Mike Bennett writes on issues past

An item on your Bus Page a while ago mentioned that Stagecoach Oxford Trident 18398 was seen in Banbury in August.  The attached photos show why the bus was in the town, at least on Saturday August 14th, when I photographed it on the service connecting Banbury bus station with the Fairport Convention music festival, near the village of Cropredy, just a few miles north.  The timetable showed an hourly service, which could be covered by one bus.  It left the bus station at 14:00 with only a few people aboard.

Whilst in St Giles on Tuesday 7th I saw several buses from a surprising new fleet of half-cab double-deckers.  They are probably second hand from various fleets from around the country, but they were all very well presented with nice smart liveries.  I managed to photograph at least two Routemasters, and two AEC Regents, with a couple of American Ford bonneted single deck buses, but there were others.  I was there again on Thursday and Saturday, but none of them appeared again.  They were all moving at the time so I was unable to get any chassis or body numbers.  If anyone can throw any further light on these sightings I would be most obliged.   

Every year the traffic in St Giles comes to a halt when one of the oldest street fairs in the country arrives in town.  This takes place on the Monday and Tuesday following the first Saturday in September.  This year it was on the 6th and 7th, but the street is also closed on the Sunday for setting up.  All of the bus services that use St Giles are diverted from Banbury Rd and Woodstock Rd via Parks Rd into Broad St.  Those that would normally turn at Magdalen Church make a U-turn in Broad St, ready to start their next journey north.  Others due to go along George St go straight through.  Two or more inspectors are present to sort out any possible problems, but everything was running fairly smoothly whilst I was there watching on the Tuesday.  I took many photos during the hour I was there - a selection of these is attached.  It made a nice change to have a very different backdrop to the buses I would normally photograph in St Giles.

From Glenn Knight who visited Manchester

Seen in Piccadilly

S209 JUA 4019 with Arriva Manchester ex-Arriva London DLA9 

Stagecoach Hybrids at Hyde Road Depot:

Fire Damaged: MX55 KPZ 18373

Preserved: AFM 106G Bristol CRG owned by Classic Coaches, Runcorn.

From Nick Eustace on the local scene

Nick Eustace writes "I have attached a collection of pictures from around Oxford & Bicester as well as the A34, you will also note the damaged Oxford Tube heading away from the VOSA station in Bicester showing how well it stood up to the roll over recently. An interesting spot was OU10GFZ which was parked in the yard of a company in Bicester." (This is the location of Bicester outstation. Ed.)

Gavin on Footy in Wycombe 

Went to football today on this coach from Cape Coaches. You will remember a few weeks ago it was dark blue and looked a bit weary. It's had a repaint and branding added and now looks fine. Has a very clean interior and for a coach of its age has very few rattles.

The Macclesfield team coach was supplied by Anthony's. Any driver who puts a scratch on this will not be very popular with the paint shop!

http://www.thames-travel.co.uk/

Seems the new Hybrid double deck is imminent. It is an Enviro 400H by ADL. Yet another ENVIRO to join its brothers in Oxford which must have one of the largest ENVIRO fleets for a city of its size?

Stagecoach has achieved the highest number of shortlisted nominations at the UK Bus Awards for the fourth consecutive year.

After winning more awards than any other bus operator at the previous three ceremonies, the Perth-based transport group has 15 shortlisted entries in the competition's 21 categories this year, with three Stagecoach companies in line to be named Britain's best bus operator at the November awards ceremony.

Stagecoach East is shortlisted for the Shire Operator of the Year award while Stagecoach Manchester and Stagecoach Yorkshire are finalists in the City Operator of the Year category. All three companies are also in the running for the prestigious UK Bus Operator of the Year award.

In addition, three Stagecoach services – Stagecoach East's popular Route X5, Stagecoach Oxfordshire's Oxford Tube service and Stagecoach East Scotland's Fife Express – have been shortlisted for the Express Operation of the Year award.

