Issue nr. 186
Monday, January 10th 2022
Editorial
An interesting issue with items held over from the last one plus the current contributions means a good read for everyone. The changes in Oxford have provided some interesting workings and use of vehicles.
I have included further pictures and comments from last week as a continuation of what's been happening. See comments under Readers Write below!
2 road follow up
Grahame Wareham
I have attached two more seasonal Citaro shots if you
wish to use them at some time...............taken from my bedroom window back in
2007.
Pictures of 2 road Citaros when new in 2007.
COMS 954 in 1961 heading for Barton in the days when the 2 went from Kidlington
to Barton.
3 road and other Florence Park services follow up
Graham Low
The end of Thames Transits'
years on the Rose Hill 3 are shown in pictures of a minibus in 1987 at Queens
lane, a new Dart at the Brighton Coach Rally, and an ADL E400 last Saturday at
Rose Hill Oval. I also attach views of Stagecoach 16 route buses in Florence
Park last Saturday, and finally an Oxford Bus hybrid on the revised 20, also in
Florence Park.
Thames Transit days in 1987 and 1994.
10433 seen at Rose Hill on December 30th.
Known by crews as "Misery Farm" Stagecoach ran the 16 for a number of years. The
two E200s seen on December 29th.
OBC Hybrid 310 working route 20 on January 4th 2022.
Ciaran Bird
Caledonian Travel Temsa Safari YJ17CXT on the A34 southbound passing Water Eaton
on January 4th.
One would assume it's destination is the Isle of Wight, judging by the
destination card!
Aylesbury update from Paul Coley
Paul Coley
A couple of photos taken
this afternoon when out for my walk - Arriva Solo with a single passenger,
followed 4 minutes later with a Red Rose Enviro with no one on board!
Red Rose seem to be losing so many passengers that they had gained over the last year, simply because their frequency is so poor during the week v Arriva (20 minutes v 10 minutes). I wonder how long they will keep it up for, before going back to a 15 minute frequency on the shorter route again….
May I thank all the contributors and hope your support continues.
Well nothing new except for the continuing Omicron variant and infections.
Fleet news and developments
As expected Paul Swann has provided the first allocation list for 2022.
Paul Swann
Arriva fleet lists/SR Enthusiast Fleet 6 Jan 22.xlsx
Five Citaros from Guilford into HW
3020,3021,3023,3024,3025 have replaced 2990,2992 2509 all gone to Southern
Counties 3700 and 2748 Delicenced
OmniLink 3508 into Aylesbury (3509,3510,3511,3512 to
follow)
This will mean some more changes at High Wycombe
Several 36xx Scania’s from Luton Delicenced all under Head Office.
Nigel Peach
I note that there are now 35 Citaros at Wycombe out of the total allocation of 48!
I visited Cressex on January 2nd and was surprised to see no fewer than three buses new to Wycombe! Apologies for sending this so close to your Monday deadline (possibly even too late) but today was really the first chance I've had to visit the depot.
At least three Citaros displaced when Arriva Southern
Counties closed their Guildford depot have appeared at High Wycombe. They have
been renumbered into the Midlands/Shires numbering sequence. I think the same
person with wobbly hands as reported by another of your correspondents has
applied the new numbers!! The details are:
New number 3020 BD12 DHL previously ASC 3910
New number 3021 BD12 DHP previously ASC 3907
New number 3024 BD12 DHM previously ASC 3904
(I notice that fleet number 3022 is already in use - a
Tamworth bus, but not 3023, so maybe there is also a bus bearing this number.
There were five BD12 registered buses at Guildford.)
I had noticed on bustimes.org that some buses have
disappeared from the listings: ill-fated Citaro 3926, also 3039 (with 06 plate,
one of the oldest) and DAF 3700. These last two were parked one behind the other
at the depot. Interesting if 3039 is withdrawn as its sister 3038 had a big
refurbishment during 2021.
3021 and 3024
and also
3039 parked next to 3015 and in front of 3700.
