Editorial

Issue nr 354
Wednesday, July 2nd 2025

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

From the Editor

Quiet but interesting with some nice pictures and interesting stories..

The sad news is that Showbus 2025 has been cancelled. See the details and reason.

In this issue

Showbus 2025 CNCELLED

Grahame Wareham for O&CBP Issue 354.

Nuneaton area by Keith Briant

Readers Write

From outside our area - Shrewsbury ad Scotland

Fleet News & Developments

London by Andrew Webb

SHOWBUS 2025 CANCELLED

From Martin Isles

Sorry to trouble you, but at short notice we have had to cancel this year’s SHOWBUS event at the Bucks Railway Centre on July 13^th. This morning HS2 reneged on their agreement to provide access to the event on the day. If you’ve had any dealings with HS2 they are a law unto themselves. Rather than go ahead and cause horrendous traffic chaos for all and negotiations with HS2 were going nowhere we have sadly decided to cancel. SHOWBUS had survived floods, riots, covid and fuel shortages, but HS2 has defeated us!

Whilst you may not be going, please let anyone you know who might be planning to visit that the show has been cancelled.

Apologies if you get this message from other sources or had asked to be removed from our mailing list this year, but in the interests of expediency and the need to get this news to those who need it I have used the list prepared for 2025 invitations.

We hope to be back at Quainton Station in September 2026

Indeed sad news and an event which will be sadly missed. Ed.

Grahame Wareham for O&CBP Issue 354.

L354 MWL988 1948 AEC Regent III with NCB L27/26R low-bridge body, renumbered L130 in 1952. Withdrawn May 1961 and sold to PVD (dealer) Dunchurch. L130 was sold on to Bedlington & District, Ashington in August 1961 lasting their until March 1966 when it was sold to TPE (dealer) Macclesfield who then sold it on for scrap.

354 CFC354C 1965 AEC Renown 3B3RA with Park Royal H37/28F low-height forward entrance body. 354 was allocated to Bicester depot from new. .It was converted to OMO in 1970 and was then transferred to Oxford for use on country services and once recertified in 1972. It was transferred to Wantage depot in 1975 and was withdrawn in October 1977 and sold to Ensign Bus, Grays being resold for scrap to Beckett Carlton Barnsley in November 1977.

354 R4OXF (OE62ZRJ) 2013 Volvo B5LH / Wright Gemini 2 H45/27F low height body Based on parallel hybrid technology an electric motor takes over from 1st gear when sufficient battery power is available enabling the bus to crawl in traffic without the engine running which is then 'bump' started when insufficient battery charge inhibits momentum. For this application the transmission is a normal synchromesh gearbox as fitted to a truck with the gear actuation operating a servo operated clutch pack. They were not the best idea in hybrid application as there were quite a few moving parts which when out of adjustment could make gear changing erratic, nevertheless the buses lasted well on the streets of Oxford for eleven years. 354 started life mainly on 5 road and gradually migrated to 2's and then 35's. in 2023 the influx of electric buses rendered this batch of buses as surplus and were to be cascaded to Go North West in Manchester but depot reorganisation within the Greater Manchester Transport plan saw them cascaded to Stagecoach Manchester and 354 became TFGM 13178 on 25th March 2024. It was re-registered OE62ZRJ before departure from Oxford and at present remains the only former OBC B5LH still operating in Manchester in Oxford City red livery.

Fascinating as always. Ed.

Nuneaton area by Keith Briant

A few more from my my patch taken over the last week:

Arriva Midlands Enviro200 MMC 3120 (YX17 NPC) carries the now obsolete Sapphire livery. It was photographed in Hinckley Rd, Nuneaton nearing the end of it's journey from Leicester. The service from Nuneaton to Leicester via Hinckley began on 11 May 1921 as Midland Red service 68. It was Midland Red's first route into Leiceser before their first depot opened in the city.

Arriva Midlands 2003 (YY15 NJZ), a Enviro200 seen on St Nicolas Park Drive on service 7 to Hinckley, a much modified former Centrebus Holdings service. St Nicolas Park is one of Nuneaton's biggest estates. Located on the northern edge of the town alongside the Leicestershire border, it is only served by Arrive Monday to Saturday, Stagecoach having withdrawn from there a few years ago. It is however still served by a diversion of Stagecoach 148 Nuneaton - Leicester on Sundays.

