Malcolm Crowe, 28th March 2004.

Visit the "OXFORD BUS PAGE" Archive 1998 - 2002

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

News of the local companies – 28th March 2004

Steve Warwick writes that a Volvo B6, 3117 lost a wheel whilst operating a school service in Aylesbury. Steve also adds that it is thought that Aylesbury's branded Olympians are due for a refurbishment.

Olympian 5156 rounds the corner at Carfax. This livery is seemingly to be short lived.

It is understood that the new livery will be similar to this one above.

Steve adds "Following my photographic trip to Wycombe yesterday noted that two Mercedes minibuses are there on loan to cover shortages 2111 (M41WUR)  2112 (M42WUR) both manual so I expect not many drivers can drive them."

Nigel Peach writes "The latest edition of Buses magazine says that Lynx 3345 (H255GEV) has been withdrawn. This is not so - it is definitely still in service. It did spend some weeks out of action at the beginning of the year, so maybe it was "withdrawn" but then reinstated.

Another Lynx 3068 (one with coach seats) has been at the back of the depot for some weeks now. I wonder if that has been withdrawn. Another bus that has been languishing in that same back row for some time is Olympian 5120.

Meanwhile ex London Dart 3814 is back in service."

Carousel, High Wycombe

Carousels Citaros are still passed fit for service by Mercedes as they have some mechanical differences to those withdrawn for modification.

As reported in this week's Editorial all 17 Citaros were withdrawn from service on Wednesday pending modification by MB. An early and very unusual working was of coach 11 on the 500 Water Eaton service along with 404 and 603. That day also saw the X3/X13 routes worked by 640, 809, 653, 616, 808, 635, 803, 519, 609 and 813. The withdrawals resulted in all 5xx Darts being in service including T5 plus Paladin 644 retuned to service.

A number of sources have praised Oxford Bus for the way in which they have coped with the crises, ensuring no loss of service. It has obviously put a great strain on the Engineering Department who have had to ensure that every possible bus is on the road.

Things had evened out by Friday when 500 road was fully 8xx operated, a mix on X3/X13 but no low floors and most other routes covered but in the case of 5 road a mix of 4xx, 5xx, 6xx and 8xx plus d/d Tridents.

Everyone was waiting for Saturday when Oxford United were to play Doncaster at home. A full gate was expected and it was not until late on Friday afternoon that plans were revealed to cover the shortage of buses for the football specials.

After a lot of organisation and effort FIVE Jeff's Olympian deckers arrived at Cowley Road to cover the services. Four were ex Oxford machines and the fifth was ex Ribble. As none had ticket machines for Oxford it was decided that the services operated by these deckers would be f.o.c. Three operated the 601 and two the 604 from Abingdon.

Once again one must admire the work put in by everyone to keep things going.

I now append a photographic record of the buses which covered matters over the last few days.

     
Seen above from left to right are the ex Ribble Olympian prior to leaving Cowley Road for Abingdon
and the ex COMS 204 loading at The Rail Station, the third picture of 209 and 204 in St Aldates
and finally 207 leading the line at Kassam Stadium

    
Chris Maxfield caught 802 operating a 500 road duty and in the second picture I recorded 401 on 5 road
then 409 again on 5 road and finally under the watchful eye of an OBC City Controller 510 again on 5 road.

Volvos were back on the X3 with 603 seen here on Saturday afternoon leaving the Rail Station.

Whilst the Citaros are off the road a chance is being taken to give each one a deep clean as seen below.

825 gets the full treatment at Cowley Road Garage.

    
Dart 505 was transferred to the training fleet some weeks ago but was able to help out with the recent
problems and is seen here on a 5A working outside Head Office.

Ralph Adams spent a useful morning noting the Oxford Bus turn out without the Citaros. His report is given below.

I decided to start work late this morning, using up some of my flex, and made the following observations.

