from THE OXFORD BUS PAGE
News & Pictures from:
 Oxford, High Wycombe, The Chilterns & surrounding areas

Issue 209
Monday 29th July 2002

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.

Visit the Archive Pages going back to 1998

Your reports are welcome at malcolmhc@aol.com

601 goes to an Air Show

Oxford Bus provided support to group company London General with services at The SBAC Show at Farnborough.
One of the first duties was to meet Virgin Atlantic's Airbus A340-600 on its maiden flight from Heathrow
bringing some 300 VIPs and guests to the air show. the two are seen above shortly after the aircraft arrival last Monday.

Your Editor had the chance to drive a London General NV class Olympian on another
special duty conveying a party of Japanese from one side of the show to the other.

Welcome to issue 209 with news of this year's Farnborough Air Show, when London General and Stagecoach provided services to and from the show and London General additionally the internal services such as Park & Ride. Your Editor had volunteered his services for the week at Farnborough and as two years ago took Volvo 601 from Oxford to assist London General. 601 was beautifully turned out and was a credit to the company and the engineering staff at Oxford who has prepared the bus. Stagecoach provided services from Farnborough Station, North Camp and Aldershot, using a fleet of Olympians, some drafted in from other areas such as East Kent. London General, as in past years, ran express services from Central London and Heathrow. Internal services were also provided by LG, the main one being from Queen's Parade Car Park, just outside the main site into the display and exhibition area. 601 worked on this Q service and ran the 1815 service to Heathrow each evening. On the Saturday and Sunday, Public Days, it was estimated that approaching 10,000 people were carried each day on the Q service. The mainstay of the internal services were provided by retired Red Arrow GLS's plus a variety of LG and LC Darts, a Metrobus Dart SLF and on the Saturday and Sunday LG VC1, 2, 3, 6 and even two Titans including T172, the Golden Jubilee Titan.

The NV Olympians also helped out and of interest were three previously unused Y reg LG Darts LDP149-152 (Y849-852TGH), stored until this last week.

Due to this event my time in Oxford and our normal area ofd coverage was very limited and this week I hope no one minds me giving some coverage to Farnborough.

The Stagecoach contribution also included their Golden Jubilee bus from Aldershot depot
and this is seen above. Not every day was so sunny.

On the local front the Oxford Times covers a story about the coach parking in St Giles, saying the experimental facilities, designed for left hand drive coaches is not to be continued. It has seemingly not been so successful as had been envisaged.

The lead story last week about the tragedy in Witney is also covered in the Oxford Times and the seriously injured waiting passenger, a 36 year old man, is still seriously ill. How very sad.

Friday last was the day when a mini bus collided with a tanker on the M25 by Heathrow. The result was chaos on surrounding roads as police closed the M25 in both directions during the morning peak. Many services, including airport services from Oxford were seriously delayed.

Well back from Farnborough and as mentioned before only a limited page this week with an emphasis on the Air Show.

News of the local companies - 29th July 2002

Arriva serving The Shires & Essex

Arriva 3365, on loan from Stevenage, with 3834 now transferred to Aylesbury with
sister 3834 as noted by Steve Warwick.

Newlands Bus Station, High Wycombe (NBS)

Olympian coach 5824 ahead of 5822 in Newlands Bus Station a week ago.

Lynx:3070,3345,3806,3809.

Dennis Dart SLF:3821,3822,3823,3824,3825,3826,3827

Dennis Dart DW:3811,3812,3813,3814,3815, 3816, 3817, 3818,3819,3820

Dennis Dart DM:3833,3834    3365 on loan from Stevenage.

Scania:3144,3145,3146,3158,3163,3169

Olympian:5822,5824,5825,5826,5827,5828,5829,5830,5831,5832,5833,5834,5835,5379,5074

Volvo:3841,3842,3843,3844,3853,3854,3855

Total:54

CRESSEX (CRX)  (Think this needs an update!)

Carousel Buses, High Wycombe

Ed Maun writes saying - Reference issue 207 and the Arriva (ex Wycombe Bus) Lynx (3808) pictured at Carousel.    Rumour has it that the Speen circulars (333 &334) will be operated by Carousel from 28^th July – I doubt they could use a DD Metrobus – they may be using the Lynx (it has 333 on its route number blind).  

Oxford Bus (City of Oxford Motor Services)  http://www.oxfordbus.co.uk

Brian Matthews of Witney sent these lovely photos. He says Following up the previous G Green pic here is something even older !  - an "official" AEC b/w press release print of Sept 1940  (the detail jpg shows the supporting text that was printed with it when it was published in the "Railway Gazette" of Nov. 1940) . Interesting to note on the enlargement of the cab area the WW2 'black-out' restricted headlights, the running no. and the conductor's gear 'of the time' ! Brian also sent the two photos below.

Most unusual working so far is of coach 28, with toilet, working on 5 road peak hour reliefs this morning, 29th July. Other interesting workings were reported by Chris Maxfield. Yesterday, 649 covered almost a full day on 400D card as a replacement for 112. Chris continues Other unusual workings were 103 and 512 on 2 road for the full day on Saturday 27th.

I note that 224 was on 400A card on Saturday with 652 spending some part of the day on 5K card.

Thursday 26th July saw 224 on 5D and 214 on 5H cards with 223 for part of the day on 5J card. 812 and 820 were on 13 road on the same day.

Friday 26th saw Trident 103 on 2 road and 804 on 13 road.

B10BLE 802 is in workshops for body repair and will have an almost complete repaint before returning to service.

The first football specials for this season were operated by 101 and 102 with 208 and 214.

601 with an NV and a Rapide preparing to land, all at Farnborough.

Stagecoach Aldershot, and 601 next to an Oxford registered Dart 413.

Stagecoach South Midlands Group

Nothing much to report in the absence of anything from my correspondents and my absence in Farnborough.

Someone at Stagecoach had a great sense of humour. Look closely at the blind.
Seems the driver, from East Kent, got the job instead of someone else!!!
Before anyone gets upset, it was only displayed for a few minutes during a quiet period.

Shades of Oxford, two brand new 64 seat short Tridents were in use over the Farnborough week.
Here we see TAS537 leaving for North Camp. The other bus was TAS538.

 Loved this notice in 537. I wonder how it could go down in Oxford?

Thames Travel, Wallingford

The Scania/Wrights Solar YP02ABN has been on loan to Thanes Travel.
It was used from 22nd to 26th July inclusive on the 144 Reading-Wokingham service.
Seen above when on loan to Oxford in April 2002.

Woottens

Woottens were much in evidence at Farnborough. Here we see N807NHS on one of
the trade days.

If you wish to be included on a mailing list where I will advise of any mid week news please
let me know on malcolmhc@aol.com

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

One of the GLS Nationals in use at Farnborough. GLS446. Very smart for a withdrawn bus.

I did enjoy a few trips with VC1 seen above. Now in their last days they are
already advertised for sale at just under £30,000 a piece.

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

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