In the Best Bus in the Countryside category, Stagecoach North West is nominated for its Lake District operations and Stagecoach South West is shortlisted for its Go 2 service which is operated in partnership with Devon County Council.

Stagecoach Manchester Engineering Director Darren Roe is in the running for the Engineering Manager of the Year award while Stagecoach South West Operations Manager Mark Whitelocks and Stagecoach West Engineering Manager Mike Butt are both shortlisted for the Young Manager of the Year award.

In the Winning New Customers category, Stagecoach Manchester is shortlisted for Unirider. Also in this category, Kent County Council is nominated for its partnership with Stagecoach East Kent and Hastings in the provision of bus services in Ashford.

Stagecoach East Kent and Hastings is also a finalist in the Marketing Campaign of the Year category for its Breeze service between Thanet and Canterbury while Stagecoach Merseyside's Paypass project – the UK's first use of contactless bankcard payments on buses – is shortlisted for the Innovation award.

Stagecoach Manchester's Hyde Road depot has also been shortlisted in the Bus Garage of the Year category.

Managing Director of Stagecoach UK Bus, Les Warneford said: "To have so many of our companies and our people nominated for these awards is testament to the hard work and commitment of our staff across the UK to providing high-quality, good value, reliable bus services for our customers.

"We are continuing to invest in state-of-the-art vehicles as well as embracing new technology and new ideas to ensure we can attract even more people on to our greener, smarter bus services."

John Owen, Chairman of UK Bus Awards said: "We've been absolutely delighted with both the quantity and quality of entries for the 2010 UK Bus Awards. We are now seeing the results of many years of commitment to innovation by the bus industry, and competition for awards has never been greater."

The 15^th annual UK Bus Awards will be held on 16 November at the Hilton Hotel, London.

The full list of shortlisted Stagecoach entries are:

• Stagecoach Yorkshire (The BAE Systems City Operator Award)
• Stagecoach Manchester (The BAE Systems City Operator Award)
• Stagecoach East (The Shire Operator Award)
• Hyde Road, Manchester, Stagecoach Manchester (Top National Bus Depot)
• Stagecoach East - X5 Cambridge to Oxford (Volvo Express Coach Operation of the Year Award)
• Stagecoach East Scotland - Express City Connect (Volvo Express Coach Operation of the Year Award)
• Stagecoach Oxfordshire - Oxford Tube (Volvo Express Coach Operation of the Year Award)
• Stagecoach North West, Cumbria and Lakes Promotion (The Bus in the Countryside Award)
• Stagecoach South West, Go2 (The Bus in the Countryside Award)
• Stagecoach East Kent, It's a Breeze (The CBS Outdoor Bus Marketing Campaign of the Year Award)
• Stagecoach UK Bus, Merseyside Contactless Payment Pilot (The Alexander Dennis Innovation Award)
• Stagecoach Manchester, Unirider (Winning New Customers)
• Darren Roe, Stagecoach Manchester (Engineer of the Year, sponsored by IRTE)
• Mike Butt, Stagecoach West (Young Manager of the Year)
• Mark Whitelocks, Stagecoach South West (Young Manager of the Year)

Stagecoach has won a clutch of awards within the past year. At last year's UK Bus Awards, the company led the way, winning three awards and claiming two runners-up spots. Stagecoach Group was also named Best Green Transport Provider at the 2009 Scottish Green Awards and most recently, Stagecoach Manchester was announced as Public Transport (Bus) Operator of the Year at the 2010 National Transport Awards.

Moir Lockhead to leave First
  
After 21 years as its Chief Executive, Sir Moir Lockhead, 65, is standing down from his post on 1 November and retires on 31 March 2011.

The FirstGroup Board will implement its succession plan, with Tim O'Toole succeeding Sir Moir Lockhead as Chief Executive from 1 November 2010.