3915 without a front fleet number, nor a Mercedes badge.
It looks shabby - please repaint this bus!
Chris Toms
Saw these out at Oxford Street
in Wycombe the on the 21st of December. Sorry they're not the best pictures I
saw them why on my bus home so took a shot to get them.
I believe there’s three of them as
I did see a 3024 but didn't get a photo. All three of these seem to be using the
SP_HI ticket machine so it doesn’t track well.
I believe 3024 is either BD12DHM or BD12DHN as I saw the plate but couldn't quite tell which one it was.
Hazel Richardson
A high up shot of Arriva 3812 YJ58FFA showing the old livery still on the roof
seen on the 500 (5/1/22).
3508 YN08HZV also made an appearance on the 500 (7/1/22)
Both buses have recently transferred to the Aylesbury garage.
Arriva 3909 at the NORTHERN STAGING AREA - Heathrow on August 26th 2012. This is
now 3023.
Malcolm Crowe
1/ 3917, 3013 and 3038 - 2/ 6000, 4819 and Citaros - 3/ 2740
Thomas Walker
Taken in Leighton Buzzard and Milton Keynes. The
19-year-old Dart was working Leighton Buzzard town route 34 and the Gemini's at Milton Keynes are
normally on 3s but this one's escaped onto 6s.
Wrights 4210 is seen at Milton Keynes on January 8th
with a service 6.
Still in service this Dart 2211 seen in Leighton
Buzzard on January 7th. Not many left in this livery now !
Working the 150, 3812 still in white is seen on
January 8th.
If you want to download and post any of my photos from the New Year's Day running day in Chester as well, see them at this link:
https://mkttransportphoto.smugmug.com/2022/January-2022/UK-Bus-Other-Transport-January-2022
Tony Bungay
Bit late now, Buckinghamshire Council Bus changes website shows that Arriva X30 being withdrawn, no surprise really, passengers between Princes Risborough and High Wycombe via Saunderton cannot have been that plentiful to sustain at least 5 buses per hour!
Catteralls Coaches - Southam
Thomas Walker
Milton Keynes Central with some rail replacements,
including a surprise Lothian Gemini now with Catteralls of Southam.
More photos here: https://mkttransportphoto.smugmug.com/2021/December-2021/UK-Bus-Other-Transport-December-2021/i-bbQwgQL
Richard Sharman
Service 250 will be extended to Bicester Village Station and a new Sunday service is being introduced from 10 January.
Diamond timetable for service 250 - pdf
Gavin Francis
BV69LPJ a
Ridleys Mercedes Tourismo seen with an 021 in Bulleid Way on January 4th.
Nick Ross
Grant Palmer's Enviro 200 YX09FMJ (209) parked up at Leighton Buzzard station
between local service 36 duties on January 6th 2022
Malcolm Crowe
Sprinters 975 and 977 with StreetLite 401 pose in the
morning sunlight on January 9th at the depot.
It appears that Sprinter 980 made a few trips yesterday evening, January 9th to Thame and back working the 40.
Ciaran Bird
Hybrid 309 HJ11OXF working a city2 in
Kidlington on December 16th.
219 is seen in the City with a 6 road service on January 2nd.
847 in use working 2 road on January 1st with a suitable display.
Citaro 863 seen in St Aldates with a 15 road service whilst loaned to OBC on
December 13th.
Gavin Francis
Oxford 220 followed by 302 both in Westgate on December 28th on December 28th.
Hybrid 306 working 13 road on January 6th with ex Hybrid 317 working the 11X and
356 with the 5A on January 3rd all in St Aldates.
357 is seen with an 11X in High Street on January 3rd.
362 seen working 3 road, its new home, in St Aldates on January 4th.
364 is seen in Magdalen Street West on December 28th working the 300.
MMC's 603 working 15 road and 604 working 5A road both on January 4th.
607 is seen working 3 road on January 3rd in High Street.
655 is seen by Oxford Castle in New Road with a 5 road service on December 28th.
