The page for enthusiasts in the Oxford Chilterns Area - News from you and news for you - pictures too  ~~~~   The page for enthusiasts in the Oxford Chilterns Area - News from you and news for you - pictures too  ~~~~   The page for enthusiasts in the Oxford Chilterns Area - News from you and news for you - pictures too  

Visit the "OXFORD & CHILTERN BUS PAGE " Archives from October 2002

Visit the "OXFORD BUS PAGE" Archive 1998 - 2002

Please note that any comments made in this news page are those of the Editors' and in no way constitute 
any official points of view from the bus companies mentioned,  or indeed any other official body. 
As a news page we reserve the right to make valid comments as seen from an editorial point of view.

If you wish to be included on a mailing list where I will advise of any mid-week news please let me know
malcolmhc@aol.com

To see the pictures full size just click on the thumbnail

A note regarding photographs which show drivers faces.
Following one complaint from a driver of a bus in Oxford but considering the fact that the photographs are taken of the vehicle not any person,
I will blank out the face to avoid any discomfort to the individual concerned. If you are the person involved send me an email to have this action taken.
I am sure people will realise that to ask everyone in advance of publication, whose face may appear in a picture is wholly impractical in both time and practice.
I am sorry to have to mention such a matter but we now live in a world of human rights and political correctness which must be considered.

Sorry folks, this week's page is a few days late but this is mainly due to my current work pattern. I am delighted to welcome the work of a number of new contributors this week and the scope of the page is thus enhanced and widened.

DipTAC displays for destinations and their application?

I am going to ask one question this week and that is how should the rules governing destination displays be applied.

My understanding is that in the case of a destination display the blind should be laid out in a specific way and this should be as shown in the picture below.

The display shown above is an example and not a reflection on the operator.

The layout seems to suggest that the route number should appear on the right hand side of the display , nearest the boarding passenger, and lower case lettering should always be applied regardless of font size.

This does not appear to be the case when looking at buses from the same operator which may come from another depot or even the same depot. There seems quite a wide variation on the theme when looking at different operators.

Can anyone give a definitive answer to the question or can operators do as they wish?

Quantock Running Weekend - 5th to 7th May 2007 - a further selection of pictures

Quantock's Ribble White Lady loading at Minehead on 6th May. What a distinctive vehicle this is.
Picture by Dave Godley.

Minehead Promenade hosts the Crosville PS1, originally intended for Midland General but diverted to Crosville when new.
Picture by Dave Godley on Sunday 6th May.

A Great Western Prairie tank passes under a bridge about to be crossed by the ex PMT AEC Reliance.
Pity about the Salvation Army sign as Brian Bell had a really perfect picture composition possibility.

Chris Maxfield visits Plaxtons at Scarborough

One of the coaches seen in Gloucester Green undergoing major refurbishment at Plaxtons.
The coach concerned is from the X5 route being nr  52482 from Bedford depot.

Chris Maxfield writes "Pictures for you. They are taken at Plaxtons and first show a Stagecoach Volvo coach undergoing a major rebuild. In the first picture you can just see the stripped interior that is undergoing a full refurb...then a couple of the new Arriva Centros for who I'm not sure but the earlier ones did go to North West based at Winsford."

Northampton's 52370 seen undergoing a major refit at Plaxtons.

A Scottish example from the same batch, this time from Fife, 52367.

Oxford's recently acquired ex Scottish Volvo, 52251, delivered by Chris to Plaxton's and now awaiting refit.
It is to be training vehicle and will receive training bus livery.

The Centro mentioned above by Chris.

Matt Robinson takes a trip out from Luton

Matt writes "Had a fairly eventful trip today - and a few pictures. Unfortunately I don't have a professional camera, and not a professional photographer either. The poor weather this afternoon also didn't help matters but I hope you'll be able to use some of them.

I travelled in to Luton on 5139 covering a 25 this morning, the photo of the bus was after I got off in Silver Street. It looked like the full allocation on the route was Volvo Olympians this morning, only having a PVR of 5 buses on Saturdays (7 on weekdays excluding school and college extras). 5140 was parked in the yard at Dunstable Road at 11.30, however I returned home on the 17.45 24, and that was worked by Dart 3284.

5104 was parked in Leighton Buzzard High Street with blank destination display so not sure what it was doing. 5097, 5099 and 3441 noted on the X15. I just caught sight of the back of 5097 which has a full advert of some description on the rear, not sure if it covers the rest of the bus or not?

