Editorial
Another busy week from contributors and which yet again I have delayed until Tuesday as I want to take advantage of the good weather to include as many contributions as possible. also sitting at a computer is not entirely easy in such weather.
An interesting contribution this week is from Paul Bateson for Overseas Interlude in which he records the closure of The Toronto Coach Terminal. Opened in 1931 as the Gray Coach Terminal, the Art Deco style structure was the main hub for Gray Coach, an interurban coach service then owned by the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC). It replaced an earlier open air depot, the Union Coach Terminal.
Interior of the Terminal on opening day, December 13th 1931.
The lights may have changed but here is the same location on June 7th 2021,
shortly before the station closed.
The period of the late twenties and then the thirties, a period when Art Deco was popular, a number of public transport buildings aspired to the style in many parts of the world. Victoria Coach Station in London was to the style, designed by Wallis, Gilbert and Partners who also designed the Hoover Building at Perivale. This location has been used in a number of TV series such as Poirot as it fits the period perfectly. Another bus station remembered from my youth was that of Lower Moseley Street Bus Station in Manchester, the home mainly of long distance services, opened in 1928 and closed in 1973. For those interested in this facility you can read all the details at this link:
http://www.lthlibrary.org.uk/library/PDF-014-1.pdf.
Known as The Omnibus Station in early post war years
queues formed at most weekends in summer
with coaches and buses leaving for destinations across the UK including Glasgow,
London and east and west coast locations.
There is a certain style in these facilities being lost in many locations across the globe, even Victoria Coach Station surviving plans to replace it in recent times.
Also Gavin Francis records a visit to Staines-upon-Thames and the variety of operators.
We have several interesting pictures this week for Buses in the Landscape, from four contributors, which I include below.
Ciaran Bird
The X9 currently operated by Pulhams is seen here at Charlbury on June 5th.
Country lanes near Combe in West Oxfordshire host Stagecoach services from
Oxford and Chipping Norton.
Gavin Francis
The M40 between Stokenchurch and Lewknor sees the hourly Carousel service
between Wycombe and Thame on its westbound journey
using the motorway to reach the interchange at junction 6. Citaro 870 is seen
with a working on June 10th.
The Oxford tube also runs along the M40 working the Oxford to London service as
seen on June 10th.
This service calls at Lewknor in both directions with exception of certain
express journeys on weekdays.
Jack Cooper
Thames Travel's X36 service is seen in Station Road, Grove heading for Wantage
on June 11th.
Here is the same bus in Mill Street, Wantage both attractive locations.
Tony Bungay
A photo you may feel worth using, not exactly the
best angle for lighting.
One of Waddesdon Manor’s Wright Streetlite back to working the car park shuttle
after some easing in Covid restrictions.
More a Bus in Parkscape than Landscape! Seen on June 6th.
Well, I am sure readers will agree that the above photographs are easy on the eye and highlight our recent good weather.
Well, now once again we face a continued lock down as June 21st approaches and cases of Delta increase, spreading across more of the country. I now understand Boris will impose a further four weeks which appears to be accepted by 50% but with the other half of the population against ! I do not have any overriding views on the matter but being in lockdown is becoming somewhat part of life, especially for us oldun's !!
Operators are certainly planning things returning to a more normal situation as the poster below shows. One wonders if this may also be postponed?
Stagecoach in Oxfordshire
Go Ahead Oxford Bus news updates
STOP PRESS
Well maybe as expected the lifting of lockdown in England has been delayed until at least July 19th. This was confirmed by Downing Street yesterday afternoon, June 14th.
Fleet news and developments
Gavin Francis
Solo 2492 is seen working a 300 service in Wycombe on June 11th.
The two most recent repaints, 2790 and 3038, seen in Wycombe on June 11th.
An alternative to the Solo is this Wrights 3641 working the 300 in Wycombe on
June 11th.
Gavin Francis
Citaro 64019 is seen with an x74 working in the Eden Bus Station in Wycombe on
June 11th.
Gavin Francis
Citaro 879 seen with a 36 service in Bridge Street,
Wycombe on June 11th.
Gavin was on hand to catch ex Carousel 801 when, as Oxford 962 it was seen in
Stokenchurch with Driver training on June 10th.
801 is seen with The One on April 20th 2015, over 5 years ago!
Nigel Peach
Nigel notes that a StreetLite is unusual at Flackwell Heath where 403 is seen
June 10th.
Jack Cooper
This week has seen some interesting buses working on the ST1/ST2!
On Tuesday 357 ran a trip to Harwell Campus, before being replaced by 454 at
Broad Street.
