Issue nr 383
Wednesday, March 11th 2026

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

From the Editor

News of new EVs fills this issue plus rebranding of the tube.

Apologies for the delay in posting.

In this issue

Pulhams launches electric buses

Rebrand of Oxford tube unveiled

Thames Travel 857 by Gavin Francis

COMS 383 remembered

T15 Heritage Weekend event

Beazley Insurance RML2545 story

Andrew Webb in Dartford

Readers Write

Daffodil Valley at Waddesdon

Fleet News & Developments

Reading's new EVs

SC West Yutong E12's enter service

Andrew Webb reports from London

Report from Stirling by Andy Millwood

Bournemouth by John Marsh

 

Pulhams launches electric buses and depot improvements following £8m investment

Pulhams is launching 15 electric buses into service and has unveiled significant improvements to one of its depots, thanks to a multi-million investment in clean technology.

The first of the new vehicles and numerous depot upgrades, including 16 electric charging points, were revealed at a celebratory event at the Golden Valley depot in Staverton last week.

Pulhams confirmed the £8.17m investment will save more than 700 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions each year.

The new fleet includes seven double-decker Wrightbus Electroliners with 442kWh battery packs, and eight single-decker Wrightbus GB Kites, four 11.6m variants with 528 kWh battery packs and four 10.2m variants with 442kWh battery packs. All have been developed and built by Wrightbus in its UK-based factory in Ballymena, Northern Ireland.

The project has seen £6.63m spent on the electric buses and £1.54m on charging infrastructure. The investment has also delivered a new bus wash, a new fuelling system, refurbished offices and improved driver rest facilities at Pulhams’ Cheltenham site.

Go-Ahead Group, the parent company of Pulhams, invested £4.7m, while £3.21m came from the Department for Transport’s ZEBRA (Zero Emission Bus Regional Areas) scheme. Gloucestershire County Council contributed £255,000.

Luke Marion, Managing Director of Pulhams, said: “This is a considerable investment in starting our electrification journey at Pulhams, as we continue to innovate and modernise our fleet and infrastructure.

“This will significantly improve air quality in the communities we serve and will further help make bus travel an even better option for travelling.

“The investment in our facilities at our Cheltenham site brings it up to the standard we envisioned after acquiring the site from Swanbrook Transport in November 2024.

“I’m grateful the company has been able to invest heavily into a project of this scale and for the support of key stakeholders who have made this possible. This is a great example of healthy partnerships working together to create better outcomes for all.”

The new buses and improved depot facilities were unveiled at a special launch event held on Friday 6th March, with various dignitaries attending, including local councillors, council officers and NHS staff.

Cllr Roger Whyborn, cabinet member for sustainable transport at Gloucestershire County Council, said: “This is a really important step forward in modernising bus services in Gloucestershire.

“By supporting this investment, we’re helping to make bus travel a more attractive option for local people, improve air quality and cut carbon emissions.

“It’s also a strong example of what can be achieved when councils, operators and government work together, combining local investment with national funding.

“These new electric buses and upgraded depot facilities will deliver long‑term benefits for passengers, communities and the environment.”

John McLeister, Managing Director for Sales in the UK and Ireland at Wrightbus, said: “It’s been a pleasure for Wrightbus to support Pulhams as it embarks on its electrification journey.

“Wrightbus is proudly marking its 80th anniversary this year and we’re leading the way globally in zero-emission bus technology. These Gen 2 Electroliners are the most efficient battery electric buses we have ever produced, with class-leading range, charging speed and battery life.

“This investment from Pulhams shows the importance of zero-emission transport. And because the buses have been developed and built in our UK factory in Ballymena, this fleet of buses will not only help to improve air quality across Cheltenham, but will also support good green jobs in the wider UK manufacturing sector.”

It is an exciting period of expansion and growth at Pulhams, with the bus and coach operator last year introducing five new executive coaches for use on tours, day trips and private hire following a £1.5m investment.

Since the Go-Ahead Group acquired Pulhams, more than 60 vehicles have been added to the fleet, taking it to more than 150. It has also recruited more than 60 new staff to support network expansion.

Pictures provided by Tony Gaze
Cheltenham on March 10th 2026

     
80496, 80497,80571 and 80573.


PU75HAM

Picture of 80572 on March 7th by Grahame Wareham.