Ex-COMS Olympians 5830 and 5832 were both working 61s this morning. Always nice from a personal point of view to see Olympians working this. 5121 was working 54s.

Scania 3156 was working a town service in Hemel Hempstead still with 500 branding evident despite being displaced from this route some time ago by the ex-Green Line DAFs.

DAF 3272 appears to be the only of the original batch of DAF SB220s which has not been painted into Interurban livery for Line 321. (Picture of similar 3274 attached which is in the livery). I notice the destination blinds on the V-registered ones are now very faded when working 321s.

Interior shot of ELC 3170

Further to my comments about overall advert buses in Luton a couple of weeks ago, 5091 has now had it's B&Q overall advert removed. It's back in full Arriva livery (although looks a little tatty where removing the vinyl seems to have taken the paint off in places).

Our B6s seem to have caught the old Wycombe bug, 3130 and 3132 both noted operating with broken destination displays. 3130 had a large "15" in the nearside windscreen made out of bus tickets !! 3132 had a pre-printed piece of paper displaying "15" which had been folded over later on when it was working 5s. Ingenious !!"

Arriva and easybus combine?

Talking to a driver at Luton, who was on the 757 route, I asked what was going on with a "Green Line" 757 operating in easybus colours. He said that in future easybus passengers from Luton would use the 757 and that the minibuses were being transferred to a new service from Stansted.

After all the concerns from various quarters a couple of years ago, when easybus started up, it now seems that a solution has been found to any problems of competition.

I would stress that this is an informal response and in no way reflects a company view.

Here we can see the current situation at Luton where easybus often have too many buses for their allocated space.
As a result they spill over onto the National Express stops, resulting in difficulty for NEx loading safely.

One will be interested to see how matters develop over the coming months.

Slough Running Day - a rather wet event

I received pictures of this event from Peter Edgar and Mark Lyons. They amply convey how wet the day was but somehow capture a by-gone era when the buses on display were what was on offer on a daily basis.

Peter Edgar contributes

Picture 1, Four British Icons, Windsor Castle, Queen Victoria, an RML and.............Plastic Road Barriers!
Picture 2, RT 2177 running through to Windsor Castle as route 81 did on Summer Sundays back in the 1950/60's.
Picture 3, Slough Bus Station on a wet day......not sure if it looks any better on a dry one taken from RMC 1513. 

Mark Lyons contributes
saying "I attach a few pictures taken in abysmal weather at this event.  The United Counties FLF was on an ex TV working from Maidenhead."

Mark comments that this bus was working a long time Thames Valley route.

That 327 route and who is operating it now

Nathan Phillips writes "Greetings - I was reading your last Oxford & Chilterns Bus Page and saw you asked if Red Rose had lost the 327 Chilterns Rambler Route.

It appears so - the Centrebus timetable is available at:

http://www.intalink.org.uk/Timetables/tt/327_B_ATG.PDF

Or

http://www.intalink.org.uk/news/pdf/327%20343.pdf

Hope this is of help,"

Roger Spence visits Hemel and Aylesbury

Roger writes "Discovered your excellent website recently, which coincided with a rekindling of my childhood interest in (mainly) London Country area buses. 

Anyway, during the week I took a few photos at Aylesbury garage and Hemel bus station (including 3482 on route 2, which you also commented on in the last update.)

I've selected five and tried to reduce them in size - not sure if they're still too big?"  (Roger, they are fine as you can see. Ed.)

Aylesbury depot

Hemel bus station with 3482 seemingly transferred from High Wycombe.

Two buses at Hemel including a Volvo on the long 300 route.

I look forward to further contributions from Roger.

Buses in cityscape and landscape

Oxford is a real haven for the bus enthusiast as can be seen from this picture taken last week outside the police station.
Great Tom and Christ College stand in the background.

 
The walk we take the dogs on at Lewknor affords the opportunity to take some suitable pictures for this section.

Bus Lanes

Jan Bain writes "To complement the link on the bus lane camera in Oxford being put up I found this that I don't know whether you have seen:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/oxfordshire/6665087.stm 

Also, there is this interesting news of park and ride strikes: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/oxfordshire/6662269.stm.

A reader writes from High Wycombe

Nick writes to comment "As a long time reader of the page I thought this picture and some information about two routes which don't crop up on the page might be of interest to you and the readers.