On Wednesday 976 ran a trip on the ST1, before being replaced by 513 with 976
going onto the ST2 replacing 513.
I had also noticed improved signage for the city5, city13 and connectorX2 at
Oxford Rail Station, a big help for customers as they can clearly see what bus
stop their service leaves from!
352 is seen Oxford highlighting the difference in colour between the Brookes Bus
and 13 colours on June 11th.
An interesting angle on Brookes 371 in New Road on June 11th.
Park & Ride 673 is seen turning into New Road on June 11th with 300 road
working.
684 shows off its summery yellow with an inbound 3 on June 11th.
These blue Citaros are often to be seen on 35 road as above on June 11th and
7th.
Theo Freeman
5 road branded 653 seen in Park End Street on June 11th.
Jack Cooper
Hopefully it will not be long before full airport services are reinstated for
The Airline. 39 seen in Gloucester Green on June 8th.
Jack Cooper
Running under the trees in Mill Street, Wantage 907
is seen with an X36 on June 11th.
Wantage is the setting for 835 loading for a 67 working to Faringdon on
June 11th.
Loaned 244 is seen Wantage with a 38 working on June 11th.
Mark Turner
Mullanys "Harry Potter Bus" HP08BUS in Watford on June 11th.
Re the last issue just a quick note about PC18. It's not unusual to see it on the 801 or for that
matter the 63 in Oxford as well as the 99. This is a spare bus and isn't
allocated to the 99.
As for the pictures of YRF on the 802...have you noticed who the driver is?
YJ14BWH is seen in Charlbury with an X9 working on June 5th.
Gavin Francis
Recently acquired LJ08CZT is in Wycombe working the 28 on June 11th.
with
West
Further new Scanias for West are recorded.
| YT21DVK | Sca N250UD YS2N4X20001918015 | AD L406/8 | H43/28F | 6/2021 | Cheltenham & Gloucester | 15357 |
| YT21DVL | Sca N250UD YS2N4X20001918016 | AD L406/9 | H43/28F | 6/2021 | Cheltenham & Gloucester | 15358 |
| YT21DVM | Sca N250UD YS2N4X20001918017 | AD L406/10 | H43/28F | 6/2021 | Cheltenham & Gloucester | 15359 |
Allan Hollis
Photos where taken at Grayson Thermal Systems on June 8th.
Oxfordshire
As the evening and night time leisure economy is set to reopen, late night services on shared city and Stagecoach routes are returning. Check out the timetables from June 20th here:
Ciaran Bird
MMC 10683 is seen in Bicester with an S5 service on June 10th.
An updated notice at the entrance to Witney depot on June 10th.
MMC 11234 is seen leaving Witney depot and then on a school service with
appropriate destination display on June 10th.
MMC 11243 is seen in and around the JRH with an H2 working on June 10th.
MMC 11253 is seen working down to Headington with an H2 from the JRH on June
10th.
Gold 15830 is seen in Charlbury with an 7 heading for Chilling Norton on June
5th.
Gold 15934 is also seen heading for Chippy on June 9th.
The 7 has been extended to Chippy whereas it only used to work to Woodstock.
Seen in Bicester is 36928 working the 26 and 10683 the S5 on June 10th.
36981 is seen with a JRH to Bicester H5 service on June 10th.
36984 is seen with Bicester local service nr 28 on June 10th.
Jack Cooper
Now returned from Banbury, 10068 is seen working the 1 to Blackbird Leys on June
8th.
Golds 15753 and 15758 are correctly working the S5, as branded, in Oxford on
June 7th.
Theo Freeman
A few from Oxford on June 11th. With the Botley Road being all clogged up it allowed for some unique pictures.
Seen on Park End Street are 11253/44 on S1s and 653 and two MMCs heading to
Blackbird Leys.
AAlso pictured are 10783 on the 700 at the JR.
36982 on the 14. 34618 is also seen in Banbury Bridge Street on June 4th.
Brent Rickards
This bus is now in use at Leamington on a contract and was previously seen in
London.
https://tangytango.proboards.com/thread/7398/electric-buses?page=73
Richard Denny
With reference to Martyn Sacaloff's photo of a 48 branded Gold E200 MMC at Northampton I enclose a couple of shots of other E200 MMCs that are also at Northampton.
26202 seen in Rothersthorpe Avenue on delivery to Northampton near to the depot
on June 6th 2021
and 26205 seen in Harborough Road, Northampton on an X7 from Leicester on June
8th 2021.
