News from Oxford
High Wycombe & the surrounding areas

update Sunday, July 4th 1999 by Malcolm Crowe

Again further new buses have been delivered to Oxford Bus. Tridents 112, 113 and 114 have now arrived  and will be entering service. Volvo B10BLE 810 has entered service and 811 was under prep on Saturday morning. The 400 road has seen its first  Trident and most journeys on 300s are now Trident operated. I am advised that Titan 950 is reprieved until this coming Friday. The 52 road still sees a mixture of old and new but when the final deliveries of the new B10BLEs enter service most journeys should then be low floor served.

226, 228 and 229 are under conversion to single door for Wycombe as these notes are written. 203 has now been withdrawn along with 209,215, 216, 219, 966 and 970. It now seems that Metrorider 781 will stay with Oxford but its role is not clear. Other Metroriders to remain will be 782 and 783, since one bus is needed for the 61 Jerico service.

On the Stagecoach front no further deliveries can be reported with new Tube coaches reaching 54, which had its full livery applied last Friday. The rear of this coach carries a picture of London only with no other lettering.  Both 38 and 48 were noted today, 4thJuly, on X50 service to Stratford. Is this the first use of these coaches on this service ?  48 now sports full wheel trims and looks much better.  Further unusual workings by dedicated route branded buses has been seen once again during the past week with a blue top M A N operating X39 to Heathrow Airport on Thursday afternoon. Both blue and orange top M A N s continue to work Abingdon direction services. A Volvo B10M (9xx series) was seen route 7 on Thursday.

A big surprise was news of an ex Hong Kong Dennis Dart/Plaxton DP at Horspath Depot for quite a few days. It seems that this is one of the 20 similar buses in transit from Hong Kong to Manchester. Most have now arrived in Manchester have been on the same sailing from Hong Kong to Southampton. The one at Oxford 1421, suffered a mechanical failure on the A34 en route to Manchester and was recovered to Oxford. It is expected to go to Manchester early next week.

Ex Oxford Olympian 217 has been seen with Charlton Services operating a school contract in Thame and 216 is now thought to be with Worths of Enstone. Both are currently in Oxford livery without vinyl's. So it seems that we may still see these proud old ladies from time to time in Oxford on service. Your sightings are much appreciated and thanks this week to Michael Wootton of Woottons Coaches, Princes Risboro' for the report on 217.

Wycombe Bus will shortly receive the first of the five Olympians 225-229, