Visitors to this page since 7/6/98

Written and maintained by Malcolm Crowe & Richard Griffin
Original concept & copy by David Root.

Revised and updated August 20th 2002

The Oxford Bus Company's city services (formerly known as "Cityline") represent a major part of what was once better known as, and indeed officially still is, the City of Oxford Motor Services (COMS). In many circles the company is still referred to by that shortening, COMS !  Formed in 1921 out of the Oxford & District Tramways (later the City of Oxford Electric Tramways), the company ran buses such as the NS type and Dennis H.  Albion single deckers were also popular for a few years at the end of the 1920s. By the end of that period the AEC Regent had arrived on the scene and the company began its long association with the marque. Park Royal and Weymann bodywork featured on these chassis and one of those early Regents can still be seen today at The Oxford Bus Museum, albeit with open-top Brush bodywork.

The bus fleet of the '30s also operated to country destinations outside the City but the main source of revenue was the heavily used City service which served the areas of Cowley, Headington, Old Marston, Summertown, Wolvercote, North Hinksey and Iffley areas. The City routes were mainly operated by highbridge buses but the North Hinksey routes needed lowbridge buses due to the railway bridge, near to Oxford Station, which has always presented a problem for the companies serving this road.

In later years, through the '40s and '50s, buses continued to be AECs of the Regent, Regal and underfloor-engined Regal Mk IV types. Representative examples can again be seen at the Museum and one can get a flavour of the period. This was again enhanced by the appearance of a 1957 AEC Regent with Park Royal bodywork in the film "Shadowlands" representing Oxford in the '50s.

1961 saw the first major crack in this AEC stronghold, when Dennis Loline II's were introduced, albeit with AEC engines. Five buses were purchased and today two can still be seen at the Museum, with 304 almost ready to return to service and 305 being retained as a static exhibit. Further AECs followed until 1968 when the first Daimler Fleetlines entered the fleet, 10 Northern Counties bodied versions being purchased.

In 1969 the first integration of the City and country services began, producing economies also assisted by one-man operation. One-man buses caused their own problems, with delays in loading and in 1969 kerbside conductors were introduced, working in the City centre to reduce waiting times for passengers boarding the buses. This system was rendered less effective by the introduction of travel cards which now represent a high proportion of passenger journeys on the City services. A further aspect to City services came with the introduction of Park & Ride, which is now the only city service to use kerbside conductors.

The current era can said to have started with the introduction of a large fleet of Bristol VR's, eventually totaling nearly 100 of this type, mostly of the dual-door variety. The first of these joined the fleet in 1973 with nine of the semi-coach variety, originally intended for use on the London service mainly at weekends. These were followed in 1974 by standard single-door buses. It was not until 1977 that the first dual-door examples arrived, by which time most of the major City centre routes were operated by the VR type.

The next major type to see service was the Leyland Olympian of which twenty four were delivered between 1982 and 1983, all with ECW dual-door bodies. A further five dual-door Alexander-bodied examples were delivered in 1988, followed by six more of the same type in 1990. These latter six have since moved to High Wycombe, losing their centre doors in the process. In 1991 the opportunity arose to purchase four second-hand single-door ECW-bodied Olympians from AERE at Harwell and after service on country routes out of Oxford, they have also moved to Wycombe. For a while in the late '80s and early '90s a few Leyland Atlanteans with ECW dual-door highbridge bodies were used, being ex Northern buses; these could be said to have been replaced by twenty six Leyland Titans ex London Transport, also with dual-door bodies. A few of these re-entered service in the summer of 1998 as Q busters, and the last two examples in Cityline livery lasted until the end of June 1999, more often than not appearing on Park&Ride 300. Sister 950 in the Park and Ride fleet lasted into July 1999, but succumbed shortly afterwards. 

From October 1999, two Leyland Olympians were reinstated, being 208 and 214. For a very short time 201 was used in place of 214. These two deckers were needed to meet heavy loadings on certain rush hour journeys on 4 and 35 roads. Olympian operation came to an end in November 2000 when 214 returned from Wycombe off loan. 208 and 214 have been on loan to Wilts & Dorset at Poole. More recently various examples of the remaining seven have been on loan to Truronian in Cornwall with 220 and 223 being there until 23 July 2001. The seven 208, 214, 220-224 will form the Q buster fleet for summer 2001.Q busters are duplicates allocated to routes as required, and as such these Olympians can appear on any city service plus Park & Ride. A most unusual occurrence was the appearance of 224 on X90 relief duties on Saturday 7th July, when Radiohead gave a concert in  South Park. The old lady operated a 0925 service from Victoria with a return at 2225 to Victoria with a full load of 75 returning concertgoers. The journeys were made in all directions in 90 minutes!