Here's one of Carousel's Metrobuses sitting at the Chalfont terminus of the hourly Route 393, also known as "Campus Link" which starts at Wycombe Sports Centre and runs to the Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College campus at Chalfont St Giles, stopping at the two Wycombe campuses at Wellesbourne and in the town centre on the way. The regular performers on the route is Dart SLF P480 MLE, and until recently, the singleton VDL DAF Cadet. In the past month however, it has now moved on and K323 CVX, a step entrance Dart has taken it's place. I have never seen a Metrobus on this route before, and it seemed to cope well on the 55 minute journey, although it's low top speed certainly showed itself on the A404 between Wycombe and Amersham, much to the annoyance of many car drivers!
 
First Berkshire's P179 TGD, is also sitting at the end of it's route, the number 335 from Slough via Chalfont St Peter, Gerrard's Cross and Wexham Park Hospital. This is a two hourly service, and is run with a single bus, the dedicated vehicle being this bus, although on Saturdays it is run by a spare Optare Solo in Slough "Linx" branding. This does not mean other buses don't crop up on the route, and within the last few months I have seen Wright Scanias, The 74 branded Olympians, Darts of various kinds, and even a Heathrow Citaro running the route!
 
It may seem odd for First to run such a large bus on such an infrequent route that few people use but the capacity is needed in the morning and afternoon for the schools along the route. 
 
This service, along with the 74, is one of two First services to run deep into Buckinghamshire, after the route was taken over from First London in around 2003.  
 
P.S. Unfortunately, the man standing by the Metrobus refused to move, no matter how much I waved my arms or stared at him, oh well!
 
Keep up with the good work."

Amersham & District Running days 2007 - dates for your diary

http://www.amershammotorbussociety.co.uk/ 

Amersham & District Running Days for 2007 are as follows: 

Sun 24 June 2007 - 2nd Hemel Hempstead Running Day based on Hemel Hempstead Bus Station                        

Sun 30 September 2007 - 19th Amersham Running Day based on Amersham but commemorating the 30th anniversary of the closure of HE Garage (30/09/1977) so there will be a reconstruction of certain routes in the High Wycombe area.

Another good week for news although the picture stakes have been a little less than usual.

Malcolm Crowe - Friday 18th May 2007

Again a lot of information on Arriva this week starting with Matt Robinson who writes "5135 has been on school runs in Luton today. Pleased to see it here, although I'd always (strangely) thought it was over 14' tall. I'm expecting it to go on to 24s, especially if it's replaced 5141. If so I'd be interested to see it tackle the bend by Bushmead School and the top end of Hill Rise/Spinney Road in Sundon Park, having a longer wheelbase than all our other Olympians. College loadings in the mornings and early evenings on the route would make it an ideal candidate though.

Certainly the G-UMJ Olympian we were originally given in exchange would be unsuitable for anything other than certain school duties in Luton (or route 12 which is single deck operated anyway). Buses have to pass under the Library Road bridge when leaving Silver Street in the Town Centre, which would be too low for full height buses. (I can't believe that they hadn't thought of that ?!).

There are now only 6 Volvo Olympians remaining at Luton (5137-40/2/3).

I understand that there are 14 Wright Commander VDL SB200s on order for Watford garage to be delivered later in the year. The first 7 are to upgrade route 321 (Luton - Watford). The remaining 7, I would assume, would be for the town services. I wonder if they will replace the P-registered Darts, or possibly be used to cascade the DAF SB220s elsewhere.  

Matt goes on to say "I got a little more news on this today, apparently it struck the 13' 0" Hitchin Road bridge next to Luton station last Saturday. What it was doing there remains a mystery. One of the drivers was going to let me know what was on the destination display and try and get some pictures for me of it parked in the yard.

Luton's Mercedes 709D 2132 N912 EMJ is currently receiving a new engine, apparently coming to grief when pressed on to route X66 for some reason. 2131 is also out of use at Luton. I only really notice these working the 13 (Luton - Somerset Avenue) and 14 (Luton - Birchen Grove) these days. They wanted to try MPD Darts on the 14 but double parked cars on Havelock Road have prevented this. There isn't really an alternative route the bus can use without venturing back on to the main roads. The 13 used to be Dart operated but now seems to have slipped back into Merc operation."

