Editorial

Issue nr 293
Thursday March 21st, 2024

Past Issues : https://www.oxford-chiltern-bus-page.co.uk/

From the Editor

An interesting issue with plenty to read and see. Readers will be able to view the interiors of many of the new electric buses for Oxford.

Once again I have had to hold over some of your contributions for which I apologise.

In this issue

Golders Green / Muswell Hill / Archway running day - Sunday 10 March

100 Year Anniversary Archives - Safeguard Coaches

Matt Cooper catches a moment in Milton Keynes

Stephen Owen continues his reports on the ex Oxford Bus Hybrids

Oxford's Electroliners passing through Grayson's

Brooklands A.G.M. and Ride Day

London United Alexander Royale N122UHP

Andy Millwood visited Aldridge

Readers Write

Buses in the Landscape

Fleet News and developments

Ex Airline Interdeck from Pulhams back for a day

Detailed interior pictures of the new electric buses in Oxford

M40 serious accident sees coaches heading through Stokenchurch

London Operations

Red Nose Day 15^th March 2024

Barry Hollman remembers 1953 London-Oxford variations

Golders Green / Muswell Hill / Archway running day - Sunday 10 March
by Andrew Webb

A heritage running day across a network of routes around Golders Green, Muswell Hill and Archway bought a wide selection of heritage vehicles to the streets of north west London on 10 March to raise funds for Comic Relief.

Whilst the weather was wet it didn't dampen the enthusiasm of those who turned out to drive, conduct, ride on and photograph the buses which spanned over half a century of London bus operations.

Route 210 provides a link between Brent Cross and Finsbury Park and for many years was synonymous with the RF. Both red and green examples were operating short workings between Archway and Golders Green on 10 March, with green RF673 and red RF486 seen at the latter location. It is only fairly recently, in February 2008, that the route received a double decker allocation. Metroline's TEH2039 represents the modern image of the route at Archway as it passes RF636 on the stand.

In the same location is former London Transport National LS174, now operated by the London Bus Company and wearing Blue Triangle livery.
Whilst this livery never appeared on the route, Leyland Nationals were the regular allocation during the late 1970s and 1980s.

The Mark 2 Leyland National was never allocated to the route, mostly finding homes on the Red Arrow network and 607.
LS444 made an appearance on the route on 10 March and is seen at Golders Green.

The RT 'family' was well represented on the running day.

RT1702 scurries through Golders Green whilst operating from Swiss Cottage to Finchley Church End on route 13.

RT4275 also appeared and is seen here at Archway whilst heading for Islington High Street on route 43.

RTW75 represents the wider version of the RT family. It is seen in Golders Green whilst working route 102.

The Routemaster is always well represented at heritage running days in the capital and 10 March was no exception.

Route 102 had a relatively brief flirtation with the longer RML, the type forming part of the allocation between 1975 and 1978.
RML900, with bulbs glowing invitingly, recalls these days as it queues at traffic lights in Golders Green.

The standard RM was first allocated to route 13 back in 1962.

RM848 represents two periods of RM operation on the route as an example repurchased by TfL in the early years of the 21^st century and extensively refurbished by Marshalls
The first refurbished buses were allocated to the route to release longer RMLs for increased frequencies on other crew operated routes. It is seen in Golders Green.

The Metrobus (designated M by London Transport) was the second generation of buses that tried to replace the Routemaster on London's streets. In reality the Routemaster outlived regular Metrobus operation in London.

M1014, originally delivered for Airbus services to Heathrow, was one of a pair in use at the running day and is seen having just arrived in Golders Green.
The blind has already been reset for another trip to Mill Hill East on route 240.

To the casual observer Metroline's VMSL2853 would appear not to be part of the running day. In reality the full route is operated by Arriva using HV class double deckers,
so this shot of it at Golders Green is unusual, but maybe a glimpse of the future......

100 Year Anniversary Archives - Safeguard Coaches

Safeguard Coaches: Independent stalwart marks 100th anniversary - routeone (route-one.net)

Safeguard celebrated a century of operation with an event at Guildford Cathedral on 16 March with a display of buses and heritage buses running on a network of three routes radiating from the event.

The oldest vehicle on display was this Dobson bodied Dennis from the London Bus Museum.
Built in 1925 it entered service a year after Safeguard started operations.

This Plaxton Embassy Bodied Bedford J2 was delivered to Cookes Coaches in 1963 and passed to Safeguard
when they purchased Cookes in 1966. it has subsequently served several operators but is now in period Safeguard livery.

