Editorial

Growing uncertainty and angst around future revenue funding for bus services in England and Wales has drawn the Traffic Commissioners (TCs) into the fray.

They published issue-specific guidance on 9 February concerning service registration notice periods ahead of potential resulting changes or withdrawals. It takes the current lack of funding clarity as a justifiable reason for acceptance of a short-notice registrations, albeit with caveats, in those two countries.

That development came as the crisis born of a chronic lack of direction from Westminster and Cardiff on support beyond the end of Bus Recovery Grant (BRG) and the Bus Emergency Scheme (BES), respectively, deepened during week commencing 6 February.

In England, suggestions have been made that no certainty on the matter may arrive until Chancellor Jeremy Hunt delivers his Budget on 15 March. BRG is scheduled to end after 31 March; BES is planned to terminate a few days later at the end of the current financial year.

For operators in Scotland, Network Support Grant Plus – resuscitated by the Scottish Government in late 2022 – is also slated to end on 31 March, with payments reverting to the lower Network Support Grant rate. Scotland is not in scope of the TCs’ statement of 9 February.

Those words have been seen by some in the Welsh bus industry as laying the ground for a hard end to support after BES. In the same address, Mr Waters claimed that the sector in Wales agrees with him that work to “rationalise” networks should take place, in stark contrast to previous political messaging that has promoted more services in the long term.

Meetings with the Welsh bus industry and its representatives to find a funding solution continue.

It has been suggested that news could be forthcoming shortly, but one member of the sector in Wales says that a hard end to funding imminently would have a hugely damaging impact on the country’s bus market

…while ministerial radio silence persists in England

In England, no public messaging around the likelihood of funding continuing beyond the current end date for BRG has been forthcoming for over two months. That is despite heavy lobbying by operators and representative bodies in the meantime.

Answering a Parliamentary question about the matter on 8 February, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said that the government will “always continue to see how we can support bus services in the long term,” but he gave no further information. Mr Sunak instead pointed to the claimed £3 billion investment in bus during the current parliament.

TCs ‘seeking to support bus operators and passengers’

In their statement on 9 February, the TCs acknowledge that considerations of future funding packages in England and Wales “remain ongoing” and that operators may as a result decide to cancel or amend services before final decisions are made by ministers.

TCs are thus seeking “to continue supporting bus operators while ensuring that the users of local bus services are provided with sufficient notice of any changes to a registration.”

They view the current position as passing the test set out in Regulation 7(2)(h) of the Public Service Vehicles (Registration of Local Services) Regulations 1986 as circumstances that could not reasonably have been foreseen.

As a result, the TCs will consider a request for short-notice dispensation for that reason. They will adopt a starting position that the 42-day notice period in England, and the 56-day notice period in Wales, will be reduced to 28 days. In England, the requirement to inform local authorities of registration changes with 28 days’ notice does not change.

Where an operator submits an application to vary or cancel a service but later wishes to reverse that decision if further revenue funding is forthcoming, a new application under the short notice dispensation will be needed.

Once any decision is made by ministers on future financial support, the above provisions will be reviewed, the TCs say, although “additional time will be allowed for operators to submit applications to take into account the level of funding available.” The approach outlined by the TCs applies only where they handle service registrations.

We were delighted to present the amazing SHOWBUS50 in September, the last SHOWBUS display. The pandemic in 2020 forced SHOWBUS on to the road and a very successful day was created running around 70 buses through the Chiltern Hills along the A40. Sadly the SHOWBUSflyby scheduled for the week before SHOWBUS50 had to be postponed, as it fell on the eve of Her Majesty’s funeral.

We hope you will join us on June 18^th for SHOWBUSflyby, the eastern end of the route will be SHOWBUS’ first home at Brunel University in January 1973, but we have secured a different western turn around making the route shorter and more attractive. Buses will turn at RAF High Wycombe, where entrants can pose for “selfies” with the Hurricane and Spitfire outside the site entrance.

From now on we plan to run a SHOWBUSflyby every year centred on High Wycombe in co-operation with Buckinghamshire County Council. The route will vary from year to year to cover different parts of the county, but the SHOWBUS TRADERS VILLAGE will regularly feature in the historic Wycombe Market Place in the High Street.

