Editorial

With thanks to Stagecoach.

Editorial

As we move onwards into 2021 many things have changed, not least Covid-19 restrictions which are detailed under the COVID-19 Update heading below. One wonders when this may end. Talk now is a lifting around March but we shall have to wait and see.

There are many service changes which appear under operator heading and which I hope readers will find interesting and useful.

As ever contributions feature from Andy Wareham, Ciaran Bird, Daniel Harwood, Frazer Peddle, Gavin Francis, Jack Cooper, James Lambeth, Nick Ross, Nigel Peach and many others, so I must thank everyone for their mails.

Some changes in local service allocations make interesting reading and a taster is included below.

Adam Wareham provided some pictures of the departure of one time Park & Ride 110 fame on its way to life after!

Ciaran Bird's picture of MMC 10686 at Wootton Turn typifies recent weather in our area on January 8th.

StreetDeck 909 is seen working the new route X36 at Didcot on January 4th by Daniel Harwood.

Frazer Peddle was working this 16 duty with ex Banbury 36448 seen at Minchery Farm on January 5th.

Gavin Francis was on hand in High Wycombe to catch Redline's YX10BFZ heading in from Aylesbury on January 8th.

Jack Cooper caught up with Bicester Village's 662 working the X3 to Abingdon on January 6th.
It appears that the Village may be out of action at present due Covid-19 Lockdown restrictions.

The 2014 Airline coaches are all back at Oxford and working the 11X service.
James Lambeth's picture shows coach 24 at Cowley House ready for another trip into the city on January 4th.
Carousel's OmniDekker 241 is seen in the background awaiting repaint.

Z & S dart T305 JRH holds up the traffic making a steady climb up Wing Hill on the 0940 165 from Leighton to Stoke Mandeville via the villages.
The Dart is just leaving a foggy, chill Linslade on January 7th 2021 from Nick Ross.

Ex Brighton & Hove Scania OmniDekker now 242 with Carousel in Bourne End on January 6th taken by Nigel Peach.

Indeed there have been many allocation changes recorded under the operator headings below.

Coventry and Oxford set to be UK’s first all-electric bus cities

https://www.route-one.net/environment/coventry-and-oxford-set-for-all-electric-bus-town-triumph/

Check the link above for more details.

The item regarding Alder Valley/Thames Valley from Michael Wadman last week has prompted several readers to write in about various matters. See under Readers Write.

Well this page has been a challenge with contributions arriving up to an hour or so ago. But, it means you have a big page with great interest to help pass the hours of lockdown. Now with over 150 pictures this week,

Once again we are now in full lockdown in England which makes getting out and about much more difficult. I would only caution readers and contributors not to break any rules since there will be people who question if someone should be taking pictures in these difficult times.

Many changes have taken place and service reduced or withdrawn in the past week.

January 7th 2021 - Coronavirus important info: megabus England and Wales suspended. Services within Scotland continue to run

Following the government’s guidance to stay at home and stop all non-essential travel, we’ve taken the decision to temporarily suspend our megabus services in England and Wales, with no journeys running after Sunday, January 10th.

However we’ll still be continuing to run our megabus services within Scotland and a service from Glasgow to London (with intermediate stops at Manchester and Birmingham). These services are for essential travel only, in line with the latest government guidance.

Customers with a booked ticket to travel on our megabus services who have been affected by this will receive an email to either amend their booking or request a refund. If this affects you and haven’t received an email from us in 5 days, please contact our Customer Services Team on enquiries@megabus.com who will be able to help.

We’re sorry for the inconvenience this will cause you and hope you understand the reasons for our decision. We continue to be on sale for travel from 26 March onwards and are continuing to offer flexible tickets – so you can book with confidence knowing you can amend your ticket up to 24 hours before you’re due to travel.

We look forward to welcoming you back on board very soon.

Levante III BU18OTF poses for a publicity photograph when new in 2018 during happier times !

National Express has revealed it is to suspend its entire national network of scheduled coach services due to the UK’s third national lockdown. The company is one of two main long-distance coach operators in the UK. It said on Thursday that the suspension will come into effect from 11.59pm on Sunday.

Chris Hardy, managing director of National Express UK Coach: “We have been providing an important service for essential travel needs. “However, with tighter restrictions and passenger numbers falling, it is no longer appropriate to do this.