 

Rebrand unveiled on March 6th 2026

from Adam Harber

 

Photographs on social media of 50435 repainted into new Oxford Tube livery. You will recall from my last email how I mentioned the commuter market has stagnated since Covid and we are now adjusting our brand to recognise the growing leisure market, and the new livery is part of a wider project to rebrand Oxford Tube for these changes. 

50435 entered the paint shop on 20th February and after painting was finished an external contracted visited that site on 4th March to fit the vinyl pack. This was overseen by members of the marketing team from Stagecoach Group to make sure everything was done to specification, and minor corrections have now been made to the specification to allow it to sit with the coach design better. Think of 50435 as being the prototype and future repaints will have slight changes to this design, most notably with the front logo that currently sits over a rubber seal, which is not ideal. The coach was then stored indoors at the paint shop until yesterday morning, so that the new design would not leak to social media before we had a change to show it to staff. There is a new uniform too. Five members of the Tube team were issued with this in advance, and gathered at Oxford depot with the coach to act as glamour models for the day. While all this was going on, the roadside team were out in the van updating timetables at bus stops and Gloucester Green. Hopefully the TfL roadside team has done the same at the other end of the route. A new information leaflet has gone to print, and this is expected to arrive at Oxford depot on Tuesday. This leaflet is a stop-gap design as obviously we could not include photographs of the new livery when it was sent to print a few weeks ago. Only 5,000 examples are being printed, and they will be replaced in a few weeks with new leaflets that will feature photography of the coach in new livery, so if there any timetable collectors around you will need to move fast to bag yourself a copy! 

We plan to repaint one coach every 3-4 weeks for the next year or so, until we have at least 15 coaches in new brand livery. Last month, Stagecoach Group confirmed an order for 30 new Volvo 9700 double-deck coach for Oxford Tube, which will be delivered in two batches. The first batch of 15 coaches will arrive in early 2027 to replace current vehicles that have not been repainted by that time, and this will give a uniform look across the whole fleet. The second batch of 15 will arrive towards the end of 2027 to replace the remaining coaches from the current fleet. Other changes (for the current fleet) include upgrades to the Next Stop Announcement (NSA) system with celebrity voice actors now being used, and this should be going live this weekend ahead of the Monday timetable changes. 

I was in Oxford yesterday to see the new livery, so I have included some photographs of the coach in the Stagecoach yard at Oxford and around the city centre. I was joined for the day by other readers of your web pages, so I’m sure they will make contributions too. Alas, some of my photographs will be reserved for Stagecoach use only, but I like to think I took enough to go around! The coach was collected from the paint shop personally by Rob Hough, the Oxford Tube Operations Manager, and the first photo shows it arriving at the depot for the first time. The cake is being cut by Managing Director, Chris Hanson, and that didn’t last very long! 

Pictures from Rob Hough taken on day 1

       

 

Thames Travel 857 by Gavin Francis

 

In December 2007 Thames Travel put into service an MCV Evolution bodied MAN 14.220, it was given the fleet number 857 with registration AE57LYP.

 

 

   

 

For the next few years it ran around the Wallingford, Didcot, Oxford and Reading areas
and the pictures show it at St. Aldates, Oxford on 18th April 2009 on the X40,
hen Reading Station on 14th August 2008 on Rte 144 and finally Wallingford again on the X40 on 15th March 2008.

 

When it was withdrawn it made possibly the longest trip it could and found a new home in New Zealand.

 

 

The British Buses Abroad magazine for Spring 2026 carries a picture taken by Martin Perry. It is now operated by GoBus, Blenheim, New Zealand and carries the fleet number 1008 with registration GRU 466. In this view it was operating a cruise ship shuttle service in Picton.

 

The British Buses Abroad magazine is published quarterly by Buses Worldwide (busesworldwide.org) with a UK subscription rate of £16.50 

 

Grahame Wareham with another installment to keep the history files alive! 383 

     

H383  OFC383 1949 AEC Regent III 9612A with Weymann H30/26R high-bridge body.  In 1952 H383 was renumbered to H882. H882 was sold to J.Deacon (dealer), Dorcheaster on Thames in November1960 passing to Smiths of Reading the same month, where it was fitted with platform doors. It was withdrawn in June 1969 finally being scrapped during the following year 

 
   

