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Group news

Go South Coast has agreed a deal to acquire Bournemouth transport provider Excelsior Coaches.

Go South Coast, part of public transport operator Go-Ahead Group, bought the company following the decision by former owner Ken Robins to retire.

Excelsior currently employs a team of 38 staff, all of whom will remain with the business following the acquisition.

Andrew Wickham, Go South Coast managing director, said: "We are delighted to have the opportunity of continuing and developing this excellent coach operation under the Excelsior name from the existing depot in Bournemouth.

"The site in Southcote Road is particularly significant because it already doubles-up as a base for 21 Morebus vehicles and 65 of our drivers - and is conveniently located along the route of our M1 and 13 services.

"It will also provide us with some much-needed additional space for bus parking in the Bournemouth and Poole area."

Interesting developments at Carousel have seen the loan of a London General WVL replacing 101 sadly damaged beyond economical repair in the fire last month.

Loaned from Go-Ahead London, WVL26 is registered LG02KJE and was based at Stockwell. I am still waiting for a picture in Carousel service but the link below will show this bus on 22 working at Hyde Park Corner.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/waterford_man/20629255651

Regarding the MAN/MCV's 415 and 417 remain in purple livery, 418 has been repainted red and 419 is now branded "The Red One" for Chesham.

Pictureview

The use of Solos on the Orange Route 39 has now taken place with the E200s being the regulars on the 40. to Thame.
712 seen on a 39 working on October 27th by Gavin Francis.

The link between the Oxford company is quite strong at present. A number of Solo and Solo SR buses have moved North and Andrew Tyldsley has kept us up to date with these buses in their new homes.

Andrew writes "Update on the Thames Travel Solo - 721 arrived last week as planned, with the other four SRs due to move north in mid-November.

705 is the first to be prepared for service, this will be indiGo livery/brand as 701-704, with 720/721 (Go North East 695/696) being prepared next in our new fleet livery."

I've attached photo's of:

708 after arrival

707 after arrival, with fleet numbers already removed

720 after arrival

703 in service in Washington

704 in service in Washington

"The first of the Solo SR from Thames Travel have now entered service, please see photo of Go North East 695 (ex TT 720) attached. This and 696 are allocated to the Crook outstation and used on a local service in Bishop Auckland."

by G Mitchelhill

708 is to become GNE 700.

Go N East 701 on route 82 in Washington on October 7th by 071016 Gary Mitchelhill.

TT 708 at Go North East's depot at Saltmeadows Rd on October 10th by Gary Mitchelhill.

Volvo B10BLEs 4901 W901RBB, 4902 W902RBB and 4918 X918WGR have moved on to Trustybus (Galleon Travel 2009) at Roydon, Essex. Of passing interest is that a number of Oxford Bus Volvo B10BLEs moved north to GNE. I wonder if any will return to their home territory?

Coach 10 SH61HGU ex LSK473 Parks has been returned to Plaxtons and at present coach 19, the Mercedes Tourismo is the only coach on hire.

Oxford Bus 500

This service is being extended from Water Eaton to Woodstock from December. We believe that the railway line from Oxford to Oxford Parkway is opening then and the present contract not being renewed.

Richard Sharman writes "The extension of the 500 is an interesting move and will mark a return of Oxford Bus Company to Woodstock.......last served by them nearly twenty years ago when they did the X50 with Duple and Plaxton bodied Tigers!"

Coaches 41-47 often appear on the National Express 737 service, one assumes that as they are white this does not cause a problem.

Dual X90/Airline white coach 47 was on the 737 recently – it does say Oxford to Airports but quotes Heathrow and Gatwick though not Luton and Stansted. 41 seems a regular on this service.

41 seen in St Aldates at 09:28 on October 12th by Malcolm Crowe.

On its second run of the day, once again heading for Oxford, 41 is seen in Hemel Hempstead at 16:09 on October 12th by Adam Green.

by Gavin Francis

For a few days the road through the Westgate works in Oxford was diverted to a new road along Oxpens Road.
Here we see 352 on 4 road and 658 on 5 road using this route change on October 30th.

826 on 8 road in St Aldates on October 26th.

838 seen on 2 road on October 26th.

843 on 4 road in New Road on November 1st.

870 wears sepcial branding for Animal Story and is seen here on 6 road on October 26th.

Ex Carousel and Thames Travel 874 seen on 9 road in St Aldates on October 26th.

by Malcolm Crowe

653 on 5 road in St Aldates on October 12th.

847 on a 4 road working in St Aldates on October 12th.

COMS History

Marcus Lapthorn mentioned the Daimler Fleetline single decker once operated by COMS and sent pictures of this bus.

640 on the 23 to Wantage in the 1970s by Graham Lowe

640 in NBC red on the 262 in the late 1970s by Marcus Lapthorn.

Route variations

207, now with Thames Travel logo on the front dash, is seen working a 67C towards Wantage by Marcus Lapthorn on October 5th by Marcus Lapthorn.

Marcus Lapthorn writes "On Mondays to Fridays only, the 1530 route 67 journey from Faringdon to Wantage is routed up Coxwell Road, Faringdon in order to stop at the Fernham Road bus stop. This is because it is the nearest stop to the secondary school and quite a lot of children now use this bus. This journey is the 67C and often seems to be operated by a red bus, and not a vehicle carrying the blue and green Thames Travel livery. Recently I saw a red Citaro on route 67C and today (Wednesday 5 October) I was delighted to photograph red liveried 207 operating this journey. Also on route 67 today is Thames Travel liveried d/d 206."

Some interest is being generated with the fact that the current Tridents, ex Oxford, are to be replaced by January 1 to ensure compliance to DDA standards. It seems that the WVLs mentioned under Oxford Bus above could be the required replacements.

Pictureview

208, also with Thames Travel logo works an X2 service to Wallingford past Carfax on October 30th by Gavin Francis.

867 is seen at Harwell on October 11th by James Lambeth.

207 on an X32 working on October 11th by James Freeman.

209 in full livery on an X2 working in St Aldates on October 11th by James Freeman.

212 is ready for departure from St Aldates on an X409 working on October 11th by James Freeman.

A more recent addition to Thames Travel is 230 seen here on an X40 working by Andrew Tyldsley on October 13th.

Time limited Trident 109 is seen on a 136 working in Wallingford on October 13th by Andrew Tyldsley.

Citaro 850 is seen in Wallingford on an X2 working on October 13th by Andrew Tyldsley.

The next months will see changes to the Thames Travel fleet which will add interest to these pages.

Further Go-Ahead buses in London are included in a section devoted to TfL operations.