Route 2 637 608 639 658 620 619 632 609 643 630 605 642 613 603 638
Route 2A  651 644 406 407 649 650
Route 2C 403 (earlier on X13, probably route 18 later)
Route 4  634 656 641 633 629 636 653 640 635 631
Route 5  510 104 801 821 818 655 103 803 512 820 812 105 519 808
Route 5a/b  T5 515
Route 6  402 409 410
Route 13  401 405 408 
Route 13C  404
Route 14  646 647 648
Route 15  807 802 816 804 819
Route 16 810 817
Route 22  652 654
Route 35  657 602 628 614 616 101 606
Route 300 117 108 110 107 113 120 112 929
Route 400  102 111 109 118 116 115 114
Route 500  805 813 814
Routes X3/.X13  809 811 611 607 612 618 601 617 plus 413 until 0830
Route X3      also 610  from station not in service at 0900 returning to garage

It appeared that a full day time service was therefore maintained, which with 17 Citaros not on the road indicates a very fine performance by Oxford Bus, and in particular the engineers.

Heyfordian

Some weeks ago one of my readers asked for an up to date fleet list of Heyfordian vehicles and I am delighted that Steve Warwick has obliged. 

Any corrections or additions would, I am sure, be much appreciated by Steve. 

Whilst riding on Jeff's 204 to the Rail Station, I espied this Heyfordian coach 4827WD
on a service run loading in St Aldates.

Most interesting news is that Scania have secured some large orders from National Express which include fourteen 12.2 metre K124 Irizar PBs for airport express work. They will have 49 leather seats and feature satellite navigation systems that are linked to the coach's entertainment system. The PB is the top of the range Irizar coach and not many have so far been introduced into the UK.

I've entitled this picture, "spot the deliberate mistake?"
Seen in VCS last Friday morning.

Plastow's of Wheatley

A line up of 7 or the 8 coaches in the current fleet of Plastow's

Stagecoach in Oxfordshire were not unaffected by the Citaro problems as their Group artics on the TfL 453 were also withdrawn. This meant drafting in buses from many sources and newly delivered Tridents stored pending entry into service on the 100 at Witney were quickly dispatched to London to help out. One does hope the window etching merchants are not too active before they are returned to their rightful home.

Rob Williams had already reported that "Delivery of the new Tridents has commenced, some three months earlier than expected!  So far four of the eleven have arrived, registered: 

KN04XJB
KN04XJC
KN04XJE
KN04XJF 

Two are currently being stored at Banbury and two more at Nuneaton. Due to a lack of space at Witney eventually there will be four stored at Rugby, four at Nuneaton and three at Banbury. Entry into service is pending route testing and vinyls arriving."

and then "two more have just been reported by Gez of Stagecoach Lancaster on the Stagecoach YahooGroup, passing through Lancaster depot this evening on their delivery run:

KN04XJJ
KN04XJK

Last monday saw the conversion of route 10 to low floor with Darts transferred from Nuneaton. 

33651 loads to Carfax last Saturday.

Earlier I had noticed 33650 had an unusual spelling of Wood Farm on its display!

As mentioned by several of my correspondents 33821 has returned to the 1s.
I managed this shot from the top deck of Jeff's 204.

Rob Williams also adds "So Stagecoach in Oxfordshire are the first subsidiary in the UK to be fully repainted into "new" livery." 

Ralph Adams wrote: "Also noted was 20704 on X59 and 52143 leaving St Giles at 0945, returning at 1025 both times as not in service.  16403 was on route 28. Both 20542 and 20704 were on the X59 on Tues.  I suppose that this route is regarded as the most suitable at Banbury for the B10Ms.  Don't know why they interwork the route with the Tesco free bus however - the 1445 departure from Banbury should be avoided!

It has been reported on another group that the 16401 and 16402 have now arrived at Stagecoach Fife. Obviously will not be in use at Oxford again. 16403 is also expected at Fife but do not know when"

Rob adds "22917 was being prepared for repaint today and 16403 still in service." 

Chris Maxfield caught this Brookes Trident 18054 seemingly with repaired front end damage.

34466 was caught by the camera of Chris Maxfield working a 25 service normally a Vario duty.