Whether you have a bus to bring or not I hope you will join us for this second 50^th anniversary event. There will be static displays in High Wycombe and at Brunel University if you do not want to drive the route.

This is a very interesting record of our buses & coaches between 1986 and 2010;. Matt has a significant collection of photographs from the area and thi.s book reveals many.

I can recommend the boo.k to. readers of this web page and am sure you will enjoy the read.

There is something a little exclusive in the post to you! It's another Amberley Publishing book which I put together some time ago (before the Oxford and South Midlands book in fact) and is launched 15th March.

Berks, Bucks Buses and Beyond looks at the operating area of what was The Bee Line in the late 80s, 90s and up to 2010. It covers a number of operators and to be honest looking back I should probably have made a book per county as I had a fair amount of material. My 'chatty' but I'd like to think detailed captions are to the cost of some of the pictures but I hope you enjoy it.

Readers will already know that the 250 Diamond operated Bicester to Oxford via the villages service ended on Saturday, February 11th 2023 leaving the Heyfords without a direct bus to Oxford for the first time for many years (possibly ever?). It was therefore appropriate for me to ride it for one last time and get a few pictures on Saturday, regrettably the bus (single vehicle operation on Saturdays) was filthy due to the weather and road conditions but for the record I’ve attached a couple of shots taken in Oxford.

Today, Monday 13 February 2023, sees the start of two new “replacement” services, the 25 operated by Red Rose between Bicester – Heyford Park – Upper Heyford and Lower Heyford.

My picture of the 25 at Heyford Park on the first day and have attached one – not a brilliant shot but again, for the record.

The 24 operated by Grayline between Bicester – Wendlebury – Weston on the Green – Kirtlington – Bletchingdon and Oxford.

About 6 years ago I noticed a new service starting in London called Brigits Afternoon Tea Bus. Basically it was a tour of London during which tea, coffee and cakes were served whilst riding on a Routemaster bus. In the coming years the service expanded in that it now has a small fleet of Routemasters and in addition operates specialist services for both Paddington Bear and Harry Potter.

My wife and I were lucky enough to be gifted tickets on the tour so on Thursday 9^th February we arrived outside The Grand Hotel in Northumberland Avenue for the 12.30 departure. Our bus for the day was to be RM 1735.

We left promptly on time and left Trafalgar Square along Whitehall to Parliament Square. Throughout the whole tour there was a good commentary and when this was not playing there was a good selection of popular music.

On board were 2 members of staff serving a wide variety of tea and coffee and the selection of cakes, sandwiches and scones was excellent. You could also preorder a bottle of wine up to a value of £68 a bottle or even champagne at up to £315 a bottle but I did not see any takers for the champagne.

Then it was on past Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park Corner and Knightsbridge and past Harrods. Next it went past The Victoria and Albert Museum and also The Natural History and Science Museums to take us to High Street Kensington and up the winding Kensington Church Street to Notting Hill.

The Bayswater Road took us back to Marble Arch and Park Lane to Hyde Park Corner and a left turn into Piccadilly. The bus does not go as far as Piccadilly Circus but turns right at The Ritz to go along Pall Mall to Trafalgar Square. We then repeated the Whitehall section and round Parliament Square but then returned along Whitehall making a right turn to The Embankment and then into Northumberland Avenue to finish.

The whole trip took about 90mins with the top deck full of passengers. The food was of an excellent quality and far too much to eat so we were given a box to take home the balance which we enjoyed later.

It had entered service in November 1963 from Putney Garage on Route 14 and then spent the next 22 years operating all over London from Fulwell, Victoria, Camberwell, Walworth, Stockwell, New Cross, Merton and West Ham garages. By 1985 RMs were being withdrawn in large numbers and it was the end for 1735 and in 1986 it was sold to Blackpool Transport where it spent the next 10 years before moving on again in 1996 to join Reading Mainline.

RM 1735 on Blackpool seafront and then in Reading on the last day of Reading Mainline service on which it performed the final journey in July 2000.

It was at this time London was buying back as many Routemasters as it could to come back into service and RM 1735 was one of them. It was given a major mechanical and body overhaul before being sent to London Sovereign to operate on Route 13.

