Oxford Bus take over the Brookes contract

July 1st saw The Oxford Bus Company take over the Brookes contract run the past five years by Stagecoach in Oxfordshire. This is a valued contract for the incumbent operator and has attracted a special fleet of buses adorned in a dedicated livery. Indeed the Stagecoach buses - Trident double decks - had local radio playing during service, often an attraction to students. This has been continued with the new buses and further enhanced by WiFi and full air conditioning on the top deck. The drivers employed on this service have a refined version of The Oxford Bus company uniform and unlike the Stagecoach uniform - T-Shirts - OBC have shirts and ties. Another difference is that OBC change crews at Queens Lane where they have their city office whereas SC changed at Gypsy Lane.

The first day saw only two of the new Scania N230UD/Enviro 400s in service, 201 and 202. This resulted in some duties being covered by smart Volvo B10Bs with dedicated branding. This can be seen in the pictures below. Also loading on the U5 service saw the use of the two Tridents on that route rather than the U1 which had seen them on the first day.

Day 1 when the new Scanias were operating on the U1. 202 is seen picking up in the London road, Wheatley.
Picture by Mark E. Lyons.

These are early days  for this new service but the buses look bright and inviting and the livery creates a rather attractive impression.

Day 2 - Gavin Francis caught up with 202 operating a U5 service. It is seen leaving Carfax on a Marston journey.
The blue with red trim in the interior looks very smart. 2nd July 2009.

Oxford Bus are to be congratulated on the clarity of the destination displays on, not o the new buses, but also the Volvo B10Bs which are seeing short term use on the services pending the arrival of further Scanias. It is especially nice to see the full rear displays on the new double deckers.

These two pictures by Gavin Francis show the new Scanias to the best, especially the full destination displays.

A rear near side view of the Scania 201 seen heading up the High Street towards Carfax.,
Note the fleet number position c- high up on the rear and reminiscent of London buses when the fueller sat high above the fuelling bays and needed to record the bus.
Picture by Gavin Francis.

The city has some fine buildings which lend to the background in this picture of 201 on the U5.
Picture by Gavin Francis - 2nd July 2009.

202 loads at Queens College looking new and shiny in the high summer sun. Picture by Gavin Francis.

In any new service not everything goes according to plan and after the first day capacity was needed on the U5 due to the high numbers of foreign language students. This saw the transfer of the Scanias to the U5 and the resultant use of Volvo B10Bs on the U1. These buses, nearing the end of their lives, have been tided up and given an interim livery and branding for the Brookes services pending arrival of more Scanias. I am told that one ex North East Tridents (903-909 batch) was seen heading towards Wheatley on the first day but this is unconfirmed.

Volvo 640 shows of its special livery for the Brookes services. Picture by Gavin Francis.

Volvo 641 heads down High Street towards the east of Oxford in its special livery for the Brookes services. Picture by Gavin Francis.

Volvo 642 shows of its special livery for the Brookes services when seen loading in Queen Street. Picture by Gavin Francis.

Volvo 643 is unique now in that it is fitted with a digital destination display.
It looks very smart as it heads down High Street. I note however it has lost its wheel trims and reverts to standard for this type.
Picture by Gavin Francis.

Volvo 641 loads at Queens Lane, the place where OBC are making crew changes on Brookes services. Picture by John Hammond.

So often the weather in England lets the side down but July 1st and 2nd saw superb weather, a heat wave in fact, enabling photographers recording the new buses the best possible conditions. This can be seen in the excellent photographs submitted and I hope these give some idea of the new fleet and the current situation. I now need some interior pictures!

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Changes to hospital services in Oxford

The Hospital Trust is pleased to announce the following changes to the 700 Water Eaton direct Park & Ride service to the JR starting on Monday 13 July 2009.

The 700 route has been extended to the Churchill Hospital and Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre, whilst still retaining its 15 minute frequency.

The 700 buses have also been upgraded to double-deckers which will significantly increase capacity.

The service will continue to be operated by R.H. Transport.  For full details of the route and timetable visit www.rhtransportservices.co.uk

Please note that with the introduction of this improved service, the Water Eaton exclusion zone will now be applied to the Churchill as it is currently for the JR. 

800 Peartree Park & Ride Service:

A brand new, direct Peartree Park & Ride service to the JR, via Woodstock Road will also be introduced from 13 July 2009.  This will be a 20 minute service at peak times and 40 minutes throughout the day.  For full details of the route and timetable please visit www.rhtransportservices.co.uk

Please note this service reuses the 800 number which previously applied to the Thornhill to JR Park & Ride service which was withdrawn in January this year.

