Editorial

Those involved in providing bus and coach services in Oxford are deeply concerned with plans revealed for a one-way system plan that will remove services from a number of key city centre streets, according to campaigners.

Bus Users UK said proposals for two 'bus loops' serving the city would leave passengers walking even further between stops and add almost two miles to journeys between Oxford Station and The Plain.

The two major bus operators concerned that routes were a critical access for journey times and walking distances must not increase.

The Oxford Mail says "A two-loop bus system and one-way traffic system to 'end the dominance of buses' has been proposed by an independent consultancy commissioned by Oxford City Council and Oxfordshire County Council.

A south-to-west loop would serve the end of Abingdon Road around Thames Street through the Westgate Centre to Frideswide Square.

The north-to-east loop would use Longwall Street, High Street, Cornmarket Street and, in one case, Broad Street and Holywell Street – with 500 metres separating the loops.

One of our contributors Chairman of Bus Users Oxford and a director of Bus Users UK, Hugh Jaeger, told me that the aforementioned options would significantly reduce people's access to and through central Oxford.

Hugh added "Queen Street and George Street are essential for east-west bus links across the city centre. Three quarters of Oxford's population lives east of the River Cherwell."

"Banning buses from either or both of those streets would strangle their bus links with the rail station. North-south bus links across the city centre are already minimal, in most cases people have to walk at least a quarter of a mile to change buses and banning buses from Magdalen Street and St Aldate's would make walking distances between bus stops even longer."

But Mr. Jaeger applauded Phil Jones Associates for suggesting buses should return to Cornmarket Street for the first time since 1999, especially now that retail was 'migrating' away towards the Westgate Centre.

The campaigners were included a number of stakeholders asked to submit their views on the changes. So, Oxford Civic Society, whose input was also sought, called for more data on passenger numbers and bus frequency to properly assess the options. It also warned that routing buses through Broad Street, Holywell Street and Longwall Street would lead to 'significant public realm damage in a very high value heritage area.

The city's two biggest bus operators, Oxford Bus Company and Stagecoach in Oxfordshire, both welcomed the debate but warned bus access was vital to the overall solution and journey times and walking distances must not increase.

Managing director of Stagecoach in Oxfordshire, Martin Sutton, said: "There is a recognition that fewer buses in more streets might be part of a solution, with the possibility of limited number of buses in Cornmarket and Broad Street being options. It is important, however, that buses should continue to take people to where they want to go including journeys across the city centre. Journey times and walking distances should not be increased by buses having to take more circuitous routes."

Oxford Bus Company Managing Director, Phil Southall, said: "We agree congestion in Oxford is a growing issue and we welcome the opportunity to debate this key issue for the city. Bus access forms a vital part of the overall solution and we look forward to discussing this with stakeholders."

The options have been produced to feed into Oxford City Council's local plan, which will be finalised this summer, and are also being worked on by Oxfordshire County Council – the transport authority.

Phil Jones, of consultancy firm Phil Jones Associates, advised that each option had positives and negatives but welcomed the view of transport groups. He said: "Oxford is a victim of its own success by making it more difficult to get to by car. As a result of that it now has a bus congestion problem – High Street and St Aldate's in particular are very congested. These are high profile, accessible, and historic streets but they are simply not pleasant places to walk around – it's not the quality people expect in a world-class city."

Paul Smith, speaking for both councils, said: "We are pleased that the options presented are generating debate and any views people wish to contribute are welcome. A large number of stakeholders have already been engaged including the main bus companies that serve Oxford."

This new debate follows on from a proposal some many months ago to put a tunnel under The High and High Street which lead to much criticism and concern for the very old buildings which line the city streets.

I think planners and councils should realise that many elderly and infirm people use the buses and further to walk may restrict them from coming to the city they must feel is theirs by right.

The mix of buses, cars, taxis, delivery vehicles and cycles do not enjoy harmony and surely a greater restriction on cars would be a first step to making more room for public transport. Further restrictions i the future must be inevitable but why do the buses always seem to be the first target for planners. Oxford dies not even have a modern and adequate bus and coach interchange. Visitors must be the life blood of this historic city and yet we have on street bus loading and a woefully inadequate "coach" station. Also lets not even go into loading points for visiting coaches and the lengthy journey to suitable parking for these vehicles.

Time will tell but surely a proper interchange between road and rail is long overdue?

Previously Hugh Jaeger had sent me some interesting comments regarding Oxford and quoted below

Congestion in High St Oxford with two bus stops placed side by side seen on October 28th by Gavin Francis.

At the same time, the County Council has widened the pavement at stop T1 in High Street with a two-metre buildout outside Lincoln College Library. The intention is for the pavement to be wide enough to install a bus shelter. But the result is that the carriageway is now too narrow for buses to pass.

