From the Editor

Quieter this week and a later than planned as my domestic situation has kept me busy.

An interesting page nevertheless with much to provide for readers.

In this issue

20 years of MK Metro by Matt Cooper (Part one)

David Gray was also in Winchester on New Year's day

Winchester New Year’s Day bus rally in days of yore by Dave Allen

with David Allen in Trondheim, Norway

Milton Keynes by Gary Seamarks 

Thomas Walker-Werth reports from Milton Keynes area

Grahame Wareham re 376

Grahame Wareham was in North Wales

Maidenhead & Slough with Kevin Fuller

.... and in Birmingham with David Ive

Fleet News and developments   

 

20 years of MK Metro by Matt Cooper (Part one)

I have been meaning to compile this article for a while and it should fall in place for the 20 year anniversary since Arriva the Shires bought the Milton Keynes-based operations of MK Metro. I have selected nearly 50 pictures from the archives to document the ten years the company was owned by Julian Peddle and part of the Status Group. I will send these across in several emails and have simply numbered each picture and caption with a reference number. They cover depot locations, bus station and vehicle types. Here goes!  

Formed as part of the division of United Counties in 1986 Milton Keynes Citybus was the smallest of the three new companies and all operations were centred on MK. Four managers bought the company from NBC in August 1987 for £1.2m. The conventional bus fleet was replaced with 92 Mercedes-Benz minibuses, branded as 'Street Shuttle',  and was utilised on a high frequency network around the city. Although the smaller vehicles could access local estate roads this increased journey times and the vehicles were not too appealing. Coupled with MK being a city favouring the motorist partonage for bus operators has traditionally been poor.  

The original owners sold the company to Cambus in 1992. An assortment of second hand conventional vehicles was acquired from a very varied number of sources. Bristol VRs formed the double deck fleet and Bristol REs for the single deck. Very interesting times for enthusiasts but again not very appealing to the general public. Johnsons Coaches of Hanslope were acquired by the company with three principal trading names used, Buckinghamshire Roadcar (green livery), Milton Keynes Citybus (red livery) and Johnsons Coaches (blue livery)  The timetable scan shows the red and green variations well. The council has always provided good publicity and the range of tickets available to passengers has been excellent, a throw back to early days of the MK Development Corporation and all operators and contractors in the city were required to use AES Prodata ticket machines for consistency.  

The Stagecoach Group bought Cambus Holdings in December 1995 which largely overlapped with their United Counties operations. Following a decision by the MMC (Monopolies and Mergers Commission) the Huntingdon depot of UC and the MK Citybus operation was sold in April 1997 to Julian Peddle. The MK operation had been named 'Stagecoach Milton Keynes' although this did not appear on vehicles and only in some timetables and publicity material. No vehicles had been repainted and only one minibus transferred during Stagecoach ownership. A fleet of fifty 'group standard' minibuses were to be deployed but inn the event never delivered. The new company was MK Metro, with Premier Buses applied to the Huntingdon operation. For the best part of a decade the company would see considerable investment an growth and a smart uniform image was again presented to the city. The pictures and captions will detail some of the story.  

The company was sold to Arriva in February 2006 for £6.8m with 120 vehicles and 260 employees (me being one of them!) coming under their Shires and Essex division. We are now twenty years on and Arriva still runs the show despite some of the Shires division having closed (Watford, Aylesbury and High Wycombe Depots)  

 

Lets begin at the original main depot, Snowdon Drive, Winterhill. Opened in May 1983 the facility was built to accommodate 250 vehicles and would have been a regional servicing and engineering facility under NBC ownership. Privatisation saw this depot never fulfil its intended purpose with part of the site rented out to a haulage firm. The publicity leaflet was from an open day held soon after becoming operational. Previousl depots at Bletchley and Stony Stratford closed with all joining together at Winterhill and the Central Bus Station (CBS)  

102 - Exemplifying the mass of space for parking on 20 September 1999 are MB Vario 610 (T692 LNV) in Community Transport livery, MB811D 79 (H426 XGX) acquired from MTL London,  Alexander-bodied MCW Metrobus 258 (DEM 758Y) one of very few double deckers in use by the company and used primarily on contract work and finally ECW-bodied Bristol LH 497 (AFB 597V). The latter two vehicles had also seen service with other companies which formed the Status Group (namely Classic and South Lancs Travel respectively) The LH was mainly used as a trainer but would often work the routes between MK and Winslow/Buckingham as depicted. 

