News from Oxford
High Wycombe & the surrounding areas

update Sunday 2nd January 2000

Please note that any comments made in this news page are those of the Editors' and in no way constitute 
any official points of view from the bus companies mentioned,  or indeed any other official body. 
As a news page we reserve the right to make valid comments as seen from an editorial point of view.

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Problems with the pictures ! - sometimes it seems that the pictures do not load.
I have found a solution which does work normally - 
RIGHT CLICK ON THE PICTURE AND THEN CLICK ON "SHOW PICTURE"
Good luck !

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Well, it's all over bar the shouting as they say. Now we'll be back to work or whatever else we normally do all year and soon the past week or so will be but a memory ! I trust you all had a great time celebrating and for those not so lucky, I hope you had a peaceful and happy time. I look forward to bringing you the Oxford Bus Page for another year and hope that I will hear from many of you with updates of what is going on in your "neck of the woods". I managed to drive on 400 road on the 30th December and had Trident 108 as my last drive of the old year. I was then lucky to have the opportunity to drive on the first working day in the New Year of the Oxford Bus Company with a shift on X90s and my first steed of the New Millennium was VCS liveried Volvo nr 50. As it was a quiet Sunday morning on my first trip I secured a rather nice photo of the Victoria Coach Station with nr 50 posed outside. Something of a scoop and not easily obtained on a normal day. The result is shown below.

If only the sun has been shining !
Nr 50 at Victoria on Sunday January 2nd 2000.

Well what else has been happening ? Certain days over the holiday proved difficult with more passengers than expected for the various companies. Some were running Sunday services when Saturday passenger loadings were experienced, this happened in Wycombe on New Year's Eve. In Oxford cars waiting to get into the Eastgate Car Park caused massive traffic jams back to the Redbridge Park & Ride on a number of days. Indeed it was most noticeable that car drivers totally ignore the signs indicating buses only, especially at the station area. Very often cars line up two abreast to leave the bus only area towards the Botley Road and it can only be a matter of time before there is a nasty accident ! High Street is a go go area for cars for most of the day and I have personally only seen police enforcement on very few occasions. Delays to services are inevitable and something needs to done. 

A new service due to start soon, will be run by The Oxford Tube, when their coaches provide a Millennium Dome Express Service. Direct trips to the Dome will run on Sundays during 2000 and the destination screens on the coaches have been updated to show the appropriate scroll. This can be seen to advantage in the shots below. Quite some effort is required on the part of the programmer to get the dot matrix blinds to show the graphics sometimes used. 

48 shows the two scrolls to be used on the Millennium Dome Express.

Some unusual workings resulted from the holidays when it was not always possible to roster the required vehicles to the service in question. The 400 road Park & Ride had changes on both the 27th, when 647, 651 AND 656 were used in place of the more normal Tridents and again on the 28th December a change occurred when 806 and 811 put in work during part of the day on 400 road. Leyland Olympian 208 was again in use over the holiday break with spells on both 300 and 400 and it also appeared on 52s on Christmas Eve. Indeed due to a technical problem with Trident 105, I had 208 on the 30th December on 400 road. 

806 runs down St Aldates on the 400 P&R service on 28th December 1999

Whilst the roster shows a M A N coach to be used on the X50, many different types are
in fact used. Here 516 leaves Oxford on 27th December 1999.

The little Darts are now appearing in Wycombe and one of my last pictures of the old year was of 522 passing through the bus only area in Wycombe just before lunchtime on New Years Eve. They look rather smart, though your correspondent still feels they look like sheds on wheels. ! I am told however, by another operator, that these models of Wrights are nearly indestructible ! A useful bonus to any operator.

How many of you remember that Heyfordian once ran the Brookes University contract in Oxford and some will have wondered what happened to the three Bristol VRs which ran the service. well, they have turned up in Wycombe still with Heyfordian and I tracked them down on New Years Eve resting ready for the New Year and more school children ! 

I don't often show breakdowns and I was even more surprised to see a Charlton Service coach in trouble. Most look very smart as mentioned before in these pages. Here we see a little Mercedes Coach in the centre of Oxford awaiting rescue.

I have often felt that one only sees photos of the front of buses or classical three quarter views, again from the front , so to end this report - I think there's a pun somewhere - I took these two shots of buses and coaches in Gloucester Green this afternoon, 2nd January 2000. Both major Oxford companies are represented and all look quite smart. Overall back end advertising is frankly a matter of taste.

Oxford 52 and 50 above 
with Stagecoach UCOC 173, Oxford 48, 380 and 515 left to right below.

Who says that variety is dead ?

Welcome to 2000 from The Oxford Bus Page, please keep the reports coming in and lets make the New Millennium a bumper one for bus enthusiasts and even those not so interested.

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 If anyone has any further news please email below.

Malcolmhc@aol.com 

It adds to the interest of the page which I'm sure everyone appreciates.

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You can still view 
the Tube launch report  
and 
the Oxford Bus P&R Trident launch - Dateline Tuesday June 1st 1999  
Click above

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THE OXFORD BUS MUSEUM