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

Your reports are welcome at malcolmhc@aol.com

updated Tuesday 31st July 2001
the next update will be on Sunday 12th August 2001 (I am on holiday this weekend)

   Issue nr. 157  

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 157, which includes the news of the week which sees the Managing Director of Oxford Bus, Douglas Aide retiring. Full details appear under the company heading. Douglas has had a long career in the bus industry and I will personally miss him. He remembered so much of the history of the past 30 years, including the start up of the Bee Line Buzz Company in Manchester, when Sherpa Minibuses flooded on to the streets and had a lovely destination setting for buses returning off service to the garage I'm buzzing back to depot. 

This last week saw me in Hong Kong. It was a disappointing trip since the weather was appalling. A Typhoon was due to hit HKG on the one full day I was there. In the end it missed by 200kms but no one was working until night time and the streets were almost deserted.  Heavy rain and squalls made photography pretty useless but I include a few shots for you aficionados of the Hong Kong bus scene. 

A New World Fist Bus Trident braves the weather. Passing my hotel with a Force 5 blowing.
This was the only bus seen in 30 minutes and it was 10 am.

New coach, new livery. Bebb of South Wales, Y93HTX on the 509 to Cardiff.
and National Express have a revised livery.

It seemed strange to return to london on Saturday evening on my X90 duty and see open top ex Hong Kong six wheelers in London sightseeing livery. 

News again of another operator facing major problems with the Vehicle Inspectorate (VI). It seems Heyfordian have lost 25 licences from their total and indeed a number of buses and coaches wewre VOR at the Wycombe depot this last weekend. I understand that they look at matters on the basis that if "it is fitted it should work" ! 

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

The roadworks in St Clements mean that traffic inward bound to the city centre, with the 
exception of buses  and taxis are not permitted to use the road. Needless to say and in 
keeping with many other such areas in Oxford, scant notice is taken by motorists.

Last week saw work start in St Clements lasting for about 10 weeks. when this is finished we shall have another fine piece of road and one can only hope that crumbling as has happened in London road, Headington does not occur. I know some of you do not like me sniping at other road users etc. but my picture above says it all. The general attitude of such motorists is **** you. It could hardly be more clearly signed so why do they ignore those signs?

Whilst on the subject our beloved taxi drivers in Oxford also continue to ignore common courtesy, making last minute U turns and stopping on pedestrian crossings. One wonders how long it will be before some unlucky passenger gets killed and then maybe the authorities will do something about the driving standards of the taxis. 

This week has seen very high temperatures and the need for air conditioned coaches and maybe even buses. Long term forecasting suggest that we will experience a growing number of hot summers and maybe we all need to re-look at our specifications on public transport. Of course from a drivers point of view he can open his signaling window but if the coach is air conditioned this defeats the object. The end result of this situation for coach travel are frustrated passengers, either because the service did not run or because the air-con was not working. Temperatures as high as 33deg C can be recorded under such circumstances.

News from the companies - 31st July 2001

Arriva serving The Shires & Essex

As mentioned by Matt Wheeler in his last weekly report, 5063 (MUH 290X) the Travelwise liveried example has been parked up in Aylesbury's depot for a number of weeks and I am pleased to include a picture taken last Friday. It seems that 5063 is being cannibalised and is unlikely to run again. It is seen in company with a National Greenway and a training vehicle.

2112 - N42MUR - is seen working the 320 to Chinnor from Princes Risborough last Friday.
The driver was seemingly taking down the Train Station Bus Stop which are normally 
attached to each bus stop on the route. Is this the end of the 320, I wonder?

City of Oxford Motor Services (The Oxford Bus Company)

Changes at the top!

The managing director, Douglas Adie, has announced his retirement. He will leave the company at the end of November, just after his 60^th birthday. 

Douglas has been with Oxford Bus since 1997 and with The Go-Ahead Group since 1994 when, as managing director of London Central, it was purchased by The Group. His transport experience in senior management goes back almost thirty years, including time as the company secretary of Midland Red Omnibus Company, director and general manager of Alder Valley, and executive director with the National Bus Company. He has also served on the main Go-Ahead board.

