News from Oxford, High Wycombe
& the surrounding areas

last updated Wednesday, February 3rd 1999 - 1000hrs

Well somehow things seem to go from bad to worse and apologies are due for the lack of updates over the past few weeks due to business commitments.

Wycombe Bus now have all of the ex London Country Olympians, being 976-980 and we include a picture of 980 in this week's news parked up in Wycombe garage.

Stagecoach's 28 Volvo B12Ms with Jonckheere double deck coachwork seating 72 are still awaited and no date was available at the time of going to press. The first two will be 34 and 35  S34-35CWL and the whole batch, as yet without remaining registration numbers will be fleet number 34-60.

Now that the Oxford Tube is operating the X50 Stratford-Oxford service with three services per day, pressure from the residents of Chipping Norton may see this service increased slightly but it is rumoured that any higher frequency will not pay and modern day operations require profit as we all know.

A major piece of news this week is the first general release of plans concerning the Oxford Transport Strategy's changes to traffic in the centre of Oxford. From April 1999 Cornmarket will be closed to ALL traffic between 7.30am and 6.30pm. Cars will effectively be banned from High Street and St Aldates and a total revision of traffic in the Oxford Rail Station area is being completed. New bus priority lanes will be introduced and Speedwell Street will be a bus only area. Full details are covered in a leaflet entitled CHANGE It'll be terrific without the traffic.

Part of the plans encompass the PARK & RIDE facilities on the outskirts and as reported earlier Oxford Bus are expecting delivery of 20 Dennis Trident deckers with Alexander ALX400 bodywork. The first chassis are arriving in Falkirk and delivery of 101 (they are to carry fleet numbers 101-120) is expected in April, thus coinciding with the new traffic scheme. The current mixed fleet of Olympians and Titans will be replaced by these new buses. Indeed the services are very well used at present with the 300 service between Redbridge and Peartree being very heavily supported. With buses every few minutes it is not unusual on a Saturday to find two deckers loading together in the City Centre and both leaving full with moments of each other. A success story indeed !  For those of you who like Olympians or indeed a Titan in green your days to sample same are limited.

This week I include some pictures from Cambridge and Exeter of the migrant Dart SLFs now in their new homes. I can also recommend a web page for the Devon area edited by Dave Fricker. Click on the link to visit Dave's page.
http://www.transit815.freeserve.co.uk

We hope you continue to like this news section, which will give us the opportunity to comment on the local scene in an informal way.

Ex Stagecoach Oxford 801, "Oxford's first easy access low floor buses" now with
Stagecoach Devon as their 754 and seen here in Exeter. 
Photo courtesy Dave Fricker.  http://www.transit815.freeserve.co.uk

Ex SCO806 now Devon 757 seen at Paris Street Coach Station, Exeter.
The removal of the Oxford lettering can be seen.
Photo courtesy Dave Fricker.  http://www.transit815.freeserve.co.uk