Mr O’Toole joined the Board in May 2009 as a Non-Executive Director and was appointed Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Chief Executive three months ago.

He was most recently Managing Director of London Underground.

Commenting, Sir Moir Lockhead said: “I firmly believe that timing is everything and with FirstGroup in a strong position to continue its successful development the time is right for me to hand over to an outstanding team led by Tim O'Toole.”

TfL confirms LEZ deferral

With two weeks to go before minibuses under 5T GVW with more than eight passenger seats were due to be brought into the London Low Emission Zone (LEZ), Mayor Boris Johnson and Transport for London (TfL)  have announced that operators will have another 15 months before having to comply.

Although the deferral was expected it was not a foregone conclusion, especially given heavy pressure from the UK government, which is anxious to avoid EU fines.

Postponing this phase of the LEZ, which mainly affects ‘white van man’, was a key election pledge by the Mayor. However, he was forced to carry out a statutory public consultation; this closed on 4 July.

In recent weeks, Transport for London (TfL), responsible for implementing the LEZ, has faced criticism from operators, anxious for confirmation that the start date would be amended.

The news – which affects operators of around 70,000 minibuses and larger vans –means that they will now have to meet Euro 3 on particulates from 3 January 2012, the same day that the LEZ standards for larger vehicles changes to Euro 4 on particulates. 

Megabus accident in the US

John Hodgkins, Island Transport Solutions, Aylesbury, UK and Gabriola Island, BC writes "After the lucky outcome of the recent Oxford Tube accident on the M40, this incident in the US reinforces how quickly things can turn very bad."

http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2010/09/at_least_two_dead_possibly_mor.html 

http://www.9wsyr.com/news/local/story/Four-dead-after-Megabus-hits-Parkway-bridge/LiNwgSPQkkyL0gzAwfLlJg.cspx

People smuggled into UK via Victoria coach station

Drugs, weapons and people are being smuggled into Britain by crime gangs using Victoria Coach Station, police revealed recently. Random checks on coaches arriving in London have revealed an extraordinary hotbed of crime ranging from people trafficking to drug running.

A Scotland Yard operation has led to 72 arrests — including wanted people-traffickers and paedophiles — in the past six months. The checks have also revealed a worrying number of defects and safety problems on coaches arriving from the Continent.

Police in Westminster are using tactics normally employed by border officials to screen passengers arriving in London. Coaches are picked at random and their passengers and luggage are searched and screened for drugs and weapons. Sniffer dogs are also used to check for contraband and specialist officers employed to scour coaches for hidden caches of drugs.

Police have arrested people who had earlier been denied entry at Heathrow Airport but had then re-entered Britain by coach.

The initiative, codenamed Operation Sharvor, has uncovered a vast array of crime since being launched in March. This includes:

A haul of £25,000 worth of cigarettes hidden in tables sent from Lithuania.

A man with two bags of £60,000 worth of coins and cash who had travelled by coach to London after flying in to Frankfurt from the Philippines.

One coach with four wanted people traffickers, all of whom were travelling separately.

Inspector John Fleming, leading the operation, said: “It was launched after concerns by the Mayor's Safer Transport Scheme about the scale of low-level crime and disorder in the area.

“We have been surprised at what we have found and have uncovered virtually every type of criminality including organised crime networks using coaches to traffic people.”

Speaking at the Superintendents' Association annual conference in Cheshire he said there was also evidence of sex offenders using coaches to enter and leave the UK to avoid airport checks.

Illegal meat goods were also being smuggled into Britain and criminals were using coaches to commit benefit fraud. He also revealed that 87 per cent of foreign coaches were found to have safety defects, as opposed to two per cent of British coaches.

Superintendent Joe Royle said: “We have been trying to establish what level of criminality there is around Victoria Coach Station. Some of the results are worrying. There is evidence of people using coaches to bypass border checks to get into the UK.”