103 - A rather interesting collection of vehicles stand alongside the washer plant on 11 September 1999. The rather sad looking Alexander AM-bodied Mercedes Benz 608D was 0045 (D145 VRP) and once part of the 92 strong fleet of the type. MK Metro withdrew the remaining examples very swiftly after they took over. The Cambus liveried Bristol VR was in use as stores and had also been used as a classroom for ticket machine training. The older vehicles were privately owned preserved buses with two members of the main MK Metro fleet making up the numbers.  

104 - Another source of revenue from the site was its use as an outstation for other operators. Both Northampton and Bedford depots of Stagecoach United Counties kept vehicles here which were fuelled and washed by MK Metro staff. ECW-bodied Leyland Olympian 610 (ARP 610X) was a Northampton based vehicle which carried an overall advert for Northants Chamber of Commerce for several years. It was part of a batch of twenty delivered to United Counties in 1981 with the eleven examples then owned by Stagecoach rubbing shoulders in the city with the nine Aylesbury based examples which passed to Luton & DIstrict and often used on routes 65 and X15. 

   

105/6/7 - Vacated during late 2000 Winterhill depot was finally redeveloped in early 2005 to become a Homebase store. Most of Winterhill estate became retail outlets. On 11 January 2005 the old damaged sign and security hut were still present as the framework for the store progresses.  

   

108/9/10 - Some depot views taken on 29 May 2005 at Bleak Hall one of three sites then used within MK the others being at Arden Park, Wolverton and 'the van centre' further along Chesney Wold at Bleak Hall.  Bold colour schemes were in use, yelllow and blue was the standard scheme, orange and blue used for the 'quality route' 5 (Bletchley Lakes Estate - City - Wolverton or Stony Stratford) and Green Travel. A handful of vehicles were painted in this scheme and initially used at a base in Soulbury. Intended as a low-cost unit it was soon merged in with the rest of the fleet and the vehicles utilised on main routes as well as contracts. The Optare Solo 28 (YN03 NEF) was one of a pair acquired from Wevaway and painted in this purple scheme for route 8. Both the Solos were unique in having seatbelts fitted. 

Parts 2 & 3 to follow

David Gray was also in Winchester on New Year's day

I visited Winchester yesterday for the bus rally and have selected a number of photographs which I have forwarded by WeTransfer. 

It was another superbly organized event by the Friends of King Alfred Buses and by mid-day there were large number of visitors in attendance. All of the services I travelled on were at or near full capacity. 

The King Alfred heritage buses were used on 11 different routes around the City whilst the visiting vehicles were used on longer distance services to Bishop's Sutton (near Alresford) and Fareham plus a service to Park and Ride South.

     
     
     

Winchester New Year’s Day bus rally in days of yore by Dave Allen

Been doing a bit of an end of year clear out and came across some old pics of Winchester New Year’s Day bus rally in days of yore which might interest you. Must have been 1988/9 I believe. Of interest is the old bus garage at the back of the station - now demolished - necessitating buses to enter and egress through the front entrance.

     
 

 

 

 

with David Allen in Trondheim, Norway

 

You might also be interested in these pics taken in Trondheim, Norway earlier this year. Very big thanks to electric over there
and have some interesting systems including the quick (10 min) recharge facilities and “tram buses”

   

   

Milton Keynes by Gary Seamarks 

  
Few from MK on Fri, rail replacement to Northampton was reason for going,
which is what the Tates and Marshalls were on as was M700MTY, mighty Mikes of Birmingham, was new as OX15BUS iirc, 

The Cambus was on X5 although its a Cambridge Vehicle on loan to Bedford to cover the RR,
East has a universal blind set-up, so ability to show Oxford,

   
15215 is only Scania in new livery. look closely at 15212 its guide-wheels attached but not using Busway yet,  
3879 chance grab as both on X6 going opposite directions.  

Grant Palmer has registered a commercial 41 Bedford- Northampton from 1/3/26, assume SC are pulling off their tendered version of route,
will leave Bedford with very little out of town routes now excluding X5, 905, MK1 and 9A/B/C, Kettering of course work the 50.

Every area has its interest. Ed. 

Thomas Walker-Werth reports from Milton Keynes area

Apologies for being out of contact for a while! Between personal issues and a lot of overseas travel, I've been behind on editing and uploading my photos. I'm largely caught up now, so I thought I'd give you a few notable local bus photos from each of my October, November, and December 2025 UK bus galleries. 