TThe nine buses transferred to Northampton are 26202-08 26215 and 26220. Nine E200s have gone the other way including all three of the new local livery which hadn't been long in from Rugby
Ciaran Bird
50429 and 50434 at Thornhill on June 9th. The smaller fleet number on 434 is due
to the fact it was delivered from Plaxtons without a fleet number.
JJack Cooper
Older Astromega 50237 is seen at Gloucester Green pressed into service due to a
lack of Panoramas on June 8th.
London operators
Gavin Francis
I forgot to tell you that TOOT
on the sightseeing buses in London is:-
Michael Wadman
Last October in OCBP 126 you included a photo I took of Routemaster Travel’s YAE 519V, a former Bristol Omnibus Co Bristol LH6L / ECW, operating service 62 in Leighton Buzzard.
Here’s another shot of it, in Tring on September 25th 1997.
I said at the time that Routemaster Travel had indeed had a Routemaster but that unfortunately it had gone by the time that I got to see them. My friend Keith Newton has now sent me two shots of the Routemaster in question, which was former British European Airways NMY 648E, later London Transport RMA11.
These were taken in Leighton
Buzzard in November 1991; and Church Street, Wingrave, at around the same time.
RMA11 had an interesting life after BEA had finished with it. It ran on route 175 for a while, then became an Aldenham staff bus. It later ran for Verwood Transport in Dorset, Routemaster Travel and Green Rover at Watford, then entered preservation for a while before going to Western Greyhound in Cornwall, then back into preservation, and is currently with London Vintage Bus Hire.
So I’ve included a
couple more shots of it, with Verwood Transport in Bournemouth in June 1987
(from Keith Newton),
and with Western Greyhound in Newquay bus station on 23 June 2007.
Leyland National 303 TAE641S in Cheltenham on May 25th 1996.
Leyland National 2
This was taken on April 6th 1996 and the registration did I think also adorn an
ex Oxford tube in Scotland.
City of Gloucester G682AAD MMercedes-Benz
709D PMT on April 6th 1996.
Many thanks to Michael for another weekly contribution.
Paul Bateson reports on the end of an era in Toronto
The Toronto Coach Terminal opened in 1931 and has
generally speaking retained the same layout for 90 years.
It is located at 610, Bay Street in the
downtown area of the city.
Coaches enter from Elizabeth Street and there
are ten bays for departures throughout Southern Ontario, across Canada and into
the USA.
Coaches exit left on to Edward Street.
The three major companies operating out of the
terminal are Greyhound Canada, Trentway-Wagar operating as Coach Canada and
Megabus.com and Ontario Northland.
The situation has changed substantially as a result
of COVID-19.
In May 2020, Greyhound Canada suspended all
services and the other companies reduced its services due to the lack of
passengers and travel restrictions.
In May 2021, Greyhound Canada announced that it would
be closing and its services would not be resuming.
This affected routes to London, Windsor,
Niagara Falls and Ottawa.
This decision brought an end to Greyhound
Canada.
A new commuter bus
terminal known as the Union Station Bus Terminal, located at Lakeshore and Bay
and built for Metrolinx, operators of GO Transit, opened on 5th
December
2020.
Megabus.com operates the Toronto to Montreal route
plus a new route to Ottawa replacing Greyhound.
It reached
agreement with Metrolinx to transfer its services to the new Union Station Bus
Terminal effective 8th
June 2021.
This left just Ontario Northland serving the
Toronto Coach Terminal and it was inevitable that the company would vacate the
terminal.
Its final
departures for Northern Ontario on 26th
June 2021 are at 0900, 1100 and 2015 to Sudbury and 0900 and 2330 to North Bay
and effective 27th
June 2021 its services will transfer to the new Union Station Bus Terminal.
This is the end of an iconic structure which I
understand has a heritage designation.
It will be interesting to see what happens to
the building as it must be located on very valuable land.
Could the bus bays be demolished, replaced by
condominiums but retaining the façade and waiting room area converted to a grand
entrance area to new buildings?
This thought is a purely personal thought on
what could happen!
The photographs show the atmosphere of the Toronto Coach Terminal on the final
day of megabus.com services on June 7th
22021.
Ontario
Northland heading for Sudbury.span style="mso-spacerun:yes" Fleet
numbers B5606 and B5605 are seen on Edward Street
having departed the Toronto
Coach Terminal on the 11:00 am departure for Sudbury.
Van Hool
DD42888 is seen parked inside the Toronto Coach Terminal preparing to depart at
1.00 pm for Montreal.
It is seen
after heading out on to Edward Street.
TTC route
6 on Bay Street had to detour onto Edward Street due to a road closure for
construction.