Police said the majority of the 72 arrests were for drugs. So far officers have searched 11 coaches arriving in Victoria from Europe. The coach station is one of the country's biggest transport hubs with 12 million passengers a year.

Police have also found that coaches are being used as a cheap parcel delivery service with packages being sent on coaches unaccompanied and then collected. Police said usually none of these packages were checked.

Cambridge Guided Busway

Marcus Lapthorn writes "According to the latest 'Rail' magazine, some 80% of the Cambridge Guided Busway route is complete but there are problems in the Trumpington area and with a new bridge over the London main line near Addenbrooke's Hospital. Contractor BAM Nuttall has already paid £6m in damages for late delivery, with a further £14,000 a day due until it finishes the job." 

Stagecoach Manchester Hybrid Launch by Chris Lowe 

The Official Launch of Stagecoach Manchester's Enviro 400 Hybrids took place on Friday10th September on Princess Street next to Manchester Town Hall. Unfortunately it was a dull and at times very wet day as can be seen in the following set of 12 images taken at the launch. 

Two vehicles were present with 12042 (MX60 BVJ) being used to collect Stagecoach Manchester's management before proceeding to the Town Hall. It was exchanged whilst there for 12039 (MX60 BVF) which was used to take the management as well as leader of Greater Manchester PTE and other local dignitaries for a demonstration drive around Manchester City Council.

I was unable to go along on the drive around the Town Centre as I was due to be at work about an hour or so later, so I took the couple of shots of it going in the rain, before I proceeded to make my way to work to sign on. Whilst at work on Friday and Saturday I noted Hybrids 12027-40/2 all at PS ready for the start on Sunday. 

Over the remainder of Friday and Saturday the buses were receiving their final checks and preparations for them to enter service today (12th September) on Services 42 (Manchester - East Didsbury/Stockport) and 43 (Manchester - Manchester Airport), these services share a common section of route between Manchester City Centre and Withington Village along Oxford Road and Wilmslow Road which will see a bus every five minutes on a combined frequency between those points, from Withington a bus will proceed every 10 mins on service 43 to Manchester Airport via Northenden and Wythenshawe, whilst service 42 will proceed every 10 minutes as far as East Didsbury (Parrs Wood), with every other bus continuing to Stockport Bus Station providing a bus every 20 mins along that section of the route. 

All 30 of the Manchester Enviro Hybrids are allocated to Manchester's Princess Road Garage and to facilitate this, service 42 was moved from Hyde Road Garage to operation by Princess Road garage on September 5th. Whilst to balance workings out, Services 15 (Manchester - Flixton, via Moss Side, Streford and Urmston) and Service 256 (Manchester - Flixton, via Old Trafford, Stretford and Davyhulme) both moved to operation by Hyde Road Garage from the same date. 

I am hoping to possibly get a couple of photos of them in service today, although not sure whether I will get the chance too. My first chance to drive them "might" be tomorrow when I drive the 43 to the Airport, but with only half of them here at the moment and 27 possible vehicle workings this might still have a standard Enviro on it. Although I am on 42/43's about three or four times this week so shouldn't take too long.

Blackpool gets a new Bonny coach facility

Trips and events

Torquay by Mike Penn

I too was in Torquay last weekend for the rally/running day. I won't duplicate the photos you have already published but you might be interested in these ones which weren't connected with the rally.

 
GJZ 9571 (ex BFS 14L), which of course spent many years in Oxford, is now employed on a sightseeing route in the Paignton area
and is painted in the former Devon General open top livery.

MSJ 499 (ex 925 GTA) also appeared on the sightseeing route and has recently been repainted into the same livery,
which of course it carried when new in 1961.

Former Bournemouth Corporation Leyland PD3 8159 EL also worked at least one journey on the same route.

This Barnaby bodied Leyland Tiger PS1 (AHL 694) was new to Bullocks and later worked for West Riding.
It is currently employed on a special service from Torquay to Agatha Christie's former home, Greenway House, on the banks of the River Dart.
It is seen leaving the Brixham park and ride site.