The network of routes included service C to Onslow Park and Ride.
Waiting to depart from the cathedral is this preserved Excel which carries branding to recall the 90th anniversary celebrations.

Safeguard's operations were for many years sandwiched between London Transport operations to the east and Aldershot & District to the west. It was, therefore, appropriate that preserved vehicles from both were used on the shuttle services.

London Transport was represented by RT4779, RF600 and prototype AEC Regal UMP227.
RT4779 and RF 600 are both seen at the cathedral with a journey on Service A to the town centre whilst UMP227 is headed for Merrow Park and Ride on Service C.

Aldershot and District Strachan bodied Dennis Lancet III is seen taking a break from Park and Ride duties at the cathedral.

King Alfred buses would be more used to serving Winchester Cathedral, but two spent the day taking passengers to the event.

Park Royal AEC Renown 595LCG and Plaxton Derwent Leyland Panther UOU419H
have both just arrived at the cathedral with healthy loads of passengers from the town centre

Newest additions to the Safeguard fleet are a batch of MCV EVoRas on Volvo B8RLE chassis.

One has modest offside branding for the event with the nearside featuring a photo history of the company's buses.
It is seen at Guildford bus station supporting the heritage vehicles to clear the large number of visitors who attended the event.

Performing the same role is this Optare Versa at Guildford Cathedral.

R Kirwin provided these two interesting pictures.

Matt Cooper catches a moment in Milton Keynes

I had a brief spell in between trains at MK Central this morning and took a few pics around 'Station Square' Well documented as one of several locations around MK that 'Superman' once 'flew' over in the last and rather more budget strapped Superman 4 movie! Anyway, no yellow cabs or hot dog vendors today just the following being noted! :

Free travel available between the station and city centre on 5 different operators vehicles. If you find yourself at a loose end then this journey of 1 mile is right up your street! Tick off travelling on a few different types of vehicle!

With Uno now withdrawn from Northampton one will need to visit MK to travel on their vehicles. These are centered on Cranfield University and operate between MK and Bedford. The multiple Campus sites and those with student halls are now condensed at Northampton with Riverside Campus housing everything 'under one roof'. Stagecoach have filled some of the gaps left by Uno.

The new HQ building of Sandander has changed the landscape around this area. Built on an open air car park Unity Place takes over from the previous premises across the road which began life with Abbey National. The advert on the side of the Stagecoach MMC complements nicely with the name of the building.

Red Rose vehicles crop up all around Bucks and far beyond. Here smart E200 E7 RRT lays over with the driver taking his break. The presentation of such operators is today light years away from MK in the 1990s when anything would turn up in any livery. They were though interesting times for the enthusiasts!

Stephen Owen continues his reports on the ex Oxford Bus Hybrids

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Now Stagecoach 13177 received attention ahead of Saturday 23rd vehicle movements, with TfGM radio systems fitted,
Oxford transfers removed and Bee Network stickers fitted, inspections and brake tests done.

At Wigan on March 15th.

At Wigan on March 19th.

At Wigan on March 20th now with branding a nd Stagecoach fleet numbers ready for service on March 24th.

Now SC Mcr 13190 ready for work seen on March 21st.

Greg Collins

Bee Networks first pride bus.

Former Oxford Bus Company 367 (V14OXF), now on temporary loan to Stagecoach Manchester as their 13191 to cover for the late arrival of the remaining 22 BYD Enviro 400s due to ADL strikes, at Wigan depot this morning.

I believe some of these are going Oldham and some are going Queens Road.

Currently during each week there are pictures of the new Oxford Electroliner fleet passing through this company. Allan Hollis provides pictures of this throughput. Ed.

Brooklands A.G.M. and Ride Day
by Gavin Francis and pictures from Nigel Eadon-Clarke

On Saturday 9^th March Brooklands members held their A.G.M. and the opportunity was taken for them to take a trip on some of the museums buses used. Nigel Eadon-Clarke was there to record the event.

Shown in the pictures are prototype AEC Regal IV UMP 227 from 1949, STL 441, D142, ST 922, STL 2377 and RML 2760.

Whilst walking through Southall a few days ago I came across a static double decker bus now used as a food truck. It was difficult to determine its origin as it was blocked in and had so many modifications but luckily it still had its rear registration N122UHP.

It was an Alexander Royale/Volvo bought by London United 1995 as part of a batch of 23 numbered A1 to A23 being the penultimate one as A22. It was used on the A1 and A2 services linking Central London to Heathrow. These smart buses had the additional features of air conditioning, high back seats and luggage racks.