600 Thornhill Park & Ride Service:

With the introduction of the improved 700 service (above), which now takes in the Churchill, the 600 service will be reduced from every 20 minutes throughout the day to every 30 minutes.

For full details of the route and timetable please visit www.rhtransportservices.co.uk

Service U10 (Brookes Bus), now Service 10:

From 1 July 2009, the contract for the Brookes Bus changed from Stagecoach to Oxford Bus Company.  The U10 Service is now Service 10.  An evening and Sunday service has been introduced on this route replacing the Brookes U10 at broadly the same times and frequency of every 30 minutes.  This additional service will follow the same route as the daytime 10 from Headington to the JR (via the Osler Road bus link) rather than the previous route followed by the U10 (London Road, Headington Hill, Marston Road & Headley Way).

The existing daytime Service U5 (city centre – Marston Road via Cowley) will additionally run in the evenings and Sundays about every 45 minutes.  This serves Girdlestone Road, Old Road, Gypsy Lane, Headington Hill and Marston Road but not the JR.

The daytime frequency on Service 10 has been enhanced from every 15 minutes to every 12 minutes. For full details of the route and timetable please visit http://www.oxfordbus.co.uk/

Please note: Megarider bus permits (Oxford, Plus, Gold or 12 journey) for the U10 will not be valid on the new Service 10. The Trust tried to reach an agreement with Oxford Bus Company to extend the validity but this was not possible.  If you have a Stagecoach pass that expires after 30 June 2009 and you will not be using any other Stagecoach services, please send the pass to Stagecoach, Horspath Road, Oxford, OX4 2RY after 1 July with a covering note requesting a refund.

Most of the above changes have taken place after ongoing discussions with Oxfordshire County Council and agreed funding by the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals.

The Trust will continue to work closely with Oxfordshire County Council in seeing improvements and direct Park & Ride services from all five of Oxford’s Park & Ride sites to the Headington hospitals.

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DfT to subsidise new bus purchases

Operators in England will be able to bid for a share of a £30m fund set up by the government, to subsidise the additional purchase cost of a ‘green bus’.

Announcing the scheme today (Wednesday) Transport Secretary Andrew Adonis said that over the next two years, the scheme will support the purchase of “several hundred low-carbon buses” and “help safeguard up to 900 jobs in bus manufacturing.”

Operators and councils will be able to bid for the money to use towards the additional up-front cost (compared with conventional diesel versions) of buying ‘low carbon’ buses.

The Department for Transport (DfT) is to define a ‘low carbon’ bus as one that achieves the equivalent of a 30% reduction in CO2 emissions compared with a Euro 3 diesel bus, of the same passenger capacity. Other details in the announcement seem to point to buses having to be hybrids to meet the criteria.

Operators of ‘low carbon’ buses will also receive an additional BSOG payment of 6p per km that the buses operate.

The measure does not apply in Scotland, Northern Ireland or Wales, as their devolved governments are responsible for their own transport funding.

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The new fleet for the Oxford tube

First delivery of the new coaches is set for Friday 9th July with training commencing on Monday 13th July. Keep you eyes open as you may see one or more of the new coaches during training.

I will advise the date for entry into service when this information is available.

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Bus users in Buckinghamshire pass the 10 million mark
 

More and more Buckinghamshire residents are getting on board and realising the great benefits of travelling by bus.  10.7 million passenger journeys were made between April 2008 and March 2009, a huge increase on the previous year’s figure 9.9 million.

This is the third year in which passenger numbers have gone up, since 2006 the yearly figure has increased massively by over 2 million.  Buckinghamshire County Council has worked closely in partnership with bus companies to improving services and making bus travel an attractive option.  Schemes such as the popular rainbow routes networks in Aylesbury and High Wycombe, the introduction of nextBus real-time information and national concessionary fares have made it even more appealing.

This increase in ridership has meant that Transport for Buckinghamshire has achieved its Local Public Service Agreement targets, attracting a £1m reward from government for the Bucks Strategic Partnership, helping to support on-going work of local authorities.

Head of Transport, Jim Stevens said ‘I’m delighted; this increase shows that residents are choosing the smarter way to travel, helping to reduce congestion and improve the environment.  Transport for Buckinghamshire will continue to work in partnership with bus companies and through our joint efforts we should see bus passenger numbers keep on rising.’

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POPULAR SERVICE GETS EVEN BETTER
New evening and Sunday service
Passengers increase by 34%

The popular route 10, which takes people from Oxford City Centre to the JR Hospital via Cowley Centre, Wood Farm and Headington is about to get even more popular.

Stagecoach has announced that from Monday 29^th June a new evening and Sunday service is replacing the old Brookes bus U10 route. The new service will follow the normal 10 route making journeys faster to the Hospital.