665 seen working 13 road on New Year's Day in High Street.
The new order for 667-669 is 6 road as seen above in early January.
However 669 was still working the 300 on January 3rd.
674 is seen working the 300 on January 4th.
684 was working 3 road on December 28th.
By the first days of January 682 and 684 could be seen working 15 road, their
new home.
The 8 & 9 remain unchanged as the orange route as seen above.
844 is seen in St Aldates working the 11 on January 6th, now the home for the
blue Citaros.
Jack Cooper
Heavy rain covers 356 with a 5A service at Minchery Farm on January 6th.
Blue 361 with a 3 road working in St Aldates on January 7th.
367 seen in Westgate with a 3A service to Cowley on January 7th.
MMC 613 seen with a U5 service in St Aldates on January 7th.
A nice grouping of buses in St Aldates, Oxford on January 7th.
684 rounds the corner at Carfax with a 15 road working on January 8th.
Heading for Wood Farm with a 15 road service, 685 is seen in St Aldates on
January 7th.
Unusually 844 was working 13 road in St Aldates on January 6th.
Whereas sister 846 was Watlington bound with an 11 on January 7th.
903 runs in the rain with an X3 to Barton in St Aldates on January 4th.
204 is seen in New Road with a lightly loaded service on December 29th.
Ciaran Bird
Scania 207 in Wantage with an X32 service on January
2nd.
454 is seen passing Alfred in Wantage with an X36 on
January 2nd. Is that what is meant by "and beyond" !
Citaro 850 is seen with a 67 working in Wantage in
the same day.
905 with an X36 seen in Wantage on January 2nd.
939 still carrying Carousel names is seen with a 38
also in Wantage.
Gavin Francis
Connector branded 224 is seen at Carfax with an X1 service bound for Headington
on January 3rd.
225 has charge of an X2 service in St Aldates on January 4th.
The X2 mostly sees the later 20 plate StreetDecks like 906 also seen in St
Aldates on January 3rd.
Jack Cooper
210 with an X1 to Headington seen in St Aldates on January 7th.
865 is ready for its run to Wantage with the X32 on
January 7th.
I've driven this Citaro working the X40 Carousel to
Heathrow in 2004. Here it is seen in heavy rain with Thames Travel
with the ex Stagecoach route 34 to Harwell in
Abingdon on January 4th.
Ciaran Bird
Reading's 1417 BV19XPS is seen passing St Giles on
January 2nd with a 210 service.
Gavin Francis
Oxford Airline 67 loaned and in use with Edwards working the 040 in Elizabeth
Bridge on January 6th.
A King Ferry Tourismo BU18KTY working the 007 seen in Bulleid Way on January
6th.
Gavin Francis
The company appears to have to unrecorded coaches
added, SJ16ZZU and BU16OZP seen in Oxford with a Private Hire on January 6th.
Gavin Francis
LJ09KPZ seen with an X20 in Oxford on December 28th.
Tony Bungay
The enclosed may be of interest, seen parked up near
Aylesbury Rail station on 7/1/22, I think this vehicle has already featured on
the news page, being used in overall white.
Nicely painted PA04CYC is seen in Aylesbury on
January 7th.
Red Rose 60 also shown, as some journeys withdrawn and certain journeys numbered 60A now operating via Great Horwood,
Gavin Francis
West Gold 15345 branded for the 55 seen in Gloucester Green working the S6 on
January 3rd.
Tony Gaze
Latest Gloucester repaints attached
15859 taken on 29/12/21
15764 is now in the Bristol paintshop, I am sure this
will be the last Gloucester allocated Gold bus
On January the 16th, Banbury depot will be running a farewell tour using one of the remaining Dennis Darts, the longest serving Stagecoach Oxfordshire vehicles, before they are withdrawn. For those interested, we will be leaving Banbury Bus Station at 10am and will run on routes 59A, X4, 32, X30 and 59B. We haven’t set out any fares, but all proceeds will be donated to local charity Katharine House Hospice. Any questions please ask!
https://www.facebook.com/groups/stagecoachuk/permalink/2037999103029951/
Theo Freeman
Also 34471 is now at Witney out station and 36930/2 are
at Banbury. It is rumoured that 34481/2 will either be reserve or sent to
Stroud.