2005 saw the end of normal Routemaster operation in London but it had been agreed that 2 heritage routes would be operated and RM 1735 moved to First at Westbourne Park Garage to operate Route 9 between The Albert Hall and Aldwych.

RM 1735 stands in Prince Consort Road on 24th November 2005 the first day of operation of the heritage service.

This service was to last 9 years but came to an end in 2014 but again it was not the end for 1735 as it was sold to Henry Cooper Coaches in Northumberland who kept it for a further 2 years.

Now aged 53 years it was still not ready for the end of the road and it came back to London again in 2017 to join the Afternoon Tea Bus fleet where it still runs to this day, still out on the street every day operating the service at the age of 60.

Afternoon Tea brand their buses for special occasions particularly where royalty is involved.

RML 2404 stands in Victoria Coach Station commemorating the wedding of Harry and Meghan in 2018 and RM 1913
in Elizabeth Street, Victoria commemorating The Queens Platinum Jubilee in 2022

The has proved to be a very popular service and every time I have seen it the loadings have been very good. Other operators have copied the idea but none have been as successful.

A few pictures taken in Uxbridge this morning, February 11th, including new Electroliners.

National Express Transport Solutions on Driver Training for 707 with coaches

Without going into too much detail, both the two MK1 runs were late running, I would assume the AM journey would have been delayed in Bedford by the amount of passengers on board, with about 45 when I joined it. The return run had suffered delays on its outward run due to traffic on the M1 and delays in Luton round the Airport, which can easily spring up at any time,

The Centrebus run was delayed in Luton by ticket machine issues, and through Markyate by bad parking and motorists not giving the driver space to get through, I was surprised that about 40 passengers were carried on the journey with about 20 of us going from Luton to Hemel.

The 300 took a short diversion missing out Apsley as the road through was closed by a building fire, this was the lightest load, perhaps due to time, with only about a dozen carried.

The 321 runs at a 20 minute frequency, with an hourly 724 Limted Stop shadowing between Maple Cross and St Albans, a round trip on the 321 is approaching 4 ½ hours, both runs were very busy, with the Streetlite encountering traffic most of the way and losing 15 minutes, where as the run from St Albans to Luton was a few minutes down leaving buy reached Luton on time.

One thing that I have noticed since lockdown is that many more drivers are actually smiling and waving even when the camera is not being aimed at them, both this and the Swindon visit last week I have had drivers slow down or stop for photos, if any of them were you, thanks.

ATS 3115 didn’t move the whole time I was at SA, just looked as if it had broken down and left.

Recent weather and country roads, 5462 is looking grubby on February 10th in St Aldates.

SAturday is a good time to see the Sprinter fleet and I notice 956 is still in the yard on February 11th.

Oxford Bus Company Wright Streetdeck 662 Working The City 11 On The 12^th February. This Route is usually done with Mercedes Benz Citaros but occasionally like on the 12^th which is a Sunday one double decker does the City 11 duties.

From Monday February 20 a brand-new park & ride service will be available – the Hospital park & ride 300.

This replaces the closed-door H3 service for hospital staff and University of Reading staff and students and is being renamed and renumbered to reflect that anyone can now use the service.

The Hospital park & ride 300 will run directly from Thames Valley Park & Ride to the Royal Berkshire Hospital then Christchurch Green and finally Mereoak Park & Ride, connecting the hospital and university area to park and rides in the south and east of the town.

The service will run up to every 20 minutes in the morning and afternoon peaks and every 30 minutes during the day.

The first buses from each site are timed to arrive at the hospital’s main entrance on Craven Road at 6.45 am and leave at 7.15 pm.

Fares on the bus will be part of the simplyReading zone allowing travel on all Reading Buses services. Customers can choose great value options for travel from tickets for occasional travel like easysaver10 and daysaver5 or tickets for regular commuters such as the weekly ticket, all priced at £17 on the Reading Buses app – with other fares available to also save customers money. Parking will be charged separately and can be bought on bus.

Reading Buses Chief Executive Officer Robert Williams said today: “I am very pleased that we have been able to continue developing services in the area to support the Royal Berkshire Hospital, and to help encourage a switch to more sustainable transport options.

“Free travel will continue to be available for Royal Berkshire Hospital and University employees, and now the public can also use the service so that they don’t have to worry about finding a parking space at the hospital.”

