OXFORD city centre was declared a Low Emission
Zone, a week or so ago, in an effort to combat
pollution. The move will mean only buses meeting
strict European standards will be able to
operate in central Oxford. However the tough
restrictions will not apply to lorries, vans
or other vehicles.
Local bus firms will be given a 2013 deadline to
ensure their fleets comply.
Oxford City Council has decided it would be too
costly and difficult to enforce a ban on all
“dirty” vehicles in the city, arguing buses and
coaches were responsible for about 80 per cent
of pollution in Oxford.
Oxfordshire County Council is expected to
endorse the city’s plans to create one of the
first Low Emission Zones outside London after
councillors were told levels of nitrogen dioxide
in parts of Oxford city centre now far exceed
national air quality standards.
But bus companies last night warned the measures
could force them to scrap scores of
comparatively new buses – resulting in higher
fares for passengers.
John Tanner, the city council’s executive member
for a cleaner, greener Oxford, said:
“This will lead to an improvement in air quality
across Oxford. Declaring the city a Low Emission
Zone will allow us to set standards and time
scales. It is about time all the companies with
buses going through the city centre pulled their
weight. The LEZ will make sure they do.”
Stagecoach Managing Director Martin
Sutton said:
“We support efforts to bring about a cleaner
city ut what is being proposed will entail the
early scrapping of a large number of buses. It
raises the question why the proposals do not
cover other forms of transport. A
disproportionate amount of the costs will
potentially fall on bus passengers.”
A
spokesman for Oxford Bus Company, which
already has 42 buses, a third of its fleet,
which meet the new standard, said:
“We look forward to working with the council to
achieve a deliverable LEZ in Oxford city
centre.”
The plans will neither significantly reduce
emissions nor will they affect any particular
City zone.
Consider this:
-
The plans apply only to public service buses
and coaches (not vans, minibuses, lorries,
cars etc.)
-
No enforcement zone is defined - but if the
Westgate plans go ahead then there will be
more buses, and hence higher pollution
levels, in the City Centre.
-
The LEZ only requires the bus companies to
meet the Euro V emission standard -
something that they are working towards
anyway. From this year all new buses will
have to meet Euro V anyway!
-
The LEZ will not take effect before December
31st 2013!
The Oxford Bus Company fleet is already 25% Euro
V and has some buses with even lower emissions.
They are planning to upgrade all their fleet to
Euro V or better by 2014 anyway.
The papers relating to the
LEZ can be found at:
http://www.oxford.gov.uk/files/meetingdocs/82179/item%2013.pdf
The report admits that:
"Levels of nitrogen dioxide in parts of Oxford
city centre exceed national air quality
objectives. In response to this, an Air Quality
Management Area (AQMA) was designated in
September 2001 covering part of the city
centre."
I
understand that there will be a public meeting
on April 23rd when this will be discussed and I
intend to attend this meeting and report back to
readers.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Megabusplus is launched
Stagecoach Group Chief Executive Brian Souter has launched
Britain’s first budget coach-rail service a week last Thursday
in an event at London St Pancras station. The new, innovative
budget coach and rail service will to help hard-pressed
consumers beat the credit crunch, says Stagecoach.
Called Megabusplus.com,
it will offers fares from £1, plus 50p booking fee, and the
first services started running from Monday (30 March). The new
brand and services are in addition to the existing Megabus.com
and Megatrain.com operations.
The fast, integrated journey will be by comfortable coach and
high-quality train, provided by Stagecoach-owned East Midlands
Trains, running in and out of St Pancras.
Initially three coach links - Hull-Scunthorpe-Doncaster;
Harrogate-York-Castleford and Huddersfield-Halifax-Bradford -
run on weekdays with two services each. All coaches run direct
to/from the newly-opened East Midlands Parkway station (near the
M1, J24, at Castle Donington) where they connect with two trains
(one morning, one afternoon) trains for the journey to/from
London. A similar northbound service operates.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Travel Line website by
Nigel McBride
"As ever, I was very interested to read this week's
update to the Oxford & Chilterns Bus Page.
For someone from the Midlands, it
always makes very interesting reading - indeed your
account of your trip to Land's End by bus last year was
one of the most enjoyable pieces of writing about buses
I have come across in a long time.
My reason for writing is your reference to the Traveline
website in the last two issues - and the importance of
realising its 'regional' basis.
However, as you may have noticed, during the last few
days the Traveline East Midlands and East Anglia regions
have been upgraded to use the same system as the South
East - and each seems to contain all the data for the
other two. As a result, you can quite happily use
Traveline South East for a trip from Glossop to Buxton
or Traveline East Midlands for one from Margate to
Broadstairs.