This gave a number of
photographic opportunities showing Novabus LFS buses in the old and new
liveries.
The main terminal building in 2021.
The spacious loading area in Edward Street.
The entrance and general view of the departure area.
Interior views of this grand building. megabus dominates the scene.
It is hoped that this stained glass window will be
preserved being a major feature of this coach terminal.
The arrivals area of the terminal, looking somewhat
forlorn as so few services remain.
Photographs by PAUL BATESON
To read more follow this link : http://spacing.ca/toronto/2009/02/26/opening-day-at-the-toronto-coach-terminal/
I would like to thak Paul for these notes and pictures and hope readers enjoy this subject ?
Gavin Francis
Mike Walker sent me this. If you think the traffic is bad at the moment what will happen if they rebuild Botley Road Bridge and lower the road ???
Note the location of a revised bus interchange in the new layout.
Here’s the link to the NR website
https://www.networkrail.co.uk/news/boost-to-oxford-rail-travel-following-69m-funding-confirmation/
James Freeman
A flickr video of two Oxford City Sightseeing open top buses going back to Cowley House.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/d1661trains/51236255189/in/datetaken/
Malcolm Crowe
For those who wondered about Laser Printers, this video is worth watching and makes one wonder how long it will be before someone prints his own model bus or coach?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrqYbPu7KqE
I found this quite fascinating.
Tony Bungay
Looking at your news page, you certainly seem to be busy. Good selection of
photos from your contributors giving a good overall view of things.
The other photo you may use, but I only really included it to illustrate my
comment
! Interesting to hear of proposed X16 Service, however my first thought was
haven’t we been here twice before! The picture of the Red Rose Plaxton President
was taken in April 2015 and I am fairly certain a picture (not by me) appeared
on your news page. As the side of the Bus shows a Service operated every 2 hours
7 days a week. Eventually however despite this enterprising attempt it was
withdrawn due to insufficient patronage. Before this Arriva themselves operated
a short lived Saturday and Sunday only Service, again I think on a 2 hour
headway.
IInteresting observation by your contributor regarding the 9 vs 10 Bus war. It is
certainly correct that virtually any vehicle can appear on the 9. On one
observation I made Red Rose did rather better on 1 journey with 5 passengers as
opposed to the following Arriva Solo with 1. On this particular occasion on the
Walton Court part of the route a Redline 11 also appeared which ultimately too
goes to the town centre via a different route. As I commented to you before this
situation looks to be a case of which company blinks first. Of course
observations only show what the situation is at that particular point in the
route and also does not reveal whether those travelling are using a pass or
paying full fare.
Prior to this competitive situation the 9 was fairly well used whereas the 8/50 recently withdrawn by Arriva had outside peak journeys seen less passenger usage and most of them from observations were clearly using their pass. This was probably the reason that Arriva combined the two to try and make one reasonable route. Another factor also much of the 8 operated through some very affluent areas and at one time fairly regular usage by RAF personnel had also decreased.
Gavin Francis makes an outing to Staines
It is not until someone goes there that one realises how interesting a place can be. Gavin went to Staines-upon-Thames on June 9th and noted the variety of vehicles and operators. Also a bus which has worked in Oxford was caught.
Abellio 8811 with the 290 in Staines Bus Station, this route once a trunk route
with London Transport.
Bear Buses LDP183 operate through Staines Bus Station with this ex Go Ahead
London Dart.
Carlone is another small operator using these Mercedes buses on the 442.
Which one worked in Oxford?
Three of the StreetLites used by Rotala around Staines and Heathrow.
Falcon Buses has a variety of E200 buses which provide local services.
First Berkshire comes through Staines on service from Slough to Heathrow the
service providing much variety.
London United also serves Staines with a number of services inherited from
London Country. The 441 used to go to High Wycombe.
Metroline runs the 117 through Staines giving further variety.
This bus was used as a Hotel Hoppa by National Express, not sure what route it
is now serving.
An E200 working the 570 in Staines. The company is located at Brooklands.
https://www.reptonscoaches.com/
Sullivan's are much involved in a service to Thorpe Park and their green livery
harks back to Green Line days.
white bus have a very tidy modern fleet of E200s which must
create a good impression locally.
white bus are an old established operator now celebrating 100 years of service
as seen on one the buses above.
Bill Brown with pictures from Dundee
Moffatt & Williamson operate two ex megabus Astromegas in East Scotland,
CN61FBB and CN61FBD on June 10th.
E400 10005 is seen working a 59 service to Blairgowrie on June 10th.
Solo SR 47948 asking customers to use face coverings on June 10th.