New Page 1

Issue 1
(OBP-217)
Tuesday 1st October 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.

Update on Water Eaton, the 5th Park & Ride site for Oxford.	A new livery for Oxford bus Park&Ride
Barcelona 2002 - a visit by the Editor	Woottens success at Showbus

Welcome to the first news page on the new site. When one has a good formula it is not always a good idea to change for the sake of change. Hence you will find much of the older style about this page. If you click on the small thumbnails you can see the pictures above and later full size, such small graphics do at least speed the download time. Also you can choose to view those pictures which interest you most.

The new Water Eaton Park & Ride site is now scheduled to open on December 2nd and work is now in hand to meet that deadline. Also work is taking place at Thornhill, where the site is set to almost double in size. As mentioned before a new fleet of single deck buses has been ordered by Oxford Bus for the Water Eaton site and these will bring full size Mercedes Benz buses to Oxford. The model is the Citaro, similar to those running in London.

My visit to Barcelona proved most interesting and the city is well organised for tourists with open top double deck buses offering two circluar routes covering all areas of major interest. A delightful part of the city may be explored on the northerly Red Route and a tram ride connects to the hills above Barcelona. The trams in use date from the turn of the last century and are superbly maintained.

Barcelona also seems to be the home of the Irizar coach and the group I was with used a Mercedes 0404 version with a body very similar to the one recently trialled in Oxford on the X70 Heathrow service.

A nice surprise found in the city centre was the Bristol VR pictured below and used as a promotional vehicle for Haagen-Dazs Ice Cream. The body number was ECW 20630 which might help someone identify where this bus came from in the UK.

I took a lot of photos and the local bus fleet run by TMB used Mercedes, MAN and Iveco. The open top fleet was of two types but I only travelled on the M A N variety. Fortunately the weather was kind but there was a system of covers to close of the top deck should it rain.

During my wanderings on Saturday I was speaking to a friend who use the buses from Bourne End to High Wycombe. They were commenting on the vast difference in prices for the same journey on the the two local companies. It appears that Arriva, the incumbent operator charges £2.50 single and £3.75 return whereas Carousel, the newcomer. charges £1.30 single and £2.25 return. This must surely be one of the greatest fare differentials for the same things anywhere in the U.K. Indeed Carousel have put notices in their buses as seen below which speak for themselves. I suppose this is what the government wanted when they brought in competition.

Oxford Westgate shopping centre was in the news today, Monday, when I briefly heard an article on BBC Radio Oxford. The story goes that there are angry reactions today as people learn about the refusal of a £220m proposal to redevelop the Westgate shopping centre.

The Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, said the proposal was not in keeping with the architecture of the city. The redevelopment plans included a new 'bus station', doubling the size of the shopping complex, and an underground car park. Many locals feel that Oxford needs a face-lift to prevent people from travelling outside the city for good shopping.

Further to the article on the Oxfordshire Playbus I received a short email from Niz. She reminds me that Niz is a lady Her mail says "Hi! The bus looks good, thanks for putting it on your website. (Though should I point out that, unlikely as it may seem, Niz is short for Hazel & I'm a she not a he!), Regards Niz."

Oxfordshire Playbus seen here at Showbus, Duxford where it attracted quite a lot of attention.
Photo by Chris Maxfield.

NFBU Report from Ralph Adams who attended the meeting a week last Friday. He says "I went and gave your apologies and made some notes of what was said." I am not the best note taker but his report is nonetheless informative.

"The meeting was hosted by the County, with COMS, Stagecoach (all 3 with several representatives) and Thames Travel (their first time). Arriva was not represented but hopes to come in future. Both the larger companies had management trainees - obviously trying to bring up future management from the inside who will have long term knowledge of the bus industry.

Thames Travel are now the largest contractor for the County with the take over of the Chiltern contracts. A new route 106 is planned for the Autumn from the Station via Sandford to the Science Park. They may also be joining Plus Pass. Minor changes on the 103 for more reliable services are planned. The 103 should normally have Solos due to the road humps, they are more suitable that the Varios to cope.

Oxford Bus and Stagecoach both confirmed that staffing levels have stayed satisfactory. OBC have 6 new P&R due, requiring 15 extra drivers, the buses will be in an improved livery with more green, and the other Tridents will be modified in due course (see picture of 106 above. Ed)

The County (Dick Helling) said that with the tenders, it is possible for the operators to apply for Capital Grants to assist on modernising the buses with wheel chair accessibility. Thames Travel has used this to part fund the Solos, capital grants not used by other operators.