One thing I particularly like about this version of
Traveline is the ability to search on timetables either
by Operator or Town/Village. So if you want to know
which services are operated by, say, Red Rose Travel or
what routes serve Chipping Norton, the answers come up
instantly with timetables and maps readily accessible. I
particularly like the 'zoom and pan' route maps -
although the routing is sometimes a bit suspect!
As you say, its excellent for planning days out and
arguably makes up for the lack of bus timetables in some
areas.
Anyway, keep up the good work !"
Nigel, thank you, comments such as those above do make
the effort of publishing the OCBP very worthwhile.
As you say, one must be aware of the regional nature of
the site. This means that users must realise where the
places they are visiting are located in the scheme of
things. However Transport direct.info is a most useful
tool except that as far as I can see one cannot select
only bus travel. however a pleasant time can be spent
planning various journeys.
http://www.transportdirect.info/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Luton Town FC Success by Carl
Carl writes
"Please find enclosed some pictures from my trip to Luton,
and to Wembley where we eventually won 3-2 in the Johnston’s
Paint Trophy final!
First picture is at Gloucester bus station, was on the 413
to London, second photo was the same coach at Victoria. We
arrived 10 minutes early, despite the fact we pulled over on
the M4 by Basingstoke to pick up passengers from a failed
Irizar Century on the 040 service to London.
The third picture is of my Greenline coach which had to park
at the Arriva stop due to there being a load of Greenline
coaches there already.
I informed you a few weeks ago about the coaches/buses being
laid on for Luton fans to Wembley. I have included 3
pictures of these coaches parked up. I saw at least 6
Greenline coaches (4 Luton, 2 Stevenage based), various
coaches from Marshalls, Three Star Coaches and there were a
couple of Travel London Tridents/ALX400's there too doing
the collections in the Bedford/Westoning/Flitwick area. I
also saw various single deck yellow buses, don’t know the
operator but they were all on 58 plates with Come on You
Hatters on the destination board, and LTFC on the side and
rear.
Wembley Stadium coach park.
Overall, it was a very enjoyable day, made even better by
the club winning at the best stadium in the country."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Where are they
now? A big surprise from Chris Maxfield
Malta provided
some surprises for Chris Maxfield on a recent visit. I am sure
he never expected to find ex Oxford double deckers being
prepared for service on the island.
Oxford Bus had a
batch of five Olympians (225-229) delivered in white and used on
Park & Ride services in the city from 1988 until the end of the
'90s when they were transferred to the then subsidiary Wycombe
Bus Company. The five, which had been dual door when at Oxford
were then converted to single door and spent a number of years
trundling around Wycombe, one even gaining pseudo Thames Valley
livery (229). Interestingly 225, 228 and 229 were last recorded
with Arriva Southern Counties as 5829, 5881 and 5882 (229, 225,
228) based at Southend. 227, latterly at Wycombe is now with
Woottens, more of which in the fleet news page and 226 has been
scrapped. One wonders where 228 (Arriva SC 5882) is now?
So imagine the
surprise Chris must had experienced, when on his recent visit to
Malta, he found 225 and 229 under conversion to open top in a
workshop on the island.
The first picture shows 225 and the second 229 where the red Thames Valley
livery is showing through.
Pictures by Chris Maxfield.
The second surprise for Chris was
a VR but not any Bristol VR! In 1973 the then City of Oxford Motor Services
purchased nine Bristol VRTSL2 chassis fitted with Eastern Coachworks CH41/27F
bodywork. These were delivered in dual purpose poppy red and white NBC livery
and were intended for use on the London services. Indeed they did work on these
routes from time to time and when the split between Oxford and South Midland
came in July 1984, 106 found itself transferred to the new company. It was
converted to open top in June 1986 and left the fleet in 1987 to a new life in
Bath. Now it has resurfaced in Malta where a great deal of work is being done to
give it another life on the island.
Pictures by Chris Maxfield.
I expect many of you
will have pictures of these buses during their various lives and I look forward
to receiving some.
Review of new National
Coaches handbook
http://gb-bg.co.uk/
I received the latest
National coaches handbook for review and can commend it fully to my readers.
I found the content
most useful as it does include Scottish Citylink, Megabus and the Shearings
Group in addition to the expect listing of all National Express operators. Also
of great use was the full details of the National Express timetables with
information on operators of each service.