As for the 16th we now have a route set
out. We will leave Banbury Bus station at 10am and run 59A to Oxford, X4 to
Abingdon, 32 to Wantage, X30 back to Oxford and 59B to Banbury. We will be
picking up in Oxford at either Magdalen Street or St Aldates around 11:30. We
will be collecting for Katharine House Hospice and there are no set fares but we
encourage people to dig deep!
Ciaran Bird
15762 on an S3 passing Wootton Turn (10/12).
MMC 10684 with an S5 in Magdalen Street East on January 2nd.
Gold 10786 with an S9 for Oxford seen in Wantage on January 2nd, this service no
longer sees a morning peak using an Oxford tube.
Ex Gold 15757 in Gosford with an S5 on January 1st
2022.
Gold 15830 seen in Chipping Norton with a service 7
on January 1st.
Gold
10781 on diversion along the A44 while road works were taking place on
Cassington Road in Yarnton on December 9th.
Gavin Francis
Working the 3 route, 10678 is seen in St Aldates on December 28th.
Gold 10779 is seen with a 7 to Woodstock on January 4th.
Stagecoach rules, 10788 with a 2A from the City on January 4th.
An evening picture of 11252 with an S1 in George Street on January 3rd.
27701 (not yet recorded in service by bustimes.org) seen with an S4 on January
6th
and 28745 nearing the end of its time as a Gold S4 on January 4th.
The replacement of these Gold buses seems slow as only two have so far moved to
WEST.
Normally a haunt of the Hybrids, E200 36931 is seen in St Aldates on January
6th.
Jack Cooper
Looking very very scruffy indeed Gold Scania 28744 is seen heading round to load
for its trip to Banbury on January 7th.
Peter Leyman
15757 finally returned back onto the S5 route since being returned to Oxford in
her new livery. This is the first time the bus has been back on its original
route as it has spent most its time on other routes and mainly spent time
running out of Chipping Norton outstation.
15756 has been back running out of Bicester as well, 15758 should be due back
soon as well from having the new livery applied.
Photos were taken in Magdalen street 1/1/22
15757 on its own ready to do the first run back to Bicester
Gavin Francis
MMC's 10872 and 10879 seen in Gloucester Green with X5 services on January 3rd.
Thomas Walker
Milton Keynes Central on December 27th to get my first X5 in
the full new Stagecoach long distance livery, complete with gold logo at the
rear.
Presumably these will get some kind of X5/99 branding at some point too?
Brent Ricketts
I have a couple of pictures which I took today of one of
our B10M single deck Volvos in the process of being restored into the original
stagecoach aqua fresh livery at our Nuneaton garage.
It’s in preservation and also used for driver training.
Before it was based at Northampton in service but now they’ve moved it to
Northampton and am I right Oxford used to have some as I remember as a kid
riding these between Yarnton and Oxford on the 20a/b and c ?
Theo Freeman
I paid a visit to Leamington at the end of December and below are my pictures.
Pictured are 39890 at the station, 11221 and 18323 at
the Parish Church, Johnson’s YX67 VGL with the breakdown van, 11217 and 34471/2
As mentioned above in that order.
The Astromegas 50233, 50235 and 50250 have not been used since December and 50272 and 50274 sent south to replace them have not so far entered service.
Jack Cooper
50428 heads up St Aldates London bound on January 7th.
"nis" 50438 in the rain on January 6th.
Ciaran Bird
AirSym (Symphony Chauffeurs) YX21NPG, a Volvo B8R/Plaxton Panther Demonstrator
seen on a Megabus M34 to Newcastle in Oxford.
Note the rear destination blind
fitted for PSVAR compliance. Picture from January 2nd.