Many bids for the last round of tenders resulting in a downward pressure on prices, good for the County but obviously not so good for the operators. 2 late night services will not be retended (Leafield - Witney and Service 11 I believe). They are not in the public timetables, but well published in the villages. However they have poor patronage (often nil).

New minibus networks are planned for Woodstock, Carterton and Witney, including a service to Cotswold Wildlife Centre. Clanfield, service 18 to be hourly Service 11 changed timings to improve reliability (no details given).

Bicester Taxibus exceeding expectations. It is averaging LESS THAN 1 PASSENGER PER JOURNEY !!

The County is under no obligation to provide timetables but are putting the requirement to operators in future tenders. It was mentioned that the commercial operator often have many timetable cases (in Woodstock) but subsidised operators have little publicity. Stagecoach said they would be willing to review other operators putting the non competing timetables in their cases (Ralph's thoughts - who changes when the timetable changes, or pays for larger display cases)

There will be a Friday Bus Surgery in Cornmarket Street on 8th November from 10.00 to 3.00. Follow up meeting end January 2003.

OBC are sending a red Trident (101) to the Labour Party Conference supporting public transport. Passengers / petitioners were welcome to travel with the bus leaving on Sunday 29th September and returning late on the 30th November. (I hope to have a report and pictures in next week's page. Ed.)

A final note of interest is the sign at the old BRS depot on the West Wycombe Road now used partially by Heyfordian. I've seen the sign numerous times but never noticed the misspelling of Chiltern!!!! Somehow appropriate for the new name of this page."

Arriva's Bristol VR 5049 on loan to Wycombe from Luton has appeared on various services including
326 and last Saturday on Football service 501. It is seen here beside Mercedes 2410 also on loan from Aylesbury.

A surprise visitor to Reading at 5pm today (Tue 24th) was Oxford Express coach 21! - photo by Rob Williams.
Does anyone know why 21 was in Reading?

Chris Maxfield sent this picture of 104 at Showbus Duxford. It evoked some compliments from visitors.

Further to notes on the Olympians on loan to Metrobus Crawley, Paul Green responded to my request for pictures of 224. He says "Have so far been unsuccessful in getting more photos of 214 & 224 but am still trying. They are usually used on Horsham school services but today (Mon 23/9/02) I was most surprised to see 224 leaving Brighton on the 1740 service 273 back to Crawley. Would have made a nice photo but never mind. Incidentally, the last time I snapped this bus was about a year ago whilst on hire to Go Ahead in the North East."

Dear old 224 really has got around. I understand it has been to Belgium and France in earlier days. I wonder if there are any photos of that visit?

Some changes took place today, Monday 30th September. There are now two "Olympian cards" on 35 road, the red Tridents are now on 15 road and 5 road will have additional low floor buses, thereby increasing the service. The X3 is once again all Volvo single door operated.

Heyfordian are re-registering the Olympians. Here 7298RU hides the identity of C265???
This registration was carried by a Leyland Tiger coach until sold. (B909RVF)

Keith Wood wrote to advise "another Volvo B10M / Alexander PS has been aquired from Wales & West. It is 248 P821 FVU. It is in new livery (freshly outshopped) and like 247 is allocated to Rugby. It was out yesterday and today on the 86.

Rugby's B10M's are receiving Upper/Lower case electronic displays like Leamington's. 223 has been done so far.

Bus Fayre magazine has reported Leyland National 706 NOE 606R with Hardwick, Carlton (Dealer) for resale.

Just waiting for news of the last day of Leyland National working from Rugby. On my last visit only 772 was active working 8/9 Long Lawford - Hillmorton local services along with Dart 103. Volvo B10M's now dominate 86's and associated Binley Woods School services. The strength is eight again (221/223-225/243/246-248)."

All three ex London Olympians are now in service. Here 528 (N338HGK) lies over at Horspath last Saturday

Newman Morgan writes regarding matters in Bicester. He says "There's an emergency timetable coming into effect on SiO's main Bicester services for a minimum of 3 weeks from Monday 23/09/02. This is due to the closure of Charbridge Lane, Bicester during this period. Charbridge Lane is being remodelled as part of the completion of the Bicester Southern By-pass.

The emergency timetable provides for a different pattern of working after Bure Place, Bicester. The 29 road from Bicester to Arncott remains unchanged but has a few timing modifications I believe.

The 27/28 roads beyond Bure Place via Churchill Avenue, Glory Farm to Langford Village (27) or Launton (28) are curtailed at Glory Farm. Buses would normally use Charbridge Lane to get to Langford or Launton. The emergency timetable provides for 1 bus per hour on 27 to Glory Farm instead of the current two through Glory Farm.