The firm said it will offer all customers whose travel has been cancelled the choice of a full refund, or a ticket change to a later day.

National Express said there was a provisional restart date of 1 March in place but warned that could change. While local bus operations have been underwritten by a government bailout, which is giving operators assistance equivalent to lost revenue, intercity coach services have not had similar financial guarantees.

There are a number of other more local changes which are shown under Operator headings below.

Meanwhile do take care, seems the Police have been active in our challenging what people area doing !

The operator plods on and we have the allocation list for the end of 2020 which does not reflect the changes to take place in 2021. Many thanks to Paul Swann of Arriva who adds a quick note that all 16 of the Stansted Coaches are permanently going into Luton and the leased 7xxx are being returned.

Maybe due to social distancing, StreetLite 2318 is seen off its normal 33 route working the 30 to Downley followed by Citaro 3018
with Christmas decorations which neither Gavin or myself have seen before.

With a few more seats for the 33, Wrights Cadet 3537 is following on to Totteridge.

Arriva's 2328 (LK15 FFW), Benjamin (Disraeli) is behind it on Arriva's 37. At almost six years old, this batch of StreetLites are now looking quite tatty and could do with a new coat of paint! I've noticed that they have been taken off the 33 recently, presumably to put larger capacity vehicles on that route for social distancing purposes?

HONK FOR HOPE

FLAGFINDERS VDL Y2FLG near Woodstock some way from its home in Braintree, Essex on January 8th.

The seven buses we have on loan from Brighton & Hove OmniDekkers are: 652, 656, 657, 663, 666, 6513, 6615. Pictures of these are provided by Paul Bateson below.

Phil Southall adds "You may have seen today that 710 is on the 46 as 709 is VOR at Didcot. In another interesting development, service 11X is now being operated by coaches 21 to 25 for the foreseeable future."

New tickets for young people

Phil Southall advises that 709 and 710 have moved to Didcot and 710 is seen below.

Seen in Carousel full Chiltern Hundreds livery Solo 710 works the 46 through Wheatley on January 4th by James Lambeth.

Gavin Francis caught up with the latest arrival at Carousel as did Nigel Peach both contributors shown below.

Ex Brighton & Hove Scania OmniDekker now Carousel 242 is seen working route 39 on January 8th.

The same bus is seen in Bourne End with a 36 service two days earlier on January 6th.

Nigel writes "I will look out for the Carousel changes. It's a shame that 941 is the first of those to move to Thames Travel. It's the only one of that batch that has actually been repainted into Carousel livery - and the only one to lose its centre doors."

Looking quite small ADL E200 502, new with Thames Travel, is seen working the 27 local service in Oxford Road.

Citaros 869 and 870, this one now back in High Wycombe from Thames Travel, work local services out of Bridge Street.

Working a very country route link40, 886 is seen arriving in High Wycombe from Thame. The route runs along many very muddy roads.

During the past week link40 has been unable to serve New Road and Marlow Road in Stokenchurch and the service has stayed
on the A40 throughout the week as these pictures show. One must note that Carousel have retained the blue buses on the link40 to their credit.

Finally from Gavin is this picture from December 15th 2016, shows that 242 is not the first time a Scania OmniDekker has been
with Carousel who had ex Thames Travel's 911 for many months, seen above working the 36.

Earlier pictures from Gavin show the Thames Travel OmniDekker in its overall advertising livery for Abingdon College. It had also been in full Thames Travel livery.

154, as it then was, seen in St Aldates with an X39 service May 6th 2006. !
This bus may still be with Vision of Horwich, Lancashire as the picture link below shows. It was in December 2019.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/jongraham890/41234665274

Following the recent announcement all of our services continue to operate to their current timetables., including School services for key worker children. Should any changes need to be made to services these will be communicated in advance.

Jack has provided a grand selection of pictures showing current operations in Oxford and Abingdon.

Hybrid 308 is seen working a 35 road service in St. Aldates on January 6th.

MMCs 604 and 607 working local city routes in Park End Street on January 6th.

Bicester Village 662 is back on city services whilst the lockdown continues, seen here in St. Aldates on January 6th.

675 is also seen in St. Aldates on January 6th working 400 road.

With a reduction in demand Park & ride StreetDecks are now appearing on the X3 service with 676 and 681 seen in Abingdon on January 4th.