"I've now started an Arriva The Shires gallery on the fotopic website. The address is: 

 http://www.mattsarrivatheshirescollection.fotopic.net

Long time correspondent Glenn Knight has sent some pictures of the new Stevenage Volvos in service.

Robin Clare reports on M K Metro

Robin writes to update us on happenings at M K Metro saying "Somewhat later than promised, but herewith an update on happenings in Milton Keynes. 

A new logo has been announced - it consists of "mkmetro" in lower case lettering. The "mk" is in white on a circular blue background (not unlike National Express), whilst the "metro" is the same size of typeface as "mk" and in the same blue as the circular device. None have appeared on vehicles up to the time of writing. 

To answer your comment of why don't they just paint everything blue and have done with it. The official line is that we are owned by Arriva but are not regarded as part of Arriva, which we take to mean that we will remain outwardly separate even though under day-to-day control from Luton. Certainly, there is very little outward sign of Arriva involvement. Now to vehicle matters. 

Top news is the imminent delivery of seven new DAF SB120 Wright Cadets. They are currently in Leicester being painted from overall white into what is widely reported as being overall RED for the re-launched service 4, due to start on 10th June. 

Solo's 24 & 25 have been re-painted into overall MAUVE, currently unbranded, but presumably to join 28 & 29 as dedicated route 8 vehicles. They have also been re-numbered to 2443/4 in the Arriva series.

Excel No.41 has been re-painted from Ogden's white with red/blue stripes into standard golden yellow with blue skirt, and has been re-numbered to 3002. As of today, no other re-numberings have been observed, although wholesale renumbering is imminent. 

Olympian / ECW No.231 ("C" Reg) has been rebuilt very tidily to H--/--F, and re-painted into the paler school bus yellow. Front destination blind box appears to be painted over in black. This is the only repainted vehicle to have a fleet name applied, an old style "M K METRO" above the entrance door.  

I will try to get out and do some photography on Wednesday...........anything passable I will copy to you."

Another demonstrator for Wycombe

The bus pictured below was seen laying over in Wycombe Bus Station earlier this week. I was unable to get a picture of this bus in service.

Gavin Francis took this picture of coach 4363 in London earlier this week.

Gavin Francis assured me that Carousel were using a Citaro on Line 4 and sent a picture to prove it. Taken on 10th May 2007.

Gavin Francis was on hand with his camera in High Wycombe to catch this Volvo B10B on the 74 in High Wycombe.

Corgi will this year introduce a model of the PB in "Irish" livery.
Now that there has been a change of operator on the 420, this "Irish" liveried PB, NXL21, is often seen at Stansted on the A6.

Very quiet this week for this company. I have seen no further re-registrations and 14 and 18 were still carrying V-OXF plates when seen earlier this week.

Work continues on repainting the original batch of Airline Jonckheeres and nr 29 has now returned in X90 livery.

Nr 29 has now returned in X90 livery photographed by Chris Maxfield.

New coach 85 is seen leaving Gloucester Green - picture by Chris Maxfield.
 

R H Transport 

Chris Maxfield reports "the two RH deckers have been repainted into fleet colours. They are K312/23 FYG, new to London Central but latterly with Go-North East.

The revised X15 start's from the 4th of June."

Chris also secured two pictures of new Solos for the 700 route. Both were taken today at the John Radcliffe Hospital.

Rob Williams reports that "following its repaint at Banbury, Oxford's most well-travelled Dart 34466 has transferred to Witney. Essentially it will act as an extra off peak spare for the Solos, and from 3rd June it's capacity will normally be put to use on a regular working consisting of peak journeys on the 200/X1 and 100 followed by trips on the 11. This ousts one of the last two step entrance Darts 32627/8.

Picture by Chris Maxfield.

Matt Robinson writes "I spotted this rather interesting BMC Falcon school bus which belongs to Premier Coaches based at Luton Airport today. Luckily I had my camera with me !!

Premier have two of these alongside their expanding fleet of coaches. The other one is slightly older on a 55 plate. They have 60 seats in a 3+2 format, with seat belts fitted and a wheelchair lift at the back.

The single leaf door, I believe, rules these buses out of regular passenger service. They are reminiscent of the American Blue Birds operated by Universitybus in the mid '90s."

Many thanks to Kate Pontin, Business Development Manager for the company, who has sent an up to date fleet list. She also confirms that Dart MPD 451 has left the fleet.

Once with Thames Travel as their 451, this Dart is now working on a Park & Ride service in the Bristol area.