383 MJO383H 1969 Daimler Fleetline CRG6LX  with Northern Counties H41/28D low-height body. Part of an initial batch of  fifteen these were used on newly converted OMO operated duties, mainly 2 road for the first few months of their lives and then spread out to most City routes with some migrating to Witney and Wantage to operate into the City on cross City services. 383 was allocated to Cowley depot for the majority of its first seven years then finding its way out to Watlington depot. Because of window supply problems there were two types of window fitted, some with slider units, as in the 1968 batch, and some with full length hoppers. the vehicles were delivered as follows: Slider windows  382,385,387-389,395,396. Hopper windows:  383,384,386,390,391-394. Also 383,385,387,389,393-396 had a ventilator in the front dome as per the previous batch, but the remaining vehicles were not fitted.383-385,388,389,391,393-395 all received the simplified two colour red and green livery from 1971 onwards, the first being treated 394 in 8/71. The remainder were repainted into NBC corporate poppy red which eventually covered the whole batch during overhaul in 1976/7. The overhaul of this batch was completed at Midland Red Carlyle Works and the vehicles had their rear engine shrouds removed at the same time.383 lasted in the COMS fleet until November 1981 when it was sold to Ensign Bus (dealer), Grays, Essex and then being exported to Girraffe Bus Company, Lusaka, Zambia, along with sister bus 386, in May 1982 and re-registered AAF148. 

 T15 Heritage Weekend run by Londoners with Tony Gaze

Went to the T15 Heritage Weekend run by Londoners. Excellent weekend, well run with plenty of vehicles  

A selection taken in St. Paul's, Aldwych and Trafalgar Square 

     
     
 


RF (MXX280) was not part of the running day.  

Beazley Insurance RML 2545

 

Beazley Insurance RML 2545 made quite an appearance when it was recently on display outside The Lloyds Building in Cornmarket, City of London

 


RML 2545 was one of those used on the final day of regular Routemaster operation in London
 and is pictured at Brixton on 8th December 2005.

 

   
By 2012 it had been bought by The Bus Business at Witney and in August it was touring London advertising MCM Worldwide.

 

 
Another change of wrap in 2018 and this time it was advertising Google and is seen in Orpington.

 

     
       

In its latest incarnation it now wrapped for Beazley Insurance and is pictured outside the Lloyds Building, Cornmarket.
As can be seen the roof can be raised, there is a bowler hat on the roof which retracts into the upper deck via a roof hatch,
and an ever changing LED screen on the nearside. At the moment it is on a nationwide tour of the UK

 

Many thanks to Nigel Eadon-Clarke for supplying the Google and Beazley pictures.

Andrew Webb reports on Dartford - part 1

Laying just east of London, with barely a field separating the town from the borough of Bexley, Dartford is a town served by three TfL bus services (96, 428 and 492) which all continue deeper into Kent to serve the large shopping mall at Bluewater.  All three are now operated by Arriva from their garage in the town. 

Arriva used to be the dominant operator on 'country' services in the town, but this has changed in recent years.  The company still has a presence including route 414 to South Darenth which on 21 February was operated by this 20 year old Pointer Dart.

When Arriva withdrew from route 477 linking the town with Orpington it was replaced by 2 operators using the same route number.  Go Coach only work as far as Swanley, generally using Optare Solos.  3902 gets underway from the town's Home Gardens on 21 February Go Ahead London cover the full route and have introduced the Kent Country brand using this attractive green scheme on a fleet of Enviro 200s cascaded from TfL work.  SE201 awaits departure from Home Gardens. 

 

Go Ahead's profile in the area expanded considerably on 10 November 2024 when the company started a 15 year contract to operate Fastrack bus rapid transit network.  Over a year later and the intended Irizar ie Tram buses ordered are operating a greater proportion of services.  IE38 is a typical example, viewed from the footbridge crossing Home Gardens to give a clear view of the rooftop bars which allow opportunity charging at each end of the route.  Issues getting these charging stations operational have limited the number of buses able to run in service.

Graham Low

I was in Plymouth on Monday and saw several new GoAhead London BYDs which are in service with Plymouth Citybus legals. There are quite a number of other buses from other fleets there including Volvos from Go North East. Photos of both are attached.  

You quoted Luke Marion as saying that 4 ADL E100EVs are due here for Oxford Bus Group. Do you know which route(s) they will operate (ST2, 46?)?  Also which route(s) will the Pulhams GB Kites operate? 