The former Cityline fleet included a batch of fifteen Optare Metrorider midibuses delivered in 1990, but the first examples of this type had arrived in 1987, and a total of 34 were operated at one point, as well as four battery-electric examples on a short-lived city centre service. With almost all of the Metroriders sold, the pair that remained was used on the then 61 service to Jericho, which required just one bus. At the end of October 1999, the 61 to Jericho was withdrawn, ending the normal use of Metroriders in Oxford. Vehicles 782 and 783 were sold to Charlton Services, leaving already-withdrawn 781 as the sole survivor. 781 has been renumbered T3 and is part of the Oxford bus company's training fleet; however, its usual purpose is staff transport on Sundays or during night time hours of no or infrequent service-bus operation. It is painted yellow and blue! It was down seated to 8 but regained full seating in the summer of 2001.

In July 2000, Wycombe Bus Mercedes 717 was transferred to Oxford for shuttle duties on the Barton Estate. Following the completion of works, 717 was sold.

Load factors on the X3 resulted in one of the Park & Ride Tridents, No. 120, being repainted in red bus livery and receiving branding for the X3 Abingdon route during the summer of 2000. It, together with its four X3-branded Plaxton Verde cousins, is a mainstay of the A34 express route. During August 2001 Olympians appeared on this route on many occasions.

Service reductions in November 2000 resulted in the withdrawal of 10 Darts and a number of duties to overcome staff shortages. On Monday 20th November, the 35A (Oxford - Kennington - Radley - Abingdon - Steventon - Didcot) was increased to a 30 minute frequency with financial assistance from Milton Park Estates.

The training fleet has for many years been stocked by three ex Citylink Leyland Leopards but these are nearing the end of their service with Oxford Bus. In August 2001, three Leyland Lynx trainers were purchased from Travel West Midlands. At the time of writing these are under preparation for service in Oxford.

Fleet livery today is red and white with an Oxford blue skirt and the new Oxford bus company logo. March 2000 saw the introduction of a new and brighter image: "Cityline" was replaced by the Radcliffe Camera image with the name the Oxford bus company. All buses have had the Cityline fleetname removed, although it is possible to make out remnants of this on some vehicles. You can still see the famous traditional "Oxford livery" on various preserved buses at the Oxford Bus Museum. The usual city fleet is now 100% single deck; however, the seven surviving ECW-bodied Leyland Olympians have been - or are currently being - overhauled, painted in current city livery and prepared for the summer of 2001, as Q busters. They are from the batch numbered 201 to 224 and date from 1982-3.

Today's fleet

Today the majority of the city service's buses are Volvo B10s, in three main variants: B10Bs with Plaxton Verde or Northern Counties Paladin bodies, and Wright Renown low-floor B10BLEs; each type is dealt with below.

• Of the original 28 Volvo B10B / Plaxton Verde single-door buses (numbered 601 to 628), four are specially lettered for the X3 Abingdon express service (616 to 619), the rest being used mainly on services 2/2A and 35/35A, plus some on service 4/4A/4B/4C. No. 620 carries a back-and-sides advert for "Lazer World". Seven of the single-door buses (621 to 627) went to sister outfit the Wycombe Bus Company, which has since been taken over by Arriva, the seven buses receiving new numbers and livery soon afterwards; these regularly visit Oxford on route 275 from High Wycombe. 628 is now unique among the whole city fleet in having the route number and destination blinds transposed, with the route number on the offside. A further batch of fifteen Verdes (629 to 643), to dual-door layout, was added to the fleet in Spring 1997 to replace ex London Titans on service 5, which operates to Cowley and Blackbird Leys from the City centre and railway station. Following the introduction of low-floor Wright bodied B10BLEs, the dual-door Verdes were cascaded on to other routes as given above.

• London General's thirteen VN-class Volvo B10B / Northern Counties Paladin buses (now numbered 644 to 656) arrived in Oxford from Clapham during 1997, and entered service on routes in the 4 series (Rose Hill - City Centre - Botley to Elms Rise / Dean Court / Cumnor and Abingdon). They were re-registered in the K1xx BUD series on arrival in Oxford, having carried "cherished" K-KLL registrations in London. Their dual-door layout fits into the fleet well, most other Oxford Bus vehicles also having this layout. In addition to working several 4-road services, the Paladins are the usual choice for services 2B/2C/2D (Railway Station to Kidlington airport) and service 22 (Risinghurst - Headington - City Centre - Botley - Harcourt Hill).