With the start of the Heathrow Express service in the year 2000 London United closed their AirBus operation and this batch of buses was sold to Airlinks in Feltham for further use. They were repainted white and operated from the West Ramp at Heathrow with National Express branding.

Originally these buses had a red livery as shown by N118UHP at Marble Arch on 15^th July 2001 but were repainted white when bought by Airlinks as shown by N112UHP at Heathrow. (Ppictures courtesy of Mark Lyons)

In 2005 it was sold to Ensign Bus and subsequently bought by South Gloucestershire Bus and Coach and reregistered L444SGB and used on a University of West of England contract.

By 2008 it was back at Ensign and this time bought by Countrywide Travel Services of Sheerness and then 2 years later onto SBC of Wickford Essex.

So this once pride of the London United fleet has now carried its last passenger and provides take away food for the good residents of Southall.

Thank you for including my photos in your recent edition. Having moved from Berkshire to the west Midlands a few years ago, I still miss High Wycombe and enjoy seeing your web page. I Thought you might like to see some photos I took on 9th March at an open Day at Aldridge Bus Museum near Walsall.

I remember driving this when it was owned b Rexquote of Bishops Lydeard. Ed.

Attached is a shot of Oxford Bus Company 737 on delivery at Birkenhead Ferry Terminal today (16/3/24), hopefully of interest for the Oxford Chiltern bus page. Birkenhead seems to be the main point for Wright deliveries from across the Irish Sea and most days see at least one or two vehicles on delivery. There was another of the batch present but lorry trailers prevented an ID of it. The pic is also on on my Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/dmc1947/53591239686

A quiet week this week, managed to get a few pictures of the electrics which were on city services this week, as well as Brookes and the 700. Still a long way until I've got photos of them all! I have also included photos from last weeks visit to Reading and Bracknell, where I managed to get photos of several new Reading and Thames Valley buses which can be seen under the relevant operators headings below..

Quite a few photos this week, with many photos of electric buses. Stagecoach 80002 has been around the city as driver training commences. I was lucky enough to have a look around it on Wednesday, with thanks to Paul Green who was the instructor on 80002 that day.

A comparison of the liveries in Oxford used for the Electric fleets of Oxford and Stagecoach.

City Sightseeing electrics were launched on Tuesday, with 192 being used in service that afternoon.

191 was being used for electric bus training last Sunday, so whilst it was parked up I was able to get some photos of it.

The photos from Gatwick with Airline coaches 24 and 26 with the Metrobus Hydroliner 6052 were taken as publicity photos for the Metrobus flyer ticket.

Pulhams Interdecks 70 and 71 are on loan to Oxford Bus for the weekend of Saturday 16th and Sunday 17th March. This is to help out on the Airline for the weekend due to the closure of the M25 between junctions 10 and 11.

Picking up on the observation ion this week’s update that Stagecoach Oxford’s new E400EVs have “London style orange vinyls above the door and destination to show they are electric” it’s worth noting that these actually comply to ISO19840

This far the only parts of the UK that I have seen them are London and Manchester although when I was in Belgium just before Christmas almost all the buses I saw were so fitted. They are also widely used in the USA.

Buses used on Transport for London services are the first in the UK to receive “Propulsion Type Placards” as an aid to first responders including fire and ambulance crews.

The diamond shaped signs conform with ISO 19840 and provide emergency services with standardised labels, colours, symbols and graphics to clearly identify a vehicle's fuel used for propulsion and other vital information for rescue teams. They are affixed to all sides of the vehicle and on the roof. The background of the label is the colour of the first energy source: grey for diesel, orange for high voltage and blue for hydrogen.

A pictogram in the centre of the label shows the primary power source with any secondary energy source shown in the upper park. Gas powered vehicles also show the relative density of the gas and whether it is stored under pressure or not.

So called “smart” and “mild” hybrids, which recover kinetic energy during deceleration and provide assistive torque to the driveline during acceleration, do not have high voltage electrical systems and therefore display the grey placard used on diesel buses”.

I would imagine that they will become more widely adopted in the UK, particularly given the recent paranoia about fires involving battery-electric buses!

We will be making some changes to services in Oxford City and South Oxfordshire from April 14th 2024.

These changes are to meet changing customer demands, improve connectivity and increase the reliability of our bus network.

Gavin also sent some pictures of the Citaros from Stewarts when they were in service with that operator between 2013 to 2015.