Arriva Midlands Hinckley depot is located at the end of the quaintly named Goose Lane in the neighbouring village of Barwell. This is a view of the depot taken at 7.30 on Saturday morning. Visible are Optare Solos 2523 (YJ09 MJE); 2525 (YJ09 MJK); Enviro200 2001 (YY15 NJV) and Optare Solo SR 1520 (KX13 DHO). The depot was re-acquired with the purchase of Centrebus Holdings in September 2013, a separate operation from Centrebus' nearby Leicester network.

Arriva Midlands 3803 (TUI 7934) a VDL SB200/Wright Pulsar 2 was formerly registered MX13 AKG and was transferred from Arriva North West in 2015. Eight of this batch were used on the 158 Leicester- Hinckley-Nuneaton service and were re-registered shortly after Arriva Midlands introduced their Gold liveried Enviro200 MMCs onto their then competing parallel service 148 back in 2018. Both routes are now co-ordinated under a partnership agreement with Leicestershire and Warwickshire County Councils. It is seen at Hinckley depot.

Stagecoach Midlands currently only have 3 Yutong E10 electrics, the others are the longer E12 model. The first is the dual door example allocated to Leamington Spa and liveried and dedicated to a service operated for National Grid which was illustrated in last week's issue. The other 2 were transferred from Rugby depot to Nuneaton during the last week. First of the pair is 63134 (YE74 VGX) seen at the terminal point of Hinckley town service 11, a massive Bloor Homes development which is still being built alongside the Triumph motorcycle factory (also owned by Trevor Bloor) on Hinckley's western edge.

Yutong E12 73041 (YK74 PKY) leaving Nuneaton bus depot before commencing its duties on the 148.

Yutong E12s 73025 & 73028 (YK74 PJO & PJX) seen in Nuneaton bus station.

A view inside the entrance to Nuneaton bus depot showing Yutong E12 73029 (YK74 PJY) and the rear of Enviro200 36749 (KX62 BLZ). This is the first Nuneaton based bus to be repainted in the new slate blue livery.

An interesting piece showing current trends. Ed.

Andrew Dyer

I’ve just read the latest (great as usual) issue 353 and I wonder if you could advise me as to how I could take legal action against Grahame Wareham for making me feel old? As I’m now going to admit to having first met Grahame in 1970, I doubt I have much chance of success.

His always excellent piece about fleet numbers reminds of my travels to school on Bicester depot vehicles. During my first term at secondary school, regular performers on my route 95 were L167 and 168, SFC433 & 434. Then at the end of the term in 1965 they were replaced by 196 & 199 KFC which I think were part of COMS’s last batch of old style lowbridge vehicles.

In turn the Regent Vs had been downgraded to less important routes by the arrival of two brand new Renowns, 353 and 354. The new vehicles were usually allocated to Route 70 Oxford-Bedford and Route 96 Oxford-Bicester-Buckingham. They looked very modern compared to the old Lodekkas which United Counties ran on the corridor.

So, the exciting brand new buses I saw on my way to school are now being written about in your page as ancient history! You can see why I’m angry with Grahame. I think the answer will be for me to take him out for a beer and get over it!!

Neil Gow

I was interested to see the picture of RML2634 now a mobile sales outlet. This is the second ex Thisbus.com Routemaster to suffer this fate. RML2394 (JJD 394D) had been converted by Chiltern Automotive to a sales/promotion vehicle for the Chelsea fashion shop Rixo. RML2634 was initially sold in June 2022 to a preservationist in East Grinstead, so it would seem it has been re-sold. I took this picture of it on 24^th April 2023, ironically not taking part in the East Grinstead Running Day that was on that day.

Gavin Francis

I think RML 2634 has gone to a company who wrap them for different companies as these three pictures from Nigel show it in 2 other wraps.

Pictures by Nigel Eadon-Clarke

Jack Cooper

Over the River Thames in Wallingford

Taken on June 24th.

Andrew Millwood

Routemaster From Shrewsbury to Ironbridge

More from Shrewsbury.

Gordon Scott

Shots taken today at Ferrytoll Park & Ride Inverkeithing Fife.