Adding a bright note to Oxford is 683 with a 3 road service in St. Aldates on January 6th.

A surprise return to its branded route is 848 with a 4 road service in Park End Street on January 6th.
Alexander also notes it was on 2 road a day later!

902 and 903 are seen back on local routes after a spell on Bicester Village Shuttles. Here in Abingdon on January 2nd.

On Monday 11th and Tuesday 12th January, the airline services travelling in both directions will be unable to serve the High Wycombe Coachway stop due to gas works.

During the time of this closure, passengers are advised to use the temporary stop located nearby as an alternative.

As discussed earlier, please find attached my photos of Oxford Airline coaches 23, 24 and 25 with the 11X on January 4th.

Jim Wright advises he saw four Interdecks working an Amazon contract from Oxford to Banbury passing through Kidlington on January 10th. They had the correct Amazon logo in their destination displays!

An interesting story is played out below on the fate of 2058, once Oxford Park & Ride 110 and now almost 22 years old having arrived with OBC/COMS in July 1999.

As I first remember them when I was driving for Oxford in 1999, 110 is seen on the 300 in St Aldates.

By 2012 with new buses arriving these once green buses turned red for use on local services.
110 is seen working 8 road on July 19th 2012.

Later still in life with the roof partially removed they joined the Sightseeing fleet initially as 58 later becoming 2058.

Hooked up and then being made ready for the journey north, 110 is finally seen exiting the building
- Good Bye old friend, you served us well !

Ex Carousel 871 is seen with a 95B to Berinsfield leaving Didcot Parkway on January 4th.

621 is seen with a 98 heading for Harwell Campus from Didcot Parkway on January 4th.

864 with a tiny fleet number is seen with a 33 at Didcot Parkway on January 4th.

Citaro 864, the one with tiny fleet numbers, is seen in Abingdon working the X33 to Wantage on January 2nd.

On January 2nd, 4th and 5th 907, 908 and 909 are seen locally in Abingdon with X2 services.

Not to be outdone, elderly 933 is also seen with a 33 working in Abingdon on January 5th.

As we are all unable to travel far at the minute, I thought your page might like some photos of the new & improved services in the Wantage Area. I originally took these photos for publicity purposes on the oxonbuses project.

The X32 now runs every half hour between Wantage, Didcot, Oxford and the John Radcliffe Hospital – Monday to Saturday.
The service requires around 8-9 vehicles and alongside 862 and 842, 226 (on loan from Oxford) were seen running the service on Monday morning at Wantage, Market Place.

This improved X32 replaces the 33 and X33 (33 now runs to Wallingford, replacing part of the X2) with limited service to Chilton on route. S106 funding provides evening and Sunday service between Wantage and Didcot, Parkway.

Because of changes to the X32/X33/33 (and perhaps the very poor reliability of the services when ‘connecting’ onwards at Wantage – services were often cancelled due to problems on the Didcot Services) Services 38 and 67 now run alone, sharing buses to allow the 67’s more frequent evening service.

Thames’ 866 and 933 were providing the services on Monday morning. Rare to see a dual door bus in rural Oxfordshire, almost unheard of to see the rear door in use!

New Service X36, running between the New Kingsgrove (Crab Hill) Estate, Wantage Market Place, Wellington Gate (Grove Airfield) Estate, Grove and Didcot, Broadway. This new link runs every 30 minutes Monday-Saturday and follows most of the lost service 36. This service is provided under an S106 contract, providing funding for the service for the next

On Monday morning, Thames’ almost brand new 904, 905, 906 and 909were operating the service, leaving the X2 running with some mis-branded buses! Due to some small errors with the service, not all buses were providing the correct route or using the wrong stops in Wantage. I understand that the company were still training drivers this morning, providing the services only passengers!

Somewhat "off route" 2 branded 226 and 4 branded 842 are seen in Wantage Market Square with the X32 service to the JR on January 4th.

Citaro 866 is seen with service 38 to Wantage & Grove in Wantage Market Square on January 4th.

905, 906 and 909 predominate in Wantage Market Square with the X36 service to Didcot on January 4th.

933 again this time in Wantage Market Square with service 67 to Faringdon on January 4th.

Of interest is that Carousels latest arrival, 242, was said to be working services between Oxford and Reading on Saturday, January 9th. I wonder why?