When a bus is at T1, eastbound buses behind it have to swing out so far that they foul the westbound lane. Barely enough room is left for a westbound cyclist to pass.

If there is traffic in the westbound lane, eastbound buses cannot pass a bus stopped at T1. Even off-peak, the queue soon tails back as far as Carfax. At busier times it can extend into St Aldate's. Now that Queen St has reopened, it may extend there too.

The most frequent services at T1 are Arriva's 280 and Oxford Bus Companies Brookes U1. Often both buses are there at the same time. This makes it even harder for eastbound vehicles to get a gap in the westbound traffic long enough to let them pass.

And T1 "blinds" the junction with Turl Street just as G1 blinds the junction with Pembroke Square. If a bus is at T1, traffic emerging from Turl St to turn right cannot see westbound traffic in High St. And now that the buildout blocks the eastbound lane, road users from Turl St are much nearer a potential point of impact before they can see past the bus to see if any vehicle is coming westbound.

Much of Turl Street's traffic is cyclists. Turl St is the approved cycle bypass for Cornmarket when cycling is forbidden (10am to 6pm daily).

Two things are needed. Firstly the County Council must recognise its mistake and remove the buildout. And secondly it must take T1 out of use and relocate its buses to other stops.

One way to do this is to restore one stop in Queen Street. The best place is opposite M&S, where the temporary stop was recently for a few months. It is a much better and safer place than the unsatisfactory stop D4 that used to be in Bonn Square.

A new Queen St stop would allow at least one more eastbound route to be switched from St Aldate's back to Queen St. This would liberate one of the St Aldate's stops G2 – G6, which could then be served by routes currently using T1.

For the reopening of the Westgate Centre the County Council has made several traffic changes. One is to close a bus stop in Abingdon Road at the junction with Chatham Road. It is the first northbound stop north of Weirs Lane.

The County Council claimed the closure would be only for the first few days of the Westgate Centre's reopening, to cope with any exceptional traffic. Now it has said the closure is permanent. This is, of course, a case of favouring cars over buses. It is regressive.

Some Labour councillors have come to the support of passengers who use the Chatham Road stop. But Labour supported the expansion of the Westgate Centre, so as yet we are unsure how solid their support will be.

There are now 11 stops in Castle Street and two new stops in Speedwell Street. All have new shelters, and all are inadequate. They have only half-width end panels, which give too little protection to waiting passengers. Given that much of the Westgate redevelopment had a "clean slate" to rearrange streets and their furniture, there is no excuse. Our City and County councils have willfully and unnecessarily ignored the DfT's Inclusive Mobility guidelines, which include comprehensive specifications for optimal bus shelters.

Westgate looking up Castle St with new stops seen on October 29th by Gavin Francis.

The next battle may be the County Council trying again to expel the last 29 buses per hour from Queen Street. Or it may be some other anti-bus policy dreamt up by councillors and their officers who are either anti-bus or at best ignorant of what bus services need from a local council and how to be pro-bus.

My many conversations with them in the last decade convince me that too many councillors and officers are determined to remain ignorant. Bus passengers and campaigners must expect the unexpected, and too often it will be a change for the worse. The struggle continues!

Reading Buses has recently expanded on a significant basis and many readers will be aware of developments, especially with regard to the acquisition of the Green Line 702 service from Bracknell to London (Victoria).

As you will read further into this issue they operated a special service on December 24th using heritage vehicles and began full operations on December 27th, initially with a varied selection of buses and eventually one ADL E400 in full Green Line livery.

Reading 1208 in full Green Line livery on the 702 in Bulleid Way Victoria on December 31st by Gavin Francis.

Two buses used on the Christmas Eve heritage services were also caught in the lens of Gavin Francis.
RCL2260 looks very much the part, whilst RMC1462 is maybe not quite so appropriate in the red livery.

More developments by Reading were announced by Slough Borough Council who confirmed it has contracted Reading Buses to provide full bus services across routes 4,5 and 6 from 20 January 2018.

Following talks with bus operators and Heathrow the council has signed a contract with Reading Buses that will guarantee residents and commuters experience no break in service.

The council secured the contract by exercising its emergency powers to save routes set to be cancelled or heavily cut back by First Berkshire. The contract will be jointly funded by the council and Heathrow.

As of Saturday 20 January, Reading Buses, who will trade under the ‘Thames Valley’ name in Slough, will provide the following services:

Councillor Martin Carter, cabinet member for planning and transport, said: “We are delighted to have secured Reading Buses to provide unbroken services to residents and commuters across the borough in the 2018. Reading Buses have been transporting customers in and around Reading for more than 100 years and have a proven track record in providing quality bus services with a strong focus on innovation and customer service. Many of our residents and businesses rely on bus services on a daily basis to make their journeys around Slough and to surrounding areas, including Heathrow. Our bus users can now rest assured that their routes are secure, whether commuting to Heathrow for work, or travelling to their local GP for a doctor’s appointment.”