Janet Lippett, Acting Chief Executive Officer for Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust, said; “We know the experience patients and visitors have travelling to hospital can make a huge difference to their health and wellbeing. We are really excited to be opening this park and ride service to the public – providing them with an easy and sustainable way to get to Royal Berkshire Hospital without having to drive.”

I was delighted to hear from Taj Khan who advised that the 40 is now showing on www.bustimes.org

Red Rose E200 OU08EHO seen on February 12th and when almost new on April 9th 2008.

Period 10 Stagecoach West changes as at 03/02/2023. There isn’t much to record this time!

These are the other changes we have found relating to the Stagecoach Oxford Fleet

With regards to the Van Hool coaches on the Oxford Tube, 50271 seems to be out regularly, however it doesn't appear to track on www.bustimes.org.

1622, was the first of three rare normal wheelbase coach spec Olympians, originally intended for Southern Vectis as their 703-5.

1622 D822UTF was delivered to Alder Valley North for use on Bracknell based Londonlink commuter services. It feature a redesigned body profile first shown at the 1984 Bus & Coach show on a vehicle originally ordered and specified for Ebdon of Sidcup. Ebdon's refused to take delivery of their vehicle in the end over concerns with the overall weight which were at the limit of a two axle coach. The vehicle was sold to South Yorkshire PTE, numbered100, and used on their Sheffield Fastlink service in 1989.

1622 was renumbered 822 and painted into Berks Bucks Bus Company 'Beeline' yellow and grey livery and continued to be allocated to Bracknell until transferred to Reading for use on the X6. Just prior to the transfer of High Wycombe depot to Oxford Bus it was reallocated to High Wycombe, with the Bracknell branding removed, for use on the X15 service between Reading and Milton Keynes' Just three other 'long wheelbase' versions of this body design were delivered to the UK, for Eastern National as their 4510-4512 D510-512 PPU. There were however some three-axle Olympians with this style of body built for Grayline New York and Citybus Hong Kong.

1822 was painted into Wycombe Coaches livery of Blue/White/Yellow, in Oxford Coaches style, in 1991

In 1994 1822 had its front dome rebuilt with ECW bus style units, as per 1823, at Bristol Bus & Coach service centre at Lawrence Hill. The main reason for this was continual striking by trees and the boded glass not having much left to bond to!....................I wasn't very popular at Wycombe for getting these buses altered but there were no suitable parts available at Bristol Bus and coach in which to repair 1823's accident damage so a new moulding had to be made to accommodate the destination box and grp domes!

In 1995 1822 was renumbered 240 and later received overall advertising for Eleven Seventy 1170FM radio station, white green livery WBC red front retained

In 1997 240 was upseated to CH39/25F by the addition of two seats over the lower deck wheel arches.

In 9/99 240 swapped rear axles with OBC Titan 950 in order that the former could negotiate the more difficult inclines in High Wycombe, their intended work having now been reduced to working much within the High Wycombe operating area.

240 was transferred to Arriva The Shires, and renumbered 5822 with the sale of Wycombe Bus on 13/12/2000.

5822 was withdrawn and eventually sold to Fairbrother, Warrington along with 5823 in October 2002. Fifteen years later it was sold for preservation in October 2017 and will be the only survivor of these three standard wheelbase coach Olympians with the 'Ebdon', as it was nicknamed, style body.

I thought this might be of interest to readers followi.ng Grahame contributions. Ed