Another useful feature
was the inclusion of chassis and body numbers by registration as well as the
index of registration, operator and fleet number for ease of locating a
particular vehicle.
Priced at £11.00 I felt
this was a reasonable price for a book full of up to date information and which
also had the advantage of being ring bound for ease of use.
The web site above will
take you to the order line for this publication.
Woottens celebrates
its 10th anniversary
April 13th was a red
letter day for Woottens Coaches of Chesham. It was on Tuesday 13th April
that Michael Wootten launched his new venture and he writes to say
"It
all started with just two vehicles, W1 (UIB 4752 Leyland Tiger / Duple Laser 2)
and W2 (SJI 8101 Volvo B10M / Jonckheere). We were based in Princes Risborough
and moved to Chesham in August 1999. A great deal has changed since then and
we've been very fortunate to have had the support of our many customers, staff
and friends. We are all looking forward to the next ten years!"
http://michael-wootten.fotopic.net/
During the
following ten years the company has grown and a major step was
the opportunity to move from Princes Risborough to Chesham in
November 1999 when the company took over the
the Coach Yard, Lycrome
Road. formerly the home of Rover Luxury Travel owned by the Dell
family.
Operations Director, Michael Wootten,
said at the time that his firm had built its trade on school
contracts, private hire and day excursions.
"We are interested in providing a quality
service," he said. "All of my life I have been interested in
the coach business and I was an admirer of Rover for many
years."
"When John Dell, the owner of Rover Luxury Travel, decided to
retire, we spotted there was a gap in the market, so moving here
really is a bit of a dream come true."
A development of
some significance was in 2006 when the company
invested in seven new Volvo B12B / Plaxton Panthers
and one Volvo B7R / Plaxton Profile
for delivery in April of that year.
This was a major investment for the company which was only 7
years old at the time and these coaches continue to provide the
front line service for this developing company.
Eight Volvos newly delivered in 2006
Growth
continued and another significant step forward took place in
April 2007 when
after over 17 years of successful trading,
the owners of High Wycombe-based Westways Coaches decided
to retire. Woottens were delighted to acquire the business
interests of this respected High Wycombe coach operator. This
included the popular day excursions & holiday programme.
Not content with
the level of development, significant though it had been
Woottens moved forward once again with the introduction of a new
bus service, Tiger Line, which was launched in June 2008
when Woottens
announced the new local bus division called Tiger
Line.
The Tiger Line
brand is applied to a number of vehicles, which are involved in
the provision of new local bus services. In conjunction with the
launch of Tiger Line the launch of Tiger Line’s first local bus
service was announced.
Tiger Line T1 was
launched on Monday the 28th July 2008 and links Aylesbury to
Hemel Hempstead via Stoke Mandeville, Wendover, Great Missenden
and Chesham. Utilising a fleet of dual purpose buses and a team
of dedicated drivers, the service is designed to meet the needs
of local people travelling across North East Bucks providing new
links in areas where public transport has been absent for many
years.
From it early days
and after an increased service to cater for peak hour users
proved less than satisfactory, the service has now settled down
to a Monday-Friday schedule leaving both termini at the same
times, making it easy to remember service details. These changes
were implemented in April 2009
The vehicles used
offer new levels of comfort to passengers, with improved leg
room, coach style seats, seatbelts, panoramic windows and
natural ventilation. Working in conjunction with Buckinghamshire
County Council Tiger Line T1 is included in the county’s new
real time passenger information system, providing both web based
and SMS information.
A further
development in April 2009 is the gaining of a new contract to
provide services as mentioned in the schedule hereunder on the
321 Princes Risboro - High Wycombe route which will bring an old
friend into the Eden Bus Station in High Wycombe. This will be
Leyland Olympian E227CFC. This bus is presently away for some
refurbishment work and will be ready for the start of the new
service on 20th April 2009.