Gavin Francis
54219 and 54269 seen in Bulleid Way, London December 24th and January 4th 2022.
54287 is seen in Oxford with an M34 northbound service on January 6th.
McLean's NX21MCL is seen with a megabus M20 service on December 24th.
Yellow Bus BK14LFJ seen in Bulleid Way on January 6th.
59222 is seen in Bulleid Way on December 29th.
East Yorkshire and Keepings run megabus services with A14EYC working the M45 and
YT71GJK ready for an M10 both on December 24th.
Citylink 900 50417 away down south to London with an M20 service on January 1st
2022.
The megabus Panoramas are notable by their absence recently as their duties seem
to occupy older Astromegas.
James Freeman
Panorama 50414 heading for Glasgow along the M40 (Wheatley) with an M20 on
December 30th.
Ciaran Bird
Sunrise over the depot on December 19th.
Michael Wadman
Swindon & District 14272 G102AAD in Swindon on
September 27th 2004.
18447 in Chippenham on February 29th 2008.
Volvo 20683 seen in Faringdon with a 66 on September
27th 2004.
May 8th 2004 sees 20685 working the 51 in Cirencester on May 8th 2004.
Dart 33908 in Swindon working the 8 on November 21st 2003.
Cheltenham &
Gloucester no 812 (J412 PRW) Former Midland Red South MB 811D / Wright
This appeared to be a minor mystery. The records say that
812 was transferred to Swindon & District in October 1998 ; to Cheltenham &
Gloucester at Cirencester depot in March 2001; delicensed in September 2001 and
placed in reserve; and dispatched to Bluebird Buses in Aberdeen in February
2002.
Which is fine except that I photographed it on 4th July
2001 in Frideswide Square, Oxford, operating service 63 (from Faringdon) which
had been a Swindon & District route since October 2000. And it was still
carrying Swindon & District legals (for obvious reasons I was unable to check
the disc).
So my thanks to Dave Russell and Deric Pemberton for explaining that whilst Cirencester was technically a Cheltenham & Gloucester depot, at the time it was actually operated as an outstation of Swindon and vehicles allocated to it received maintenance at Swindon depot. 812 and several other vehicles transferred from Swindon & District to Cheltenham & Gloucester but didn’t have their legal lettering changed. They surmise that 812 was probably at Swindon for maintenance and was used on a Swindon duty on that day.
Comments on last week's article on route 2.
Andrew Dyer
What a splendid article
from Grahame Wareham about 2 Road. My memories of the road when
I started school in the mid 60s were that the Weymann bodied “Queens” were the
mainstay of the route. As Grahame has said, the Kidlington route 93 was
separate in those days.
I’m also trying to imagine how big the party at South Wales Transport was when COMS sent 980-989 to them. The old Atlanteans that came in the opposite direction were the most appallingly unreliable vehicles as I recall!
Alexander
I also enjoyed reading Grahame Wareham's epitaph to OBC and its predecessors
regarding 2 road, it certainly does have an interesting history, some of which I
knew and some of which I didn't. I did however notice 3 mistakes I'd like to
point out; the 1st one was with regard to what he said about the routes and
numbers being simplified in the 1980's - he said that the 22 (City-Risinghurst)
went via Banbury Rd - the 2nd one was about the 2D being withdrawn from The
Moors in 1999, which actually happened in 2002 and the 3rd one was in relation
to the picture of Volvo B10B 604 on the 2D service. He said that it was going
back to Oxford Station when it was actually going to Oxford City as indicated on
the blind. Also, the 2D wouldn't have been running on 16th April 2005 as there
was no 2D between December 2004 and July 2005; in December 2004 it was withdrawn
and replaced by Stagecoach's 7D service then in July 2005 the number was used
again for A variation of the 2 that ran between Oxford City and Oxford Airport
via Exeter Hall. It certainly is A shame that Oxford Bus Company will no longer
be operating 2 road but I'm glad that the route had A good send-off, similar to
what the X90 had on its last day 2 years ago. It was really good of Grahame
Wareham to write such an excellent and comprehensive history and I'd also like
to thank him for getting the remaining 2005 Citaros allocated to 2 road on its
last day with special destinations. I actually got A picture of 1, which I'm
planning on sending to you along with other interesting photos I took of buses.