Commenting on his retirement, Go-Ahead’s chief executive Martin Ballinger paid tribute to Douglas, saying “the Oxford Bus Company has established an important position within the city as a high quality operator in a very competitive market. Douglas’ contribution to the company and to Go-Ahead has been tremendous and I am sure I speak for all when I say he will be greatly missed.”

Philip Kirk will take over as managing director when Douglas retires. Philip has been with Oxford Bus for six years, initially as Operations Manager and since 1997 as Commercial Director. The company will make an announcement about a replacement commercial director in due course.

This week sees a bumper selection of vintage photos which I am most pleased to include. The originator of each photo is credited and I would like to thank everyone for their welcome contribution.

Paul Dudfiled sent this excellent shot of one of the last Bristol REs delivered to
Oxford South Midland. It is pictured having worked the 30 from london via Henley. 

Some 10 years later, Alan Gelson, a current Oxford express driver, was sent to the
Duple works in Glasgow to return this Leopard (nr 23 - BBW23V) to Oxford
following warranty body repairs. All 24 of the Duple coaches went to either Blackpool 
or Glasgow for corrosion problems - a problem still not solved on modern buses.
23 remains in service today as driver trainer T2 but may shortly be replaced. 

Withdrawn earlier this year as 53, L153HUD is seen leaving Oxford bound for
Heathrow in 1994 when nearly new.

Oxford was the chosen city for trials of electric buses in the early '90s. Here we see
804 en route to the Station on the 5 City Circuit route. After withdrawal by Oxford these
buses were run by Stagecoach for a while and ended up in Jersey where they have not 
proved very successful.

This last week has seen regular use of Olympians on the X3, which for four days replaced Trident 120 in for routine maintenance. Coach nr 15 is now for repaint and rebranding following the completion of nr 12 in X90 livery. Nr 15 is to be in Oxford express livery. Trident 119 is still away at Alexander's for rectification work and 929 stands in.  

News in Buses magazine for August mentions SEVEN new Trident/ALX400s on order as 121-127. This has been denied by the company and as such any reference should be ignored.

Loadings on the london services have been very high in recent weeks and several services have required duplication.

Gareth Perkins  wrote to say,  "I'm surprised this hasn't been noted before ut Oxford Bus have hired in some drivers from Ipswich Buses for the summer.  4 of IB's drivers are in Oxford to work the 5, although a mate of mine did some overtime on the 300s, good for him as his usual Ipswich job is P&R!  They are due to stay there until the end of August.  Rates of pay are stated as good" 

Sorry I omitted to mention the men from Ipswich.,

Chris Maxfield, presently under training in the driving school writes to say,  "T1 (21-BBW21V) has unfortunately been withdrawn from training duties today due to a fautly fuel pump {was going to take my test in this but now hopefully will be in T4(ex 33)}. 223 has today gone back into service on 4 road, 220 still parked up awaiting ticket machine and ops licence. (These were the two Olympians in Truto)"

Heyfordian Coaches.

A reader writes to say that " Heyfordian has had its licence with the western traffic area (Bicester depot) reduced by the traffic commissioner from 51 to 30. A hefty reduction. It is believed that this was due to maintenance problems. This does not affect Wycombe who hold an Eastern Licence."

I visited Wycombe on Sunday and of the eleven vehicles present SIX had VOR notices on, including the three Olympians from GoAhead. Maybe the VI have also visited Wycombe.

On a more positive note Keith Wood writes to note that "Stagecoach have lost another route to tendering, the 502 Thurs / Sat Banbury - Kineton. Heyfordian have taken it over.

Stagecoach Group

Chris Maxfield writes to say, "Stagecoach have today been using Volvo/Plaxton Verdes 901 on Blackbird Leys and 902 on 7A, whilst over the last few days many high floor vehicles have been used on 3 road and also 7A road." 

STAGECOACH in BANBURY NEWS

Another service lost on tendering was the 502 Thurs / Sat Banbury - Kineton. Heyfordian have taken it over.

The planned servce reductions on the B8 Ruscote / Hardwick Circular didn't take place as expected and the service is as before (15 min / 20 min frequency).

Mercedes 811D 415 was back in service at Banbury on 24/7/01 after a short spell at Rugby. Also on 24/7/01 Rugby Mercedes 811D 406 was at Banbury depot.