Stagecoach East Scotland Volvo B11R Plaxton Elite 53722 - SV11 FCS.

ADL Enviro 400EV 80211 - YX25 NXS.

ADL Enviro 400 MMC 11178 - YX19 OUC, New Livery.

Gary Seamarks

Few from a Glasgow/Edinburgh 'dash' Thur 12- Fri 13 June. all these are vehicles new in 2024/5. Looks like the Evora and MCV ranges are spreading North of the border,.

Fleet News and developments

Nick Ross

New fleet of shiny EVoRas. 3218 (BU25ZBV) is arriving at Leighton Buzzard station
with the 1405 X2 from Milton Keynes to Luton Airport on July 1st 2025

Gavin Francis with a current update on matters Carousel in Wycombe

Lewis Nagle

888 seen in Chesham on a 1A. Lovely machine.

884 and 885 are also back after some time away.

Paul Swann caught this in Gynn Square car park last week enjoying a few days by the coast

Reading Buses are providing special late-night buses to bring revellers back to Reading after enjoying the Henley Royal Regatta.

The Henley Royal Regatta takes place from Tuesday 1 July to Sunday 6 July, and local bus company Reading Buses are providing late night buses on top of their normal aqua 28 service that runs between Reading, Caversham and Henley-on-Thames.

The company say that to get to Henley, buses on aqua 28 depart up to every 30 minutes Mondays to Saturdays and hourly on evenings and Sundays from Central Reading Friar Street stop FC and Forbury Road stop EL. Journey time to Henley is around 40 minutes. The last bus leaves at 11.45pm.

On top of the normal aqua 28 service, Reading Buses are running late-night N28 buses on Friday 4 July and Saturday 5 July. These will run between Henley Station and Reading from 12.10am until 2.30am every 20 minutes, calling at all of the usual aqua 28 stops. This means there will be buses to take people home even after the trains finish running.

Said Robert Williams, Reading Buses Chief Executive Officer; “We have run late night buses for the Regatta for several years, but this is our first year running the aqua 28 service throughout the day. This is a great chance to not only remind customers that we run late trips to get home, but also that the year-round service is twice as frequent as it was before we started running aqua 28.”

He continued; “There will be special fares on the N28 at the same price as last year, and the great news is that they will also be valid on aqua 28. The special N28 tickets will be available using tap on, tap off – meaning you can get the best price, even if you haven’t planned how you are getting to or from the Regatta. They will also be available on our app or can be bought from the driver.”

A single on the special N28 will be £10 or two people can travel together for £15. A new Henley Regatta Day ticket will be available for £10 allowing travel into Henley on aqua 28 and return on either aqua 28 or N28 if they want to leave a bit later. Regatta group tickets are also available for £30 allowing up to four people to travel together providing even more value.

Reading new electric buses are in the process of being delivered and I came across these photos on Facebook taken by Andrew Chalmers at ADL's factory in Falkirk. The first ones are mostly in route 17 purple livery with registrations using the series RGxxZEB with xx matching their fleet numbers. The final buses of this batch will be for route 21.

It had been announced that driver training would start in June, but I have seen no reports of this happening yet.

Reading will have their open day this Sunday at their Great Knollys Street depot and I imagine that they will have one or more of the new buses on display there.

There is no charge but donations to RB's annual charity, Berkshire Youth, are welcomed. There are stalls and normally a selection of preserved buses are on show as well as the current fleet.

Having finally entered service last month 80052 has now not seen service since June 18th, one wonders why ?

Energy drink Red Bull is advertised on LT700 at Waterloo as it heads for layover after being curtailed whilst working route 68 on 28 June.

White City is the setting for First's ADH45071 advertising Malaysia Airline's twice daily flights from Heathrow to Kuala Lumpur.

Chiquita bananas are back with their annual campaign featuring humorous straplines.
First's BCE47049 rounds Parliament Square on 28 June whilst standing in for the more usual New Routemaster on route 148.

The Bus Business operate this Scania which started life as LX09AFE with Selkent in 2009. It is now used as a promotional bus. Currently it is following 'The Guts World Tour' by American singer-songwriter and actress Olivia Rodrigo which reached Hyde Park on 27 June.