I wonder if you have any word from Luke Marion as to whether the displaced Oxford Streetdecks are likely to be cascaded out to Thames Travel and Carousel to replace their more elderly buses?

Obviously some Brookes StreetDecks have gone to Pulhams,,I seem to remember reading the ex Brookes MMCs are going elsewhere?

I also see Yutong 14m tri axle-electric coach being trialled by national express, and wonder of OBC may be wanting something along these lines for The Airline service in the future. Range seems sufficient for 2 Gatwick Return Runs daily on a single charge.

Can’t help wondering if there may also one day be a British variant of the battery powered Van Hool Astromega that is on sale in America running on the Oxford Tube. Seems Plaxton no longer making the Panorama since Volvo switched to B13R, So I’m curious which way the deal could go if they change the fleet when is 5 years old again??

We're currently planning for the majority of StreetDecks to cascade to Thames Travel, other than 375 and 376 which will go to Pulhams to be with their fellow HEV96 buses, 371-374.

The ADL E400 MMCs will be split between Thames and Carousel and the Carousel ones of these are to be refurbished into a Flightline livery and specification, for service 102. The first of these is already well underway and expected to be completed in early April as I understand things.

491 working the BV1 in Bicester on March 16th. This bus is now the regular for this service.

Oxford Airline 33 seen diverted from the M40 through Stokenchurch on March 20th.Jan at the wheel !

841 seen with an 11 road service in Watlington on March 13th and when new in October 2009.

Pulhams 71 R40PUL seen working for the Airline due to the M25 closure on March 17th at Lewknor.

The white training coach is now with us at Pulhams.
Going to get some Pulhams names put on it from what I understand.

Pulhams R40 PUL with Carousel Streetlite 409 behind at the Wycombe Coachway yesterday afternoon, March 17th

CP We’ve just bought it, going to be painted in April. Needed it out on the road asap due to race week last week.

National Express is introducing 25 new Van Hool Altano TDX21 tri-axle coaches into service this year.

The coach was unveiled being a high-capacity overdecker coach at Van Hool’s UK site in Wellingborough this morning (15 March 2024), before the coach heads to Bristol to join Edwards Coaches’ National Express fleet. It will be joined by nine others over the coming months.

In addition to the ten vehicles destined for Edwards Coaches, Selwyn's Travel in the north west will be home to 15 more TDX21 models when they arrive later this year.

A brand-new route which will link areas previously without a bus is shortly to be introduced by Reading Buses.

Richard Windley (Commercial Administrator, Reading Buses), Kevin Kempton (Assistant Marketing Manager, Reading Buses),
Stephen Wise (Senior Transport Planner, RBC), Robert Williams (Chief Executive, Reading Buses),
Godfrey Mawoyo (Operations Director, Reading Buses) and Councillor Ennis (RBC).

They have announced that their new Buzz 18 will provide an all-day seven days a week service which in particular will offer a link between Tilehurst, Kentwood, Portman Road, central Reading and the Forbury.

Financed by Reading Borough Council’s Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP) within funding from HM Government, Buzz 18 will also create a brand-new connection between Rivermead Leisure Centre and Tilehurst.

The new route, which starts on April 2, will follow the existing Buzz 42 route – which Buzz 18 replaces - between Kenavon Drive and central Reading.

From Central Reading Buzz 18 will then continue towards the Rivermead Leisure Centre – using the stop at the future site of the River Academy – before continuing under the Cow Lane Bridge to Portman Road and Kentwood before finishing at Tilehurst Triangle.

Buses will run approximately every 40 minutes all day Monday to Saturday between Kenavon Drive, central Reading and Tilehurst Triangle and hourly on Sundays.

Additional morning and evening journeys Monday to Friday between central Reading and Kenavon Drive will run as Buzz 18a to provide a service up to every 20 minutes finishing at St Mary’s Butts.All buses on both Buzz 18 and 18a will be full size single deckers powered by compressed natural gas which emit 55% less emissions than a diesel bus with a similar type of engine.

Robert Williams, Reading Buses Chief Executive Officer, said today: “We are delighted to continue our association with Reading Borough Council to provide the new Buzz 18 service which will go hand-in-hand with the recently enhanced Buzz 9 and to be expanding the number of biomethane fuelled buses in our fleet.

“Both routes will be operated by super clean biomethane buses with new Buzz branding to easily identify them to customers.

“It is great to have a new link between Tilehurst, Kentwood and Portman Road and of course be able to offer plenty of affordable fares which will have a £2 maximum fare cap.”