The 28 road is re-routed after Bure Place via London Road to Langford. It then circumnavigates Peregrine Way in Langford (as on normal timetable) and then continues via Wretchwick Way and the open section of Charbridge Lane to Launton. Thus everywhere has the same level of service except Glory Farm.

This road closure will also affect the TaxiBus service to Bicester North station.

It does not affect the Grayline 22/23 roads through Langford as these go to and from Bure Place via the Bicester Fields Farm development (Mallards Way) or via London Road.

The Volvo B10Ms are still the mainstay of the Bicester services.
910 is bound for Oxford whilst 906 is headed for Glory Farm, all mentioned above.

A Saturday line up at Pickford's yard last Saturday. L to R , 937, 922 and 530 (N340HGK)

Andrew Dyer wrote following my picture of a dual door Dart. He says "Now that Stagecoach Oxford doesn't have too many of the old Thames Transit Darts in the fleet, I thought that your readers might be interested to know that there is a group of 26 of them alive and well in the Stagecoach South East fleet as follows:

Fleet No         Reg No             Depot
404                M74 VJO          PM   (Portsmouth)
405                M75 VJO          AL    (Aldershot)
406                M63 VJO          WG   (Worthing)
407                M65 VJO           LS    (Lewes)
408                M91 WBW        LS
409                M92 WBW        LS
410                M62 VJO          BA    (Basingstoke)
411                M61 VJO          PM
412                N412 MBW       AL
413                N413 MBW       AL
414                N414 MBW       AL
415                M93 WBW        LS
416                M101WBW        LS
424                M94 WBW        LS
425                M95 WBW        LS
426                M96 WBW        WG
427                M97 WBW        LS
428                M98 WBW        LS
429                M102 WBW      WG
439                L709 JUD          BA
440                L710 JUD          BA
441                L711 JUD          BA
442                L712 JUD          BA
443                L713 JUD          BA
446                M76 VJO          WI   (Winchester)
447                N47 EJO           WI

Fleet nrs 439 - 447 are still in dual door format, all the rest have been converted to single door.

H1, H2 and H3 services in Henley are now 151, 152 and 153. Here 973 operates the service last Saturday

Woottens have once again enjoyed success at the Showbus bus & coach rally. The company is celebrating after winning two top awards at the event.

Standing out amongst the modern coaches on show was the company’s latest high specification Volvo B12M / Jonckheere Millennium Mistral FE02FCC, which was judged Best New Millennium Coach.

Also winning top honours was Michael Wootten’s preserved Leyland National RRM148M. This vehicle was awarded the prestigious Leyland National Anniversary Award, marking the 30^th anniversary of the popular model.

Our congratulations to Woottens are extended in the first issue of the News Page of The Oxford & Chiltern Bus Page.

I have received more correspondence with regard to the 280 route, Oxford services and other operators in our area.

COMS AEC Regent with low bridge bodywork seen at the recent Duxford Showbus.
Photo by Chris Maxfield

Ed Maun wrote with reference to Issue 216 and the history of the 280 Aylesbury to Oxford service.

"I always thought that the COMS Aylesbury depot in the 1950’s/1960’s was in Walton Road; however, the PSV Circle history of COMS published in 1969 lists the Aylesbury depot as being in Walton Street and being rented from United Counties (UCOC). Was this UCOC’s original Aylesbury depot, used until the move to Cambridge Street? I have a vague picture in my mind of the COMS depot, but with all the rebuilding in the area over the ensuing years I can’t place it - all trace of it has long since gone.

In 1971 after South Midland was transferred to COMS from Thames Valley on the formation of the National Bus Company (sobering thought – this is how the current X90 came to be in COMS hands!!), COMS traded as “Oxford/South Midland”. Newman is correct in stating that COMS ran the 280 between Aylesbury and Oxford and the 260 series between Aylesbury and Thame via the villages etc, and the buses would have carried the “Oxford/South Midland” fleet name at this time. In the middle 1980’s COMS was split into 2 in readiness for privatisation. COMS retained the Oxford City services, the London express services, the Abingdon services and the trunk 280 service. A new South Midland company was formed to take over the rest of the country area services based on Aylesbury, Witney, Wantage, Bicester etc. This included the 260 series of services between Aylesbury and Thame. At privatisation both companies were purchased by their respective managements. At some point the South Midland Aylesbury depot workings ceased and Luton and District (Aylesbury Bus) took over some of the services including the 260 series. South Midland did not last long as a separate company being taken over by Thames Transit which in due course was taken over by Stagecoach. Luton and District was of course formed by the break up of UCOC in readiness for privatisation, and of course Alder Valley was split again into AV North (The old Thames Valley) and AV South (The old Aldershot and District) eventually becoming The Bee Line (The Berks Bucks Bus Company) and Alder Valley.