|
Service 106 & 321 Timetable
Longwick - Princes Risborough - High Wycombe |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Sch |
Sch |
NSch |
| |
|
|
Nwed |
Wed |
|
| |
106 |
106 |
321 |
321 |
321 |
|
Longwick, Walkers Road |
|
09.00 |
|
|
|
|
Monks Risborough, Place Farm Way |
|
09.05 |
|
|
|
|
Princes Risborough, The Avenue |
|
09.09 |
|
|
|
|
Princes Risborough, Woodfield Road |
|
09.12 |
|
|
|
|
Princes Risborough, Market Square |
07.30 |
09.17 |
15.05 |
16.05 |
15.05 |
|
Princes Risborough School, Arrive |
|
|
15.07 |
16.07 |
|
|
Princes Risborough School, Depart |
|
|
15.15 |
16.15 |
|
|
Saunderton, The Rose & Crown |
07.35 |
09.22 |
15.20 |
16.20 |
15.10 |
|
Bradenham, The Red Lion |
07.39 |
09.27 |
15.24 |
16.24 |
15.14 |
|
West Wycombe Road/Beechwood Road |
07.42 |
09.32 |
15.27 |
16.27 |
15.17 |
|
West Wycombe Road, Downley Turn |
07.45 |
09.36 |
15.30 |
16.30 |
15.20 |
|
High Wycombe, The Pastures |
|
|
|
|
|
|
West Wycombe Road/Desborough Park Road |
07.47 |
09.39 |
15.32 |
16.32 |
15.22 |
|
High Wycombe, Bus Station |
07.50 |
09.45 |
15.37 |
16.37 |
15.27 |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Sch |
NSch |
|
|
|
| |
321 |
321 |
106 |
|
|
|
High Wycombe, Bus Station |
08.00 |
08.00 |
14.30 |
|
|
|
West Wycombe Road/Desborough Park Road |
08.03 |
08.03 |
14.33 |
|
|
|
High Wycombe, The Pastures |
|
|
|
|
|
|
West Wycombe Road, Downley Turn |
08.07 |
08.07 |
14.37 |
|
|
|
West Wycombe Road/Beechwood Road |
08.11 |
08.11 |
14.41 |
|
|
|
Bradenham, The Red Lion |
08.15 |
08.15 |
14.45 |
|
|
|
Saunderton, The Rose & Crown |
08.20 |
08.20 |
14.50 |
|
|
|
Princes Risborough School, Arrive |
08.25 |
|
|
|
|
|
Princes Risborough School, Depart |
08.30 |
|
|
|
|
|
Princes Risborough, Market Square |
08.35 |
08.25 |
14.55 |
|
|
|
Princes Risborough, Woodfield Road |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Princes Risborough, The Avenue |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Monks Risborough, Place Farm Way |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Longwick, Walkers Road |
|
|
|
|
|
This year of the
tenth anniversary saw another development in the introduction of
a refreshed livery and a picture of Volvo
B10M /
Plaxton Premiere W38 HSV 673 (R551 TKV), which has returned from
refurbishment and is the first coach in the revised Woottens
livery.
Ex-Stagecoach East Scotland Leyland Tiger / Alexander TE PES
463Y (BMS 512Y)
has been refurbished to become W63. This ex-Alexander Midland
Leyland Tiger
was previously with Strathtay and has been fitted with 3+2
seating &
seatbelts. The vehicle is now in a yellow 'School Coach' livery
for its new role.
Now Woottens,
especially Michael, are looking forward to the next ten years.
For more information you can refer to the company's excellent
web site which includes a full fleet list and many pictures.
http://www.coach4hire.co.uk/
Trip to Oxford by Stephen Le Bras.
Today, I took the train from Windsor to Oxford via Slough. It
was a difficult day for photography as the sun when out was in
the wrong place. However, the sun went behind a cloud and I did
get some good results.
Route 7 to Kidlington produced 22761-70. However, it is the
every day situations which interest me e.g.
:
1. The Stagecoach controller going over to tell a driver on
route 3 to change his blind from N3 to 3.
2. A Stagecoach banksman at Gloucester Green stopping to remind
the driver of London bound 50120 of the marches in London and
"just be vigilant".
3. When I arrived at GG, a sludge gulper (as we used to call
them) turned up. I moved back to the road junction but the
driver was not about to clear a gully and left fairly soon.
In the coach park, I found the Belarus based Cityliner which had
been in Windsor the day before.
Geoff Cunliffe visits Oxford
For the first time in over six months, Margaret and I returned
to Oxford on Wednesday 1st. April. We came in, as has
become our custom, from Water Eaton on the 11am service in green
Citaro 824. It is a surprisingly long ride (11.15 by the time we
reached Debenhams) and, as we picked up a pram (with driver!) at
Summertown, we experienced the kneeling capabilities of the
Citaro chassis. Why didn’t we use the bus lane on the Banbury
Road?
Some things don’t change and it was nice to see that at least
one of the Thames Transit Enviro 200s, 157 OU57FHA, is still in
Oxford Science Park livery featuring parts of the Periodic
Table. It appeals to a one-time chemist! Also the Oxford
Tramways historic liveried Wright Renown bodied Volvo B10BLE 817
is still so presented, although some of its freshness seemed to
have faded somewhat.