Last week I noted that 50038 had returned to service and Chris Maxfield photographed the current appearance of this coach. The rear picture shows several difference to the original

50038 seen in Gloucester Green last Friday afternoon. Photo by C Maxfield.

Phil Rumsby writes "Just a comment regarding the refurbished Tube that was fire damaged last year. I travelled on this last week and I found the seats uncomfortable compared to the seats on the rest of the Tube fleet. I calculate I've spent well over a year sitting in these seats, so maybe I'm just used to them, but I find them extremely comfortable (and after a night shift I sleep better on the coach than at home in bed!). However I just couldn't get comfortable on the new seats. I don't find the existing leg room a problem (and I'm 6 feet tall!)

Although David Whitley's Christmas letter in December 2002 said that whole fleet would be refurbished, I believe that after the experience of refurbishing this Tube, the company have changed their mind  - certain the letter in December 2003 said that a new fleet was in the pipeline for later this year although I'll be surprised if we see any vehicles in service until 2005!. Not only was the cost of refurbishment a large fraction of the price of a new vehicle, but the time taken makes the project prohibitive  - as each Tube has to come out of service one at a time.

(Obviously when David Whitley wrote in December no final decision had been taken on the Tube fleet. Ed.)

Several comments received from readers comment "13614 on the 0930 from Birmingham yesterday made an additional unscheduled stop on the hard shoulder of the M40  to pick up passengers from 50051 which had broken down!

13614 was about 50% full, and the first to pull in, so probably had more space than a few of the Tube coaches, as we took on most or all of the Victoria passengers.  50047 or 50057 pulled in after shortly afterwards. 

Haven't seen Malcolm's picture but would expect that if the B10Ms were on Megabus duty at least one would have a blue and yellow board in the front window.  Preferred 20202 to 13614 personally.

Apparently another non Megabus branded performer on the Birmingham service was Stagecoach London Trident 17781, on the 13/3."

The foregoing was from Ross.

Rob Williams writes "Oxford Tube / Oxford Megabus drivers are instructed to pick up each others passengers up in the event of a breakdown - interesting that a Birmingham/London Megabus stopped to help out too though."  

Here is a Chris Maxfield shot of that coach 52143 so often mentioned as a relief Megabus.

Tappins - City Sightseeing

Kevin writes "Just a quick note regarding our buses.  549 surprisingly passed its MOT for another year so we are once again lumbered with this beast.  It has however been re-skinned and painted in the CSS colour scheme with the same amount of artwork as 928, 217 and 14 which is a cost saving measure.  52 was recently damaged in the yard scraping a concrete post.  Whilst the damage itself to the panels was not severe the damage to the artwork will cost a lot more.  It apparently goes to Didcot as soon as 549 returns to Oxford."

Thames Travel.

I am pleased to note that Rob Williams site has a fleet list of Thames Travel which I quote below. He says I maintain a fleet list at www.buszone.co.uk/TTfleet.html 

I didn't realise that X385 went at the same time as X49/384. Not heard anything about WWL208X going either, so assume still in use.

BD02 is fleet number BD02! 

Compiled by Robert Williams, thanks to Steve Annells, Ralph Adams and the Oxford & Chilterns Bus page for assistance with information.

Ralph Adams also notes that "The County Council has given some advance information of the above new service
http://www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/index/travel/publictransport/news-3.htm

The highlight to me is it will be Thames Travel Service 139 Witney - Abingdon - Berinsfield. At peak times it will extend to Wallingford, other times a connection to other services at Berinsfield.

Start date 5th July with new low floor vehicles

At present the 139 is Abingdon - Berinsfield - Wallingford - Henley.

I could speculate on what effect it will have on other routes but they would not be valid comments"
 

PHOTO CORNER
If you have a digital camera and wish to submit photos for this page please send them to the me at 
malcolmhc@aol.com

I welcome your photos for inclusion on this page. Please send them to me at
malcolmhc@aol.com

This is a most interesting site which I do recommend

Visit the "OXFORD BUS PAGE" Archive 1998 - 2002

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