Martijn Gilbert, Chief Executive Officer of Reading Buses, said: “We are delighted to be bringing our award winning approach to local bus service delivery to Slough. This builds upon our recent work to take on the long-standing Green Line 702 London service from 27^th December and further supports the vision of the leading economic forums across our region for strong and integrated local transport links across the Thames Valley. We’re a local Berkshire based company with operations across four Boroughs and Slough is a good adjacent fit with this. We look forward to serving the people of Slough and working with the Borough Council and other stakeholders to support and develop these important bus services."

A new livery appropriately using red similar to the old Thames Valley livery will be applied to buses to be used on this work as shown in the mock up below.

The launch of gas buses on route 17 took place recently and I am indebted to Daryl Major for photos of this launch.

Reading 708 at the launch of new GAS buses on route 17 which took place on January 14th pictured by Daryl Major.

This picture shows a group of dignitaries at the launch. I won't even begin to surmise why the cow was there!!! Did it have a fleet number?

In the weeks of December and January the weather was been much in evidence with roads closed or dangerous with heavy snow falls especially on the Chilterns in the second week of December. I received some delightful pictures of bus and coach services in this period and of course immediately after Christmas other parts of the country faced difficult operating conditions.

Sunday, December 10th saw probably and locally the worst conditions, when after heavy overnight snow, the morning proved very difficult indeed with few services to London, Heathrow, Gatwick or Stansted from Oxford and many local services not operating. A 7" fall of snow was recorded at Stokenchurch and the M40 was closed or only partially passable for much of the day.

The first pictures, which are by Gavin Francis, show the heavy snow conditions at Thornhill Park & Ride.

The next pictures were taken by "Teng Leng" believed to be a coach driver in Oxford!!! They show conditions at Brookes and later services were curtailed for most of the day.

Snow at Brookes - heavy snow caused delays and cancellations - 1 seen on December 10th by Teng Leng.

Snow at Brookes - heavy snow caused delays and cancellations - with 50265 inbound on December 10th by Teng Leng.

In High Wycombe following competition between Arriva and Carousel on the much heralded joint route between Wycombe and Chesham, which was divided into two separate services in September, peace has now returned and a "joint operation" will now resume.

A regular reader asks various questions which some of you may be able to help with.

1/ In the days when the Park & Ride services were numbered 590-595, why did they often simply display 'Park & Ride' as the destination?

2/In the days of the 580/581/582/583 how did the different variations differ from each other? Also why was there A 260 and 280 but no 270?

3/ When COMS was privatized for deregulation which old service numbers did they revert to? I know the 501 and 502 didn't revert to their old numbers, as they were the 1 and 1A before, and then became the 51 and 52 after deregulation.

4/ Why, in days gone by, did busses often used to give more precise destinations than they do now? For example the destination shown on the 7A towards City Centre was Cornmarket & St Aldate's and the destination shown on the 4 towards Rose Hill was Westbury Crescent?

5/ Why were Oxford Bus Company's 201, 203 and 5 services renumbered 101, 103 and 105 respectively?

6/ What were the route variations on Oxford Bus Company's nr. 20 group of services?

I am aware that there were some rumours that Levantes 51 and 52 were to be replaced. These coaches had come from Go Ahead in the North East and therefore had quite some mileage recorded.

Towards the end of November it was suggested that two new tri-axle Levantes on Volvo chassis were due. These appeared in early December but did not enter service until December 22nd when the first one was seen late on that day.

Gavin's picture shows 56 in the early evening of December 22nd at Gloucester Green on its return from Stansted.

Graham Low's picture of 57 was taken on the following day on it's way to Gloucester Green through the Westgate Centre.

The local enthusiasts then wondered what would happen to 51 and 52? This question was answered in the early days of 2018, when devoid of branding, they appeared on other Oxford coach routes to London and the airports.

51 is seen in Gavin Francis's picture working the X90 on January 12th. It is pictured on Buckingham Palace Road at the terminus of the X90.

52 is seen turning out of Gloucester Green into George Street on its way to Heathrow o January 7th taken by Gavin Francis.

Finally in this resume of Oxford Bus, two Hybrids from the last batch, 365 and 366, were repainted pale blue for the 2 road services. These replaced the original 2 road Scanias transferred to Thames Travel for the River Rapid services.

365 is seen in Magdalen Street East, on 2 road, fully branded. Pictured on December 21st by Oxford Bus Company.

The City's transport managers have serious concerns over a proposed one-way bus system for Oxford