Jack Cooper
I thought I would comment on something mentioned by
Brian Bell in last weeks issue.
In last weeks issue, Brian Bell had raised a comment about the Oxford Bus ticketing types, commenting that the only Oxford + South Oxfordshire ticket is available on the app and for a week at a minimum. This is not the case, and there is a ticket on offer called the Go Anywhere. A Go Anywhere ticket is available to purchase as a paper ticket on the bus, or on the app. The paper ticket allows travel on any Oxford Bus Company / Thames Travel services and Stagecoach services within the Oxford SmartZone. The ticket is priced at £8 for an Adult, £5.50 for a Child and £15 for a Family (2 Adults + up to 3 Children). You can find more information on the Go Anywhere ticket here -
https://www.oxfordbus.co.uk/go-anywhere.
Thomas Knowles
I was interested to read Grahame Wareham's piece on the
Kidlington service. As a result I am attaching two pages from the COMS timetable
dated 1st January 1945 when we were still at war. Fares are also shown, but the
item of interest to me was the early last bus on account of wartime
restrictions. I thought some readers might like to see this.
COMS also operated route 94 to Banbury through
Kidlington but that used a fare scale that discouraged short distance
passengers. I can supply a copy if it is of sufficient interest.
At the bottom of the scan is the Kidlington service as at 26th February 1940 from which you will note that at least on a Saturday and Sunday there were some later departures. No doubt these were withdrawn as a wartime economy. However, there were two round trips added by 1945 - at 8.10am and 7.30pm ex Gloucester Green.
Stephen Warwick
It has been a long time since we've had any contact
although I still follow what's going on the Oxford and Chiltern bus page.
I am writing to see if any readers can help me, you may recall a long time ago myself and the late Malcolm Hyland had an extensive collection of photos from Alder Valley & The Bee Line from around 1980 to the early 1990s.
These were all photographs , Malcolm and I scanned them
all and had them on an external drive, Unfortunately over the years I have lost
mine and would love to be able find photos of that era.
Do you think any of your
readers/contacts would have any they would be prepared to sell me
I'm currently laid up with this wretched Covid and going
through all my photos.
Kind Regards
Please let me know if you can help Steve.
Michael Wadman
On
another subject, I know it’s a bit outside OCBP’s area, but
hope readers may be
interested in the LBPT’s route 93 running day in south London & Surry in
October?
On 9th
October the LBPT hosted a Running Day over the traditional London Transport
route 93 (Putney – Epsom, plus the extension to Dorking that ran on Summer
Sundays from 1939-42 and 1946-60). Unfortunately it wasn’t ideal weather for
photography, with morning fog giving way to bright sunshine, and traffic
congestion, particularly through Wimbledon and over the Ewell – Epsom road,
causing the timetable to rather fall apart by lunchtime. In general the more
modern buses stayed on the southern part of the route to avoid the LEZ, leaving
the northern end to the vintage vehicles.
Former Connex Bus TA23
(V323 KGW) and former London United DPS689 (SN03 LFE) are in the morning fog at
North Cheam.
The heritage buses terminated at the Green Man on Putney Heath rather than face the terrors of Putney High Street on a Saturday.
We see London General’s RM9,
RM2208 from Berkshire’s Big Red Bus, a heritage bus operator based in Reading,
and preserved RTW467 on layover.
Preserved RM848 at Epsom
(Ashley Road). In LT days.
The bus wouldn’t have been here, as the 93 was
withdrawn from Epsom in 1970 before the current one-way system was instigated.
Finally, an example of the usual fare on route 93:
London General DOE12 (LX58CXB), an ADL Trident / Optare
Olympus body, at North Cheam (Priory Road) on 19th
February 2009.
Many thanks to Michael for an interesting article.