But there were new things - I seemed to have somehow missed the
Arriva Enviro 400s on the 280 to Aylesbury. They are extremely
smart.
Then there are the Contravision catastrophes, Stagecoach
22932/3, S932/3 CFC. I suppose there are some attractive
Contravision schemes but these, for Southern Electric extolling
their Making More Energy from Wind and Water, don’t come into
that category
Stagecoach’s 1998 ALX300-bodied MAN 22932 in Castle Street.
On the other hand, sister vehicle fleet liveried 22930 looked
very smart leaving Queen Street for Wantage on the X30
Stagecoach 22930 at Carfax
The traffic problems in the centre of the city seem to be as bad
as ever. It is true that there seem to be slightly fewer
cyclists riding down Queen Street - has somewhat had a long
overdue purge? - but plenty still do,- in both directions.
Similarly, nothing appears to have been done to stop white van
man parking wherever he wishes with a total disregard to the
inconvenience caused.
Standing at Carfax watching the world go by, it seems hard to
believe the Neoplan Tubes are five years old and Stagecoach must
be
considering replacements. True it is a pretty old design, but
they are immaculately presented. No doubt they are high mileage
and I understand the gearboxes have not been too satisfactory.
Why do the Stagecoach Enviro 300s not have the model
identification on their rear panels? 200s and 400s do. Is it a
Stagecoach special feature?
Rear of new Stagecoach Enviro 300 bodied MAN 22771 with no model
identification below the owner’s vinyl.
We had a ride out to Thornhill to see the new(ish) facilities
there. It was a day when there were severe delays on the A40 and
I was glad we’d used Water Eaton rather than Pear Tree. However
that couldn’t have been the cause for the 400 to be
significantly disrupted. We had a long wait for a vehicle
running eastwards and then were delayed by the roadworks at
Headington. The new Thornhill looked impressive but that is not
to say that people who use it find it so. Perhaps I am just
cynical of planners! The return journey ran straight through the
roadworks, but the 400 service generally still seemed to be
erratic some hours afterwards.
I was due to rendezvous with our Editor for the 4.20pm departure
on the 737 for Stansted. Unfortunately he was late getting to
The Green due to a stuck heater causing its own version of a
greenhouse effect! Nonetheless, when he arrived, he loaded the
baggage (how about a weight limit like some councils impose on
Wheelie Bins?), sorted our an incorrect advance booking and
departed just twenty minutes late.
The 4.20pm 737 departure for Stansted Airport, National Express
liveried 59213, a Caetano Levante bodied Scania, leaving
Gloucester Green, driven by our Editor.
Then it was back to Water Eaton with only a short delay at the
Banbury Road roundabout on the A40. Would this have been the
last time I could see buses running through Queen Street? We’ll
have to wait and see.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Answer to a recent question from
John
Hammond.
The answer was
included in the historical section in the last issue but in case
readers missed this, I am including it below.
From Steve Annells on the stop "City Vicar"
"As one who
grew up in Drayton (albeit the Newtown end), I can throw
some limited light on the City Vicar bus stop. It's named
after a house in Steventon Road, which was named 'Citivica'
by its owner. I have heard an explanation of the name which
with a bit of research on Google has proven to be completely
false.
The stop
has been named 'City Vicar' for at least forty years,
probably more, but you'd have to be local and of a certain
age to use that name for it. In the same way, I don't know
how many people who live at the north end of Drayton would
still refer to it as Newtown, since it's over fifty years
since it was the new end of the village."
Pictureview & seen in Oxford
Andrew Morgan sent this picture of a Citaro bendi bus on tow by Liverpool
St in London.
I had not seen this operator
before whose coach passed through Stansted last week. M Crowe.
Hamilton Coaches of Uxbridge are often used on National Express work but on this
occasion this Jonckheere Volvo was on a private job at Stansted.
The livery is interesting as each coach is white, useful when resale time comes
along but each rear is a different colour. M Crowe.
Lewis of Greenwich were pictured
in a recent issue with ex Cambridge Coach/NEx V324 at Luton. They also have V325
as seen at Stansted last week.
This is re-registered LEW15 W. This coach often used to pass through Wycombe to
Oxford on the 75, later 757 and now 737 service.
Picture by Malcolm Crowe.
Latest additions to the London Big Bus fleet. Pictures by Gavin Francis.
Now that is a big bus, sorry coach. A double deck Setra seen in Oxpens coach
park by Gavin Francis.
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Issue 14th April 2009
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