This Northern Counties bodied Daimler Fleetline (JTD 395P) was new to Southend Transport and later worked for Crosville Wales in Llandudno and Rhyl.
It is currently employed on a tour in Torquay.

Geoff Cunliffe visited Oxford again

Herewith a short report about our visit to Oxford last week:- 

Margaret and I visited Oxford last week on Monday 6th September. We arrived at Pear Tree to find an unusually long queue of intending passengers. After a few minutes, Citaro 829 came in. It looked unusually tatty for a COMS bus, with half removed vinyls, and I wondered if it had been pressed into service as a Q-Buster. Unfortunately it was insufficient to bust that queue and it departed leaving several of us to await Plaxton President 903 a few minutes later. 

Our visit coincided with the annual St. Giles Fair so our inbound journey took the usual diversion from Woodstock Road via St. Margaret's Road to Banbury Road then Parks Road to Broad Street before regaining the usual route at George Street. Besides the main area of the fair, both parts of Magdalen Street were obstructed.

The Broad Street diversion affected all routes approaching the city from that side which gave the opportunity for some unusual photographs as Broad Street is not normally used for service buses. The first photograph shows a couple of Stagecoach vehicles, an S1 and an S5 near to Boswell's shop. 

Shown in the main body of Broad Street are a couple of local Stagecoach Gold ALX400s sandwiching an outbound X5 en route to Cambridge. 

Positioning myself at Carfax, I realised that by 12.30, the 300 was still running far from correctly as another Plaxton President and a Trident came out of Queen Street together, followed a couple of minutes later by another Trident. 

Although the Presidents are badged as Plaxtons, were they not constructed by Northern Counties at Wigan?

At the other end of Queen Street, I saw the first of the Plaxton Elite-bodied Volvos, 53701 OU10 GYH, heading into the city, presumably to commence its journey to Stansted. 

Eventually the rains came and we made our way back to Pear Tree on 903 which had brought us in earlier. Our outward link between Banbury Road and Woodstock Road was Canterbury Road, the trees providing plenty of work for the deflector fitted on the front corner of the top deck. Coming into the city, we rode downstairs; we rode on the top deck going out and were somewhat surprised at the large number of rattles, creaks and groans. 

Incidentally, although out of our usual area, if anyone is intending to visit the new bus station at Bath, sandwiched between the River Avon and Dorchester Street, one of the best views of the business side is from the end of the elevated car park alongside the adjacent Bath Spa railway station. 

The approach to this vantage point also gives the chance to take nicely framed shots of the junction of Manvers Street and Dorchester Street, outside the main entrance to the railway station, where I found orange Volvo bendy on the University run linking it to the city centre. 

Another interesting trip south!

Glasgow visit by Gez from Lancaster. 

Thought you may like a few shots from Glasgow. in connection with the recent Papal visit to the U.K. 

We left from Morecambe at around 0830 with Scanias 18379 and 18381, both double manning. We had an 11am pickup at Our Lady and St Josephs church in Carlisle, called at Willowholme to top the tanks up to be on the safe side, as it turned out we didn't need to having half a tank left in when we got back. We met up with one of the Lillyhall Scanias at the church and got away around 1120. A call at Hamilton services for a while as we were told we would be "stacking" before being allowed onto the northbound M77, which was closed junction 2 to 1 for parking and we didn't know how long people would be sitting A pile of Stuarts of Carluke went by on Shuttles as well as several Go Northern ex Nat Ex coaches

I expected being held up as we passed Blochairn - a stack or Irvine's of Law deckers went by and another fleet of deckers in a orangey / creamy colour the defied indent though - but we sailed straight through to the M77 coming off at Junction 2 down Barrhead Rd, there were already many coaches parked on the Motorway. Anyhow we arrived at stacking around 1420 and edged up back towards the every ten minutes or so as they were feeding coaches down around ten at a time. Then around 2.45 there was a long wait. It appeared they had run out of room on the Motorway. we eventually got going again, my bus got through, but anything behind did not, which included the other two buses from the church we picked up at. We were the last onto the Motorway at 1515 , number 301. The driver of the other bus rang to say they were moving onto Dumbreck Rd to park along with around twenty other coaches / buses. This turned out to be a good move for them as their load of pilgrims only had around 1/ mile to walk. The poor souls on our bus had 2 miles. It took me a good while to get to the other end.