STAGECOACH in WARWICKSHIRE

The big news from Warwickshire is the withdrawal of service H - Coventry/ Radford / Whitmore Park / Holbrooks on 5/8/01. This is the last of the former Metro services operated by Midland Red in the 1990's. Five 709D's will be saved and a few drivers no doubt ! The service is uneconomic according to Stagecoach. A Centro replacement service may begin soon although I have no details as yet.

STAGECOACH in OXFORD 

Whilst in Stratford on 25/7/01 I noted the following on the 50.

907 11.20 ex Stratford
910 12.10 ex Stratford
730 13.20 ex Stratford

Thanks to Keith for his informative report. Some pictures below from Neil Gow add to the 50 saga.

Richard Sharman writes on the 50 saga " Stagecoach route 50.Vehicles used are now tending to be Alexander bodied Darts and a B10 but other vehicles seen this week are, 762(NEW LIVERY)/910/912 and 917. 917 has had some home made adjustments to the bonnet, i.e. drill holes either side of the fleet name, for cooling Richard thinks."

Neil Gow wrote to enclose the pictures below saying "Here's 934 at Stratford on the 7th having just arrived 70 minutes late after replacing a broken down vehicle.  The bus behind is ex Midland Red South 527 which was on the following journey and arrived at the same time.  Note the MAN shows route number X50 presumably because it hadn't been programmed to display 50 at that time. Also enclosed is a picture of 903 at Stratford on the same day."

Two items of news concern the 10/10A City Circle which is to be split in two , with both routes serving the JR Hospital but not completing the fiull circle. The major service will now be between the JR and Cowley Centre.

Secondly, as mentioned below, Thames Travel is taking over the 105 route.

Surprise repaint into the new livery is 514, originally branded for Brookes University - 77.
Seen here working the 7A last Saturday afternoon.

752 seen working the 50 service to Stratford last Saturday with a small sticker in the
nearside front window. I thought this now illegal according the VI.

Volvo B6BLE/ALX200 458 - P362DSA awaiting a visit to the paint shop in preparation for 
work on the 500 service from Banbury to Brackley (of Great Central Railway fame!)
It is seen last Saturday at Horspath Garage.

Tappins

Back home in a funny sort of way, this Tiger came to Thames Transit from Burtons coaches in Devon.
It is one of a batch registered F279-282HOD and was in the sequence fleet numbers 996-999 with TT.
When sold the batch went to Tillingbourne and since the demise of that company have been spread around.
The paint job is excellent and the fleet number 184 is carried. It was on wedding job last Saturday.

Thames Travel

Thames Travel to take over the 105 from SiO in August. The reason given was to complement the X39 and 105 as they operate in the same area and  one operator gives a good service. SiO state they can save drivers and reallocate them. They quote Thames Travel as a reputable operator.

One now waits to see what buses are used on this service. My thanks to Vic Gacowski for this information.

Thames Valley (Archive)

Paul Goodwin sent me this picture as a "blast from the past"
For those who remember these Tillings in service with many operators, they were
often known as Tinkling Tillys.
MO9324 is now with the Amberley Museum and is seen here at Eastbourne last weekend.

Wycombe Bus Company (Archive)

A number of people at Arriva Wycombe, have some excellent archive photos and this week I include two from Malcolm Hyland. They speak for themselves but show an Olympian double deck coach in livery nr 3 (Wycombe Coach Company). These "coaches" are now awaiting Arriva livery which will be their 5th livery since new. The Lynx is seen when fairly new in livery nr 2. All this batch have now received Arriva corporate livery.

Is it really 9 years ago?

I would like to thank all of you who have sent reports and photos, which will be included in the report when published.

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

The rear view of the Volvo/Plaxton for Bebbs in new National Express livery.
This is the first I have seen with rear route number. The side destination is satisfied
with brackets for a slip board. Less than satisfactory when compared to the Van Hools 
now being delivered to NatEX and Jetlink.

Hong Kong Citybus 2281, a Dennis Trident with Duple Metsec bodywork.

New World First Bus Volvo Plaxton 2028 on Hong Kong Island.
Note the very large advertising boards on the sides, reminiscent of the 
Manchester City Circle Leyland Royal Tigers in the '50s (Modelled by corgi in 1:50th)

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

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