From my October gallery, we have Z&S's new route 51 from Central Milton Keynes to Newton Longville

 
as well as a Loop-branded Solo on the 3 and a Sapphire Enviro 200 MMC on the Loop:

From my November gallery,

we have the appearance of a single-deck Enviro 200 MMC on the short X5 working from Bedford to Milton Keynes,

a pair of X2s (formerly F70s) passing at Leighton Buzzard station,

and a Redline X20-branded Evora in High Wycombe on the 300:

From my December gallery,

we have Grant Palmer's 42

and Stagecoach's MK1 (former 81) passing through the interesting new town of Wixams, south of Bedford:

Do view the links to Thomas's Monthly gallery's. Ed.

Grahame Wareham re 376 

L376  OFC376  1950  AEC Regent III  9612A with Park Royal L26/26R low-bridge body. L376 was renumbered L152 in 1952 and lasted in the fleet until November 1963 when it was withdrawn and sold to Transport Passenger Equipment, Macclesfield (dealer) in November 1963 being resold to Whiteford, Nemphlar, Lanark also the same month. OFC was later sold to Edwards, Joys Green, Lydbrook, Glos. In March 1964 and lasted until February 1971 when it was scrapped on site at Lydbrook. The Oxford Bus Preservation Syndicate were offered this bus for preservation in late 1970 but couldn't raise the £200 required to buy the bus!..........nor was there anywhere to keep it. 

     

376  KFC376G  1968  Daimler Fleetline CRG6LX with Northern Counties (NCME) H41/31F low-height body. 376 was part of a batch of ten rear engined double deckers, the first of what was going to become the standard mechanical arrangement for the next four  years which included 59 new vehicles built on Daimler chassis and a further 21 secondhand examples from Midland Red and North Western acquired between 1972 and 1977. 3Upon delivery 375 and its sisters were put to work as conventional conductor assisted buses on City routes but mainly on the 2 road corridor between Kidlington and Barton/Risinghurst/Sandhills estate until the dual-doored following batch arrived from 1969-70 which then saw 372-381 allocated to Country area garages and used as OMO vehicles. They were also brought back into the City Centre and used as OMO vehicles with, Almex, Solomatic and Electric Setright ticket machine trials to establish modernization of the issuing of tickets. In 1981 upon arrival of VRT's 511-515, 376 along with the remaining vehicles in the batch 375,377-380 were donated by NBC to various charitable organizations under the Phab banner who were promoting bus travel for disabled and under-privileged children and young adults. After this they were converted into play-buses in the main.  

     
   

376   OX68LLM  2018 Wright Streetdeck HEVC Gemini 3 H49/33F low-height body. It was part of a batch of six ordered to supplement the existing Brookes liveried E400 MMC buses being used on the U contracts and the 400 service. This batch of buses were similar to previous Streetdecks but incorporated a Hybrid regeneration system to feed all the auxiliary electrical outputs required to operate the bus leaving the engine to power the gearbox.   In December 2023 a new fleet of Streetdeck EV's arrived releasing 376 and the other five diesel Streetdeck's to be transferred to Pulham's for operation on the NHS Cheltenham and Gloucester hospitals contract. 376 was returned back to OBC Cowley House during October 2024 and is running as a diesel bus back up vehicle on some of the longer OBC Country routes. It was renumbered 80376 in the GAG bus operating subsidiary portfolio in April 2025.

     

 Oh ! those memories  Ed. 

Grahame Wareham was in North Wales

I'll send some pictures on a separate email with a few from Llandudno, where I had an enjoyable three days last week as spent an afternoon with my cousin. If there's one place that never seems to change it is Llandudno, and it never should! I have been going there since 1961. There is some building development going on in the old Station Goods Yard which has lain empty and derelict for as long as I can remember. The bus depot further along Builder Street which housed Arriva single decks seems now to be home to the expanding Alpine fleet where they have 3 ex. OBC Airline coaches. I did see ex. No 14, originally registered PF61OXF and now MJZ6729 locked away in the compound across the road which is also a new acquisition via Redwing I'm told. They also have 85 EB07OXF now XFV257 and 96 FF08OXF now PFZ2838. The Arriva fleet now runs out of Rhyl which is being extended and modernised.

 

     
     
   
 

The location bring back happy memories for your Editor whose first holidays in 1943 and 1944 were in this area. Ed. 

Maidenhead & Slough with Kevin Fuller

Not a good start to the year weatherwise, but I managed a morning out on Thursday, and took some pictures in Maidenhead and Slough which hopefully will be useful for the newsletter. 

All pictures taken on 8th January 2026. 

   

Thames Valley in Maidenhead.

   

Slough

The Carousel Citaro is working new route 458 to Uxbridge, which started on 5th January 2026.

 

An interesting selection. Ed.