGS). With Greenways appearing yesterday and today (being 3055 and 3057).
He also happened to be in Wycombe on Monday afternoon, and at 3pm, noticed that 4 of the low floor darts (3824-7) were parked up, leading to Marshall bodied Dart 3833 and at least one of the Wright bodied Darts running on routes 303/313. Although a bit later on at least 3824 returned to service. Matt was also surprised to see Volvo B10B N 413 NRG carrying fleet number 3843, as he thought it had been numbered 3853. (No Matt they didn't renumber logically! Ed).
One thing Matt was surprised to see is the use of the Volvo's on route 275 to Oxford. I'd used this service to get to Wycombe, and at most there were 6 passengers on the bus, which makes me wonder why they are using such big buses on a seemingly low usage service, when they could be used on the 326 to increase capacity when journeys are cut due to driver shortages. (The official comment from Arriva is that the Volvos give a better ride for the longer journey Ed.)
Finally, Matt noted Cressex based Lynx 3070 (H 410 ERO) and Olympian 5068 (A 141 DPE) were parked in the maintenance area of Wycombe bus station., although it is possible they've transferred from Cressex to the WycombeBus fleet. He also notes that for some time now, all Cressex based vehicles still in blue/yellow The Shires livery have lost their Chiltern Rover fleet names, whilst similar vehicles at Aylesbury still carry "Aylesbury & The Vale" names. (Thanks to Matt for an interesting report Ed.)
Oxford Bus Company (City of Oxford Motor Services)
Now out shopped in Metrobus
livery complete with fleet names but lacking fleet numbers are
ex Oxford Darts 518 (to be 769) and 507 (to be 767). 502 and 520 are now
in the paintshop.
For those of you who missed it the Darts which will join Metrobus of Orpington are to gain new fleet numbers in that fleet. These are:
762
- ex502
763 - ex511
764 - ex516
765 - ex520
766 - ex506
767 - ex507
768 - ex508
769 - ex518
Coaches 53, 55 and 59 were withdrawn last Saturday and are now having their vinyls removed prior to departure to their new home in Ireland. Nr 11 has gained Oxford-London vinyls on the front screen whilst 9 and 10 lack anything at all. 14 and 15 have also lost the Airport vinyls but due to pressure to get the Darts repainted for Metrobus the full rebranding of 9-12, 14 and 15 will have to wait until April.
I am most grateful to Philip Kirk, Commercial Director of Oxford Bus for the following information on the fleet update.
New
Vehicles March 2001
23
Y23 OXF Volvo
B10M-62 53276
Plaxton Excalibur C53F 0112VUS3114
24 Y24 OXF
Volvo B10M-62 53277
Plaxton Excalibur C53F 0112VUS3115
25 Y25 OXF
Volvo B10M-62 53278
Plaxton Excalibur C53F 0112VUS3116
26 Y26 OXF
Volvo B10M-62 53333
Plaxton Excalibur C53F 0112VUS3117
27 Y27 OXF
Volvo B10M-62 53334
Plaxton Excalibur C53F 0112VUS3118
28 Y28 OXF
Volvo B10M-62 53335
Plaxton Excalibur C53F 0112VUS3119
These
vehicles are identical to the last batch (19-22) except that they have the
Sutrack air-conditioning unit fitted on the roof and the drivers cab area is
larger due to the fitting in of the Esteban air-operated drivers seat. They are
branded for the Heathrow/Gatwick airport services.
23
was delivered on 28/2/01 and entered service on 2/3/01.
24 & 26 were delivered on 2/3/01 and entered service on 6/3/01.
25 was delivered on 13/3/01. This has now entered service.
27 & 28 were delivered by 16/3/01. Both have now entered service.
50
L150 HUD Volvo
B10M-62
Plaxton Premiere 350 C53F 3/3/01
51 L151 HUD
Volvo B10M-62
Plaxton Premiere 350 C53F 3/3/01
53 L153 HUD
Volvo B10M-62
Plaxton Premiere 350 C53F by 16/3/01
54 L154 HUD
Volvo B10M-62
Plaxton Premiere 350 C53F
3/3/01
55 L155 HUD
Volvo B10M-62
Plaxton Premiere 350 C53F by
16/3/01
56 N156 BFC
Volvo B10M-62
Plaxton Premiere 350 C53F 6/2/01
59 UJI 1759 Volvo B10M-60
Plaxton Paramount 3500 C51F
by 16/3/01
50
to Worth, Enstone 5/3/01
51 to Worth, Enstone 6/3/01
53 to O’Neachtain Tours, Spiddal, Co. Galway 16/3/01
54 to Worth, Enstone 6/3/01
55 to O’Neachtain Tours, Spiddal, Co.Galway 16/3/01
56 to O’Neachtain Tours, Spiddal, Co.Galway 16/3/01.
59 to O’Neachtain Tours, Spiddal, Co.Galway 16/3/01.
Volvo B10BLE 819 and Volvo
B10M-62 3 share the refuelling road at the depot last Friday.
Coach 3 turned out to be my coach for my Saturday X90 duty.
Unusual workings this last week included both 642 and 643 on 5 road during Saturday.
Stagecoach in Oxford.
Stagecoach participated in the NFBU days in Oxford and M A N 914 was attracting interest during Saturday, displaying the new corporate livery.
Tube 38 has also gained a May Day Ball super rear ad. also applied to 36 and 37.
Volvo Olympian 526 is now away for repaint and should return by next weekend.
Worths of Enstone.
I took a trip to Enstone on Sunday and include a photo albumn of that visit. The fleet is very smartly maintained and contains many ex Oxford vehicles.
Latest new bus to join the
fleet for subsidised 69 route to Witney is Y4WMS, a Dart MPD.
It is seen alongside P7WMS. A front view was not possible due to the proximity
of S2WMS
the other Dart used on the 69.
Newest old vehicle to join the
fleet is Oxford's 54 seen here with Excalibur R8WMS.
Ex Oxford 50 was also present, seemingly not yet in use but there was no sign of
51.
Still in regular service are ex
Oxford Citylink Tigers 124, 123 and 112.
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
Harris Coachways of High Wycombe also have premises at Binders Yard.
Here we see Volvo/Plaxton G83BLD, DAF MB230/Duple JIL5626
and GIL 4267 a Caetano Algarve of which I failed to note the chassis.
I welcome your photos for inclusion on this page.
Visitor count since 19th April 1999.