Looking at Newman’s list of COMS services in 1962 I am reminded that the 88 Watlington to Princes Risborough service replaced the train service between these two places which was variously known as the Chinnor Donkey or the Watlington Donkey depending on where you lived!

Reference Neil’s listing of COMS services, the 5 between Oxford and Reading was joint with Thames Valley before Alder Valley was created. Incidentally, due to route restrictions only single deckers could be used on the 5 which lead to Thames Valley investing in 3 early model Bristol RELL6G single deckers (36 feet long) in 1964 to maximise capacity. These were numbered S306 – 308 (CBL 355 – 357B). These were renumbered 185 – 187 under the 1969 renumbering scheme.

Issue 216 was very interesting – I look forward to Newman “starting on Thames Valley” !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Newman Morgan wrote with more thoughts "I have been having a good read of my 1962 COMS timetable. It seems that when it came to jointly operated services, a number of these had different route numbers depending on operator.

For example:

Oxford-Wallingford-Reading, jointly worked with Thames Valley, was TVT's Route 5 and COMS Route 34.
Abingdon-Wallingford-Reading was TVT's Route 50 and COMS Route 40.
Oxford-Faringdon-Swindon, jointly worked with Bristol Omnibus Co, was BOC's Route 74 and COMS Route 66.
Oxford-Buckingham-Bedford was COMS Route 70 and United Counties 131.
Oxford-Abingdon-Harwell-Newbury was COMS Route 12 and Thames Valley 112.
Yet the Oxford-Stratford Route, jointly worked with Stratford Blue as a subsidiary of Midland Red, was both companies Route 44.

It is interesting that COMS and Midland Red (Stratford Blue) were both British Electric Traction (BET) companies whilst all the other joint operators were Tilling companies.

Paul Green also added his comments saying "I also would like to add just a few additional pieces of info to last weeks coverage of services 260/280.

1) In the seventies, United Counties' Aylesbury depot sometimes used spare COMS buses on its own conductor operated services. My last record is of a KFC-G Fleetline on the Halton Camp service one Saturday morning in 1980.

2) Along with the other country depots (except Great Milton), the three bus Aylesbury allocation passed to South Midland. With the split-up of the N.B.C., relations between S.M. and Luton & District (the succesor to U.C. in Aylesbury) changed and from deregulation, the three buses (usually Bristol VRs 466, 467 and 468) transferred to Bicester depot and positioning journies were added as service 261 or 281 between Bicester, Thame & Aylesbury. The 262 was also retained by S.M. at this time. It was later decided that the Aylesbury operations were not viable on this basis and at some point they passed to L. & D.. My earliest photo of an L & D bus on the Thame service dates from April, 1990 and is enclosed here.

3) In 1987/1988, the joint 505 service operated briefly between Luton Airport, Aylesbury, Bicester and Oxford but never achieved significant loadings. Whereas COMS often used an X70 allocation Tiger, L & D settled for the mediocre, although Aylesbury's Leyland National 533 was equipped with a set of coach seats for this service.

Andrew Dyer wrote re COMS. He says "Newman Morgan's info from his 1962 COMS timetable got me thinking about the mid-60's when I started travelling in from Bletchingdon to Oxford every day to school. routes in the area at the time a I remember were

93        Oxford - Kidlington Station
93A/B   Oxford - Kidlington (Evans Lane)
94        Oxford - Deddington - Banbury
95        Oxford - Bletchingdon - Heyfords - Brackley
96        Oxford - Bicester - Buckingham
97        Oxford - Bicester direct (with some peak hour non-stop journeys as 97E)
70        Oxford - Bicester - Bedford (joint with United Counties 131)

Timetables were, I'm sure, different on Wednesday (market day) and Thursday (early closing)

In 1968ish following closure of the railway a new route 71 started, Oxford-Bicester-Bletchley (no Milton Keynes then!!) A new AEC Swift 630 (GJO 630F) was allocated and a school friend of mine from Marsh Gibbon was on it when it caught fire on the first day in service!!

167/8    SFC 433/434 soon replaced by 353/4 CFC 353/354C
196/9    196/199 KFC
944/5    WJO944/945
980        980 HFC (part of a batch later swapped for rubbish Atlanteans from South Wales Transport if I remember right)
306        306 MFC
319        319 NJO
741        WJO 741
756        756 KFC

On the subject of 82 (the 280's predecessor) I thought a lot of it was worked from Thame depot. I can certainly remember crew changes there when en-route to visit relatives in Aylesbury.

Thanks to all of you for these most interesting notes. They certainly add to the page.

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

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