This follows a host of initiatives between Oxfordshire County Council and Stagecoach over the last 2 years to improve the service including; the opening of Osler Road bus gate; to speed up journey times, increasing the number of buses and improving traffic light priorities.

These have resulted in passenger numbers leaping by 34% over the last 2 years, with over 1 million people travelling on route 10 last year.

The route has proven very popular with all groups of people weather travelling to work, for hospital appointments or shopping at Cowley Centre.

As part of the Stagecoach fleet, which is 100% easily accessible, all 8 buses on route 10 are accessible to those with buggies or wheelchairs.

Matthew Cranwell, Local bus manager for Stagecoach said “This is an extremely important service and through these changes and improvements we will make it as attractive to travel in the evenings and Sunday as during the day”.

The changes also include minor alterations to commuter journeys to improve reliability, identified using information from their GPS tracking system.

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New buses enter service on Arriva's Centreline 300/301 services between Stevenage and Hemel Hempstead

Arriva has invested in a fleet of Enviro 300 single decks to upgrade it service 300/301 which runs between Stevenage and Hemel Hempstead. These buses replace a fleet of ageing Volvo/Wrights single decks some of which were inherited from Sovereign Buses when they were taken over in 2005.

The first three Enviro 300s seen in Stevenage, then Hemel Hempstead. Pictures by Andrew Morgan.

The new buses are being introduced over the past and next few weeks and the older buses will be transferred to routes such as the 100/101/102 services to Luton.

Floods at Luton Airport close the access road for three hours causing major delays and discomfort to customers

The weather over the past week or so has had its moments ranging from heat wave to floods. I was operating the 18:45 from Stansted to Oxford which passes through Luton Airport at 20:20. As we came along the M1 from Hatfield the heavens opened and traffic on the M1 slowed to a crawl. Isn't it amazing how many motorists will not use headlights or even any lights at all when the weather is really bad? Anyway I pulled into the airport bus station a few minutes late by which time the rain was torrential. I tried to hold off loading until the rain cleared but the shelters at the airport are inadequate and we had to get the passengers boarded.

I was able to depart at 20:30 and get a few hundred yards towards the tunnel when traffic stopped and that was where we all stayed until 23:00hrs. This was caused by flooding in the tunnel and the airport authorities closed the road.

I am told that this has happened now three times and they had an airport fire tender there to pump out the water.

Now I can sympathise with the people trying to resolve the situation but this closure caused enormous inconvenience to all "customers" and for those, like ourselves, stuck in the queue there was no information. In fact when asking a person who appeared more than a security person I was told "I'm very busy" when asked what was going on.

I found the whole business most frustrating as I had numerous non English passengers who found it difficult to understand what was happening and who wanted to know what time we could arrive in Oxford.

How can a major UK airport allow such a thing to happen. Once is excusable, twice is not good but three times is beyond a joke.

The road works in Headington are now completed

At long last all the current work at Headington is complete with the final switch on of various sets of traffic lights. The express bus stops at Gypsy Lane have moved nearer to Brookes main entrance.

We now understand that work will son start on work at Headington shops with planned improvements.

Wimbledon 2009 - pictorial view by Peter Edgar

Well, its almost over now and we will have to await another year to see a Brit in the Men's Final. The weather was kind and gave the opportunity for Peter Edgar to provide us with a flavour of the bus scene at this year's event. Routemasters were much in evidence as Peter's pictures show.

I feel that this picture tells all, fine weather, pretty girls, a Routemaster and Wimbledon as a backdrop.

DRM 2516 was once again in service and is seen in service on 29th June.

RML2604 is seen at the tennis in this impressive shot by Peter Edgar.

There is something rather nostalgic about this picture taken in Southfields. Can it be 2009, it could be some years earlier.

RML2318 seen in Southfields.

A recent visit to Oxford by Geoff Cunliffe

I have to say that I found last Thursday one of the less exciting days we have spent in that lovely city. I am not familiar enough with the current operating practice to spot unusual workings but found the Stagecoach staff bus, R624CTX, lurking in Magdalen Street as we got off the 300 from Pear Tree.

I’ve always liked those ALX400-bodied Tridents and I see many are now sporting Halford-style push-on(?) plastic wheel trims. They appear to be very similar to the authentic Mercedes ones on the Citaros. However, let’s not be too picky – they may not look as good as the proper ones but they are infinitely better than the idea of painting the wheels silver which were tried for a while.

On that Trident theme, red 106, looking very smart, was on the X2 to Didcot and is pictured at Carfax

Ironically, 105 was working the 400 Park & Ride. At one stage, it followed Stagecoach 18051, on the Brookes contract and wearing a livery we won’t see much longer. They were entering Queen Street from New Road.