• The summer of 1999 saw the Volvo fleet strengthened further by the delivery of 15 new Volvo B10BLEs carrying Wright Renown bodywork to full accessible low floor specification. Continuing with the standard Oxford Bus dual door layout, they seat a maximum of 39, though having various seating/standing permutations depending on whether a wheelchair or buggy is carried and whether the tip-up seats are in use. These buses commence a new fleet numbering series 801-815 and registrations T801-815 CBW are carried. They are working the 5 road, Blackbird Leys to the City and station, and make an interesting comparison to the MANs used by the other company! Six new Volvo B10BLEs (816-821,  were delivered in spring 2000 and the W reg arrived in Oxford. Virtually identical to the earlier batch, the resulting fleet of 21 low-floor buses provides all normal service on routes 5, 15 (Wood Farm to City) and 16 (Minchery Farm - Cowley - Donnington Bridge - City). During 2002 the latter batch (816-821) were all fitted with colour monitors to assist drivers with loading and reversing.

The remainder of the city fleet is made up of Dennis Darts, of two types: Marshall-bodied standard, and Wright-bodied SLF (low-floor).

• A fleet of twenty 9.8-metre Dennis Darts with Marshall bodywork (numbered 501 to 520) arrived in 1995 to serve routes with either difficult operating conditions or light loadings. Fitted with Eminox Greencat catalytic converters, their dual-door layout is relatively unusual on vehicles of this size. Only six are still in service at Oxford Bus, the remainder having been sold to Metrobus in Crawley and repainted in their livery at Cowley Road depot prior to departure, out on hire to Thames Travel or delicensed pending sale. The surviving buses are used as the standard vehicle of choice on route 5A/5B (Greater Leys - Cowley - City centre). They also are allocated as necessary to make up the required number on services 6/6A/6B (Wolvercote to City, 6A being via Walton Street and 6B taking in St Peter's Road in upper Wolvercote), and the 13 road of which more later. They also deputise on other routes when sufficient "correct" vehicles are not available.

          By 2002 most of the earlier Darts (501-520) had been withdrawn leaving just six in service. It is not known how long these
          buses will remain in the fleet.

• The recent initiative of low-floor buses saw ten new Dennis Dart SLFs with Wright Crusader low-floor dual-door bodywork delivered in June 1998, and these have served the Marston Road routes 13/13A/13B/13C since 5th July 1998. Nowadays they are routinely used on the 6 road as well. Fleet numbers are 401-410, commencing a new series for this type of bus. The revised 13 road serves the John Radcliffe Hospital (13) and Northway (13A) with the hourly 13C serving Marston Village; 13B visits both Northway and the JR Hospital and operates in the early morning and at night to maintain a reasonable service frequency to both areas despite comparatively light loadings. The SLFs have recently (spring 2001) been making occasional appearances on the Greater Leys (5A/5B) routes, where the air suspension gives a much less disagreeable ride over the many traffic "calming" measures than the metal suspension of the Marshall-bodied Darts. The SLFs are also the obvious choice on routes normally served by low-floor Volvos when these are unable to operate due to obstructions; a recent obvious example being Minchery Farm (route 16), whose half-hourly service requires two buses.

As can be seen from the above fleet descriptions, Oxford bus has an impressively modern fleet, indeed it is one of the youngest in the industry. Low floor buses are making their presence felt; the low entrance with no steps, kneeling facility and wheelchair ramp provides easier access onto the bus for all passengers. Indeed, the provision of raised "Kassel kerbs" at some bus-stops on route 13A, together with kneeling suspension and skilful parking, gives seamless and absolutely step-free level access between pavement and bus-seat. A far cry from the early AEC Regents of the 1930s!

The three Dennis Tridents (101-103) were transferred to the bus fleet and repainted red and white, gaining electronic front estination displays at the same time. They are more often than not found on the X3 to Abingdon.

During 2002 two more Volvo B10Bs with NCME bodies were purchased second hand from a dealer, having been new to Whitelaw's of Stonehouse. They were given some refurbishment and entered service as 657 and 658. They are identifiable by their lack of rear and side destination equipment plus they have electronic front destination displays.

In August 2002, Volvo B10BLE 802 emerged from works with a front electronic destination display, completed by a full repaint. It seems others of the class (801-815) may follow.

The remaining Olympians continued through the summer of 2002 but their future at the time of writing is uncertain.

For details of the Oxford Bus Company's services, visit their web site

the Oxford bus company -  Fleet Summary

correct to Tuesday August 20, 2002

Please note this is not an official list; it is based on the observations of friends and ourselves. It was last updated on 20/08/02 .

The pictures below were all taken between June and August of 2002

103                                                              221

517                                                                     618

         643                                                                     651

802

Please note also that this list only includes Oxford-based buses operating city services. Details of the High Wycombe fleet, Park & Ride and Express vehicles, may be found under separate headings.

Note: wca = wheel chair access with various configurations depending on the passenger load carried

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To view the other fleets follow the links below

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