Local wise they were running two bus stations one across the road from Ibrox where the Fitzcharles are with the other on Dumbreck Rd where the Caledonian Travel is shown. I had  a wander along here  and down Haggs Rd as buses were stacking before being called on the stances. There were whole fleets here and many more went missed as I had to start making my way back to the bus, against the flow of people, which I only just managed with about 5 minutes to spare before we got the off at 2117. which was a good hour before we were expecting. A steady 55mph run back down to Carlisle to drop off then home for 0200 after a coffee stop at Southwaite.

Imber

I was fascinated to hear from two readers about an interesting days outing at a place called Imber. I found the whole concept of this place appealing and hope readers will enjoy the reports and pictures herein.

Imber is an uninhabited village in part of the British Army's training grounds on the Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire. The entire civilian population was evicted in 1943 to provide an exercise area for American troops preparing for the invasion of Europe during the Second World War. After the war villagers were not allowed to return their homes. The village, which is still classed as an urban entity, remains under the control of the Ministry of Defence despite several attempts by former residents to return. Non-military access is limited to several open days a year.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imber

http://www.timetravel-britain.com/articles/towns/imber.shtml

You wait a whole year for a bus – then 5 turn up at the same time by Mike Bennett

Imber by Andrew Webb

Somewhat out of the OCBP area, but 18 September saw the second operation of route 23A linking Warminster, the village of Imber and The Bustard.  5 Routemasters operated:  RMC1510, RM613, RM1005, RML2344 and RML2735, although RM1005 appeared to be having some difficulties and didn't do as much as the other.
 
Imber is a village on the Salisbury Plain that was commandeered by the MOD for training in 1943 and has yet to be returned.  18 September was the first day in 2010 it had been open to the public.  The Bustard is a remote pub on the Salisbury Plain between Tilshead and Shrewton.
 
I have attached some pictures.

 
The Tilshead picture shows RMC1510 working 10:40 Warminster - The Bustard and RM613 working 11:13 The Bustard - Warminster both preparing to depart after Wilts and Dorset Solo 2707 has passed working 10:55 2 Salisbury - Devizes.  The timetable for the 23A allows up to 10 minutes delay in Tilshead to await the arrival of the service 2.

History 

Mike Bennett writes " On Saturday September 11th the Oxford Bus Museum put 3 of its old COMS double deck buses on the road for journeys around Oxford city.  One route followed closely that of the open-top tour buses, leaving the railway station, picking up along High St, down to The Plain, returning up the High to turn into Longwall St and Parks Rd South.  Emerging into Banbury Rd the route was north to St Margaret's Rd before heading for the railway station again down Woodstock Rd, St Giles and Beaumont St.  I rode on the newly restored AEC Renown 371, which after completing this journey, ran on the next service to the OBC depot on Garsington Rd.  A walking tour of the depot followed a ride through the bus wash in Citaro 870, surely the cleanest bus in the fleet by the end of the day.   AEC Regent  956 had arrived with the next load of passengers and this bus was to be our ride back into the city.  Lowbridge Regent 166 was the third bus and took its turn on the services."

Buses in the Landscape

John Marsh writes saying is this the ultimate "Bus in the Landscape"

A First Leeds (I guess) Wright Gemini taken from a Jet2.com Boeing coming in to land at Leeds-Bradford Airport.

John adds "I wonder if any of your readers can identify the exact location?"