Fleet nr.	Registration	Chassis	Body	Seats	Year New	Year to Wyc. Bus	Comments
225-229 (5825-29)	E225-229EFC	Leyland Olympian ONLXB/1RH	Alexander RL	H47/30F	1988	1999	Ex Oxford Bus converted from dual door.
230-235 (5830-35)	G 230-5 VWL	Leyland Olympian ON2R50G16Z4	Alexander RL	H47/30F	1990	1996	Ex Oxford Bus converted from dual door.
240-242 (5822-24)	D 822-24 UTF	Leyland Olympian ONLXB/1RH	Eastern Coach Works	CH39/25F	1986	1990	ex BeeLine
301-305 (3806-10)	F 556-60 NJM	Leyland Lynx LX112L10ZR1S	Leyland	B49F	1988	1990	ex BeeLine
421-424 (3821-24)	N 521-4 MJO	Dennis Dart SLF SFD212	Plaxton Pointer 10.2m	N36F	1996	1996	Super Low Floor
425-427 (3825-27)	P 525-7 YJO	Dennis Dart SLF SFD212	Plaxton Pointer 10.2m	N36F	1996	1996	Super Low Floor
521-524 (3811-14)	G554/552/560/570SGT	Dennis Dart 8.5SDL3003	Wright Handybus	B30F	1990	1999	ex London Central
525 (3815)	JDZ2353	Dennis Dart 8.5SDL3003	Wright Handybus	B30F	1990	1999	ex London Central
526-530 (3816-20)	H881BGN/H367-370XGC	Dennis Dart 8.5SDL3003	Wright Handybus	B30F	1990	1999	ex London Central
621-624 (3841,2,54,5)	N621-624FJO	Volvo B10B	Plaxton Verde	B51F	1996	2000	ex Oxford Bus
625-627 (3843,4,53)	N413-415NRG	Volvo B10B	Plaxton Verde	B51F	1996	2000	ex Oxford Bus
703-704 (2829,31)	H 189/91 RWF	Mercedes 811D	Reeve Burgess Beaver	B29F	1990	1995	ex London Central
711 (2821)	G111 PGT	Mercedes 811D	Alexander AM	B28F	1990	1996	ex London General
716 (2826)	G116 PGT	Mercedes 811D	Alexander AM	B28F	1990	1996	ex London General
720/4/7 (2820,4,7)	G120/4 PGT H427 XGK	Mercedes 811D	Alexander AM	B28F	1990	1996	ex London General

City of Oxford (Wycombe Bus) 1822 (D822 UTF) at High Wycombe on 11/5/91 still in Berks Bucks livery.

City of Oxford (Wycombe Bus) 240 (D822 UTF) at High Wycombe on 28/2/96 having been repainted into the later version of Wycombe Bus livery.

City of Oxford (Wycombe Bus) 240 (D822 UTF) at High Wycombe on 10/9/99 having been repainted into an advertising livery for elevenSEVENTY fm radio.

Arriva The Shires 5822 (D822 UTF) at High Wycombe on 22/5/01 still in the advertising livery for elevenSEVENTY fm radio.

Arriva The Shires 5822 (D822 UTF) at High Wycombe on 28/3/02 having been repainted into an advertising livery for swanfm radio.

I am continuing with my Looking Back series of photographs for this edition of the Briefing with a day tour in Lincolnshire on 6th. May 1993.

I was staying with my parents in March, Cambs so this was ideal for a family day out in an area that I had not previously covered. Very conveniently the country drive took us through Folkingham to the garage and head office for Kime's.

The nicely presented buses included THX 524S ex-London DMS 2524; JKW 299W,
an Atlantean new to South Yorkshire PTE 1799; YVN 518T new to Cleveland Transit H118
and a rear view of former London DMS 1530 (THM 530M).

We continued north to Lincoln where I photographed buses departing the bus station.

These buses were operated by Lincoln City Transport and Lincolnshire Road Car operating as Road Car with Bristol VR, Leyland National. and Mercedes minibuses plus with Enterprise - Silver Dawn an ex-Grimsby - Cleethorpes Fleetline that was new to London Transport as DMS 2082 (KJD 82P).

The route back to March took us to Skegness where I was rather pleased to find an ex-Cumberland Bristol VR with independent Hunt's (NHH 406P) following a Road Car VR. Trying to photograph it was not so easy and I had to get ahead of the bus and do my best as the driver was determined that the bus would not be photographed. So many pictures have a story to tell. BTW, I never did find the sea at Skegness!

Two of the 25 strong Yutong electric bus fleet on the Ness Bridge, Inverness, 060223.

Transfers	34817	North Bristol (Driver Trainer)	To	Swindon (Driver Trainer)

To Reserve	37624	Cheltenham	To	Reserve (RTA)

Sold/Gone	59222/24/25	Reserve	To	Stagecoach South Wales
	59223/26-28	Reserve	To	Stagecoach Merseyside & South Lancs