The London Bus magazine states that new BYDs are stored in Oxford: do you know where?

Daffodil Valley at Waddesdon Manor by Derek Taylor

 

 
Daffodil Valley at Waddesdon Manor.  


     Fleet News and developments   

Gavin Francis in Uxbridge

 

Nick Ross

Arriva have returned to Leighton Buzzard high street on non market days after a long absence. Hopefully communication from the council of ad hoc High St closures will have improved as the West Street diversion sees peak hour congestion delays and is awful for waiting passengers.


Heres 3207 on an X2 heading towards Luton on Feb 26th 2026.

Gavin Francis in Uxbridge and Wycombe

     



Grahame Wareham

80911 was returned from Carousel on Wednesday and was collected on Thursday by Thorntons for refurbishment for Thames 

Travel. Delivered back from Thorntons was 80977 which I attach an image of, unfortunately the low loader was already leaving with 80911 when I got to Cowley. 

Newly re-registered 80056 for Pierces was being collected and another Kite for Pulhams was being prepared, 80572 to be registered LV75NLM. 

     

Also in the depot was a new Yutong bound for Stagecoach South at Chichester which was receiving a quick charge to enable it to continue its journey from Pelican.

 

Gavin Francis in Uxbridge and Wycombe

 

   

 
Wycombe depot now has its own training bus - 88968.

Charles Powell 

 
The new Citaro inside and out rear.

 

Peter Edgar


Here is a view of Oxford Bus Co 80022, a brand new MB Tourismo with modified branding on the usual base colours.   

Sanjay Baker


80021 works irs first service.

Charles Powell 


Pulhams 26 plate line up on March 7th.

 
including Courtney, Newbury & District & Thames Valley

Kevin Fuller

I popped over to Reading to see their new electric double deckers on Saturday, and enclose a few pics for the newsletter. All pictures taken on 21st February.

   

Martin Dowling

Most of the new electric buses in Reading are painted for routes 17 or 21, but a few have special liveries. 

One of these is number 4 which has a special design to commemorate 125 years of public transport in the town.  It started with Reading Corporation trams, then trolleybuses and motor buses.   

This became Reading Transport when deregulation was forced upon it although the company is run at arms length by the council.  It is all the better for that as it has an ethos of providing services while covering its costs rather than trying to maximise profits. 

I imagine there will be some sort of ceremony on the exact date marking 125 years. 

Peter Edgar

Photo of Reading Buses 4 in its special livery commemorating 125 years of Reading Buses.


Reading Buses 4 at Tilehurst Water Tower, Reading wearing a special livery commemor  ating 125 years of Reading Buses.

     


Robert Homan

Stagecoach West Yutong E12s entered service today (6 March).  73220 and 73221 are shown in the attached on the 41 service to Tewkesbury.

 

Peter Edgar

 
Stagecoach Oxfordshire / OXFORD TUBE 50435 This is the new livery for the Oxford Tube
photographed on its first day in service at Lewknor M40 stop.
Is this an improvement over the old livery, personally I think not.

 


  London operations 

Andrew Webb

The 5th variant of the Air India advert has emerged on the offside (the nearside adverts are all identical) of LT854. 


It is seen at a damp and overcast Trafalgar Square on 28 February. 

nn
A sunny spell later the same day lit on LT589 in Dalston wearing a new wrap for Marc Jacobs Daisy fragrance. 

Resident Evil is a Japanese horror game series and media franchise with the latest in the series released on 27 February. 


The following day LT991 was advertising the game at Hammersmith prior to leaving on route 267 to Fulwell.

Go Ahead's LT896 has received this wrap for online fashion retailer Asos. 


It is seen bound for Penge whilst working service 176 on 7 March. 

Later the same morning this Top View Enviro 400 was heading along Whitehall wearing this promotion for Heidi. 

 
Although eponymous with the 19th century children's character created by Johanna Spyri,
this is a very 21st century AI tool for medical professionals. 


Most definitely aimed at children is the Legoland advert carried by this Airsym Yutong TCe12
which works under contract for Evan Evans. 
It is seen outside the tour operator's Victoria office on 7 March.

 

Andy Millwood

More buses from my trip to Scotland this time in Stirling. This includes a Dundee bus, 2 Bluebird buses, a Stagecoach bus and a Citylink coach.

   
 

John Marsh

A rare opportunity to take some bus pix when I visited Bournemouth University recently.