Talking of buses in Queen Street, all the time I was lurking there, a couple of ladies were ensconced on deck chairs and were carefully noting every bus that traversed Queen Street. Presumably they were not counting the large number of cyclists still traversing the street (one of my pet hates) in the wrong direction, nor the suspiciously large number of Police vehicles also using Queen Street – who also took no notice of the cyclists either! Although I am someone who visits the city infrequently, I will be sorry if the environmentalists stop me riding by bus into the very centre of the city.

Before I close, I must commend you for your diary of your day out with Gavin. In 1964, as a very young lad, I was exiled from Lancashire to spend six months working for British Aluminium at Gerrards Cross. I explored the area around Amersham, Chesham, Tring, Hemel and so on, and whilst things have obviously changed, I enjoyed the writings not just because of the references to the buses. Quite nostalgic. I wonder what happened to that girl in Chesham?

British Buses in Poland

There is an interesting web site which shows some ex local buses now being prepared for service in Poland. Quite a lot of work has to be done because apart from hanging the entrance to the other side, they are also converting the Varios to left hand drive. You can see the buses at the following link.

http://kuszok.bus.photos.fotopic.net/p59287838.html and http://kuszok.bus.photos.fotopic.net/p59287841.html

I hope that we can see these buses when they are in service.

Kemble Steam Extravaganza Show 2009 includes the growing bus & coach section to be on display

Record bus and coach displays at South-West's largest festival of transport
 

The Gloucestershire Steam & Vintage Extravaganza makes a welcome return to Kemble Airfield this year, taking the show in to its 35^th year. (Friday 31st July to Sunday 2nd August 2009).
 

The power of steam, traditional crafts, classic vehicles, children’s attractions and non-stop live action makes this three day extravaganza one of the UK's best value family outdoor shows.
 

The show was originally conceived for steam enthusiasts, but the range of exhibits has grown year on year. It now boasts a huge array of vintage transport, including buses, coaches, motorcycles, military vehicles, classic cars, tractors, aircraft, commercial vehicles, traction engines and historic caravans. Plus a live action arena, interactive demonstrations, rare breeds, shire horses, trade stands, a vintage fun fair and hundreds of curiosity stalls ranging from Victorian memorabilia, antique sewing and knitting machines, folding accordions, model doll houses, petrol pumps, to vintage garden tools and 1940s – 1950’s home wares.

Widely regarded as a show within a show, the bus section has grown from humble beginnings to one of the biggest bus & coach gatherings in the UK. Attracting exhibits from the length of the land as well as from foreign climes, the line up of vehicles is as colourful as it is impressive.

2008 saw the event break the world record for the amount of Bedford OB's gathered in one place. Although in 2009 the Steam Extravaganza will not play host to another record attempt, there are sure to be some record breaking achievements to behold within the fantastic line up of PSV's. Buses of every shape, size and configuration are represented and you can expect to find preserved buses that you would have perhaps once travelled on to school or work. The section is certainly a nostalgia trip not to be missed!

John Hitchings of the bus and coach section of Gloucestershire Steam & Vintage Extravaganza says: "Everybody enjoys seeing old buses and coaches because we each remember special journeys made on them. A ride on a vintage bus is a trip heavy with nostalgia."

A vintage bus service will be operating to and from Kemble railway station throughout the show and a courtesy bus will shuttle guests to the Bristol Aero collection. Formed in 1990, this collection records 95 years of Bristol aviation and space heritage. Based in a large wartime hangar, the collection includes aircraft, helicopters, missiles and engines. For details of the bus schedule, please refer to the website www.steamextravaganza.com. Buses will depart from outside the main show entrance.
 

Admission Prices: 

The ticket price has remained unchanged for three years

Adult:                           Friday: £5, Saturday or Sunday: £8, Weekender: £12

Concessions:           Friday: £4, Saturday or Sunday: £6, Weekender: £8

Juniors:                   Friday: £3, Saturday or Sunday: £4, Weekender: £6

 Under 5’s free of charge

Saturday & Sunday family ticket: 

£20 (2 adults & 2 x children)

Weekender ticket: (Allows entry to the show on all three days)

Adults £12, Concessions £8, Juniors £6

Advance tickets available from Local Tourist Information Centres including: Stroud, Cirencester, Chippenham, Swindon, Malmesbury, Gloucester, Cheltenham, Cotswolds and Tetbury.

Gates open: Friday – Sunday, 10.00am         Public enquiries contact: 01453 890891

All profits donated to the Cobalt Appeal Fund, Diabetes UK & The County Air Ambulance.

Pictures from the 2008 show.

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