From the Editor

An interesting issue which I have enjoyed compiling. I take this opportunity to announce that Gavin Francis has become Deputy Editor and I welcome tiis development by including some of the content prepared by him..

Gavin has contributed from the early days of the Page and has excellent local knowledge.

One point I wish to emphasise is the lack of information about our local operators. I hope for the future that this improves.

In this issue

LBM 213 Running Day by Gavin Francis

A Pictureview from Windsor by John Marsh

Gavin Francis visited MK & Buckingham

COMS 394 from Grahame Wareham

London Wrapped Buses by Gavin Francis

New OBC route to Waterperry by Graham Low

Readers Write

Fleet News & Developments

London Operations by Andrew Webb

Tony Bungay was in The Peak District

 

Route 213/293 Running Day Saturday 13^th June 2026
Route 213 Heritage Day - London Bus Museum

 

 

Last Saturday The London Bus Museum held one of its very popular Running Days, this time Rte 213 between Kingston Fairfield Road Bus Station and Sutton Garage and Rte 293 between Epsom and North Cheam

 

As with previous similar events most of the buses were running with full loads but a problem which has occurred in many similar events with heavy traffic made it difficult for schedules to be maintained.

 

Nigel Eadon-Clarke and myself attended the event and between us managed to get a picture of most of the over 30 buses which attended.

 

     
     
     
 

 

Pictures below by Gavin Francis

 

The pictures are taken in Kingston, along the 213 route and at Sutton Garage and also Epsom for the Rte 293 pictures.

     
     
     
     
 

 

From Heathrow SL7 but bus only has blinds for X26 as it is not normally used on this route.

John Marsh Pictureview on a quarter hour in Windsor

     
     

A Morning in Milton Keynes & Buckingham with Gavin Francis
Thursday, June 18th 2026

 

 

Looking back through my records I noticed the last time I was in Milton Keynes was 2 years ago so I thought I was due another visit there.

 

Arriva

 

The main operator in the Milton Keynes is still Arriva with a fleet made up mainly of Streetdecks, E400s and the occasional Solo.

 

   
 New routes since my last visit are the X1, X2 and X3 operated by EvoRa/Volvo buses all routes going to Luton Airport. \

Buses shown are 3214, 3968 and 3975. Not the guide wheels by the front wheels of 3214 for use on the Luton Busway.

 

   
Another new route is just called ‘The Loop’ and Solo 2408 has been painted in a special livery to publicise the route.

 

Arriva are introducing a new livery for their buses, it is darker than was previously used and is shown here by 3320 freshly out of the paint shops.

 

   
By contrast some of Arriva’s fleet is in very poor body condition as is shown by E400 4432 and Wright/Volvo 3768

 

The old Sapphire livery lives on in the form of 3821 

 

 

E400 still wears Pride stripes

 

Stagecoach

 

 
Bedford’s MMC 10803 on the X5. I noticed in the scrolling route blinds on the Stagecoach buses were the words ‘This bus is a safe place’.

 

Fleet Number 15211 on Rte MK1 showing its Guide Wheels just in front of the front wheels presumably for use on the Cambridge Guided Busway.

 

There are still Gold liveried buses in the fleet as shown by 15937 arriving on the X6 not to be confused with Arriva X6 which stops nearby.

 

UNO

 

   
Uno operate 2 routes into the town, WS 59 and WS 60 operating the C10 and 8301 operating the C1.

 

Grant Palmer

 

 
Grant Palmer operate Rte 34 to Ampthill Heights and today it was the home of 213 and 238

 

 Z&S

 

Z&S operate local Rte 51 and today it was the turn of E200 MX62GNJ

 

Red Rose

 

 
Red Rose Rte 100 runs between Aylesbury and Milton Keynes and is now the home of recently delivered EvoRa’s BU26WTV and BU26WTW which encourages England in The World Cup.

 

Red Rose also run Rte 21 to Olney operated today by Croxley Park green livered YX18KOW.

 

Also of interest was this little robot which presumably was making deliveries in the area.
It stopped at curbsides, checked there was no traffic, dodged any obstructions on the paths and waited for pedestrians to pass.

 

On the way home I decided to stop in Buckingham, I have never stopped here, only passing through on an X5 coach a few years ago. Because of the narrow streets in the centre buses enter and leave the town on the same road irrespective of their direction of travel. There is basically only one bus stop located on an island in The High Street and serves buses in both directions.

 

 Buckingham

 

Arriva

 

   
Arriva’s X6 runs from Milton Keynes to Aylesbury.

 

Stagecoach

 

 
Stagecoach 19593 and 10874 on the X5 contrast models and liveries

 

Red Rose

 

       
Red Rose operate a number of local routes and MX63XAC is shown on the Rte B2.
They also operate Rte X60 to Aylesbury and new E200’s YX26KHW and YX26KHZ are ready for their return trips.

 

 

Langston and Tasker

 

   
Another small operator in the town is Langston and Tasker who operate Rte 18 to Bicester using this little E200.
They have been operating this route for many years as shown by KU52YKD in Market Square, Bicester on 10^th June 2013
and YX61 FZJ in Pioneer Square on 29^th July 2020. 

 COMS 394 by Grahame Wareham

H394  OFC394 1949 AEC Regent III 9612A with Weymann H30/26R high-bridge body.  From new H394 was allocated to Oxford depot spending its entire

     

COMS operational life there. In 1952 H394 was renumbered to H893. H893 was sold to Fleet Car Sales (dealer), Dunchurch in December1961 passing to Porthcawl Omnibus Company in August 1962 and was operated until November 1970 when it was sold to H.Way & Sons (dealer), Cardiff Docks for scrap. It remained there until at least February 1984 when it was sold to T.Wigley & Son (dealer), Carlton where it was scrapped along with many ex. Cardiff trolleybuses that had lain at Way's for over a decade.

     
     

394 MJO394H 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. 394 was allocated to Cowley depot ifor the whole of its COMS life. 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.394 lasted in the COMS fleet until September 1982 when it was to Ensign Bus (dealer), Purfleet and sold on to Contractus, Stevenage in April 1982, it then passed to Jubilee Coaches, Stevenage in August 1984, It was later sold on to Pye, Worthen, Salop in August 1988 and later presumed scrapped.

London Wrapped buses update 15^th June 2026

 

 

After a relatively quiet period the number of buses wrapped in London seems to be on the increase again.

 

   
Transport for London are running a promotion on a Saturday and Sunday from late July to 31^st August called Weekend Hopper.
To promote this 3 of First’s buses have been wrapped. BCE 47161 is at Sainsbury's in Ladbroke Grove, BCE 47096 at Acton Green and OME 46023 on Ladbroke Grove.

 
Another wrap also on Rte 94 was BCE 47011 advertising Reef Sandals.

 

     
At Marble Arch on Rte 137 LT 717 was promoting Starbucks, LT 957 Stowford Press, LT 497 GE Aerospace and LT 809 promoting Skechers Shoes on Rte 190

 

    
According to LOTS the Emirates Airlines is the largest wrap promotion ever done on London buses with 81 done over the past 2 years.
LT 957 is on Rte 137, LT 85 on Rte 148 at Marble Arch and LT 42 is at Victoria Station. Out of the 1000 New Routemasters built 770 of them have been wrapped.

 

LT 630 passes along Vauxhall Bridge Road on Rte 24 advertising Huda Beauty

 

Quite a large number of Sightseeing buses have been wrapped and currently Top View SN12EGZ advertises Sunglass Hut.

 

For many years Golden Tours have operated Harry Potter wrapped buses between London and Leavesden Studios
in fact we now see some of them in the area operating for Redline Buses.
This one is wrapped similar to the Golden Tours Buses but is part of the Evan Evans programme and is operated by Cityfleet Network of Hayes.

New route to Waterperry by Graham Low

Oxford Bus' new route WP1 Thornhill P & R to Waterperry Gardens (summer weekends and bank holidays) has just begun and new 80501 was running it today. These views were taken at Waterperry Gardens, where an excellent cheese scone enhanced my visit! The poster/timetable outside the cafe shows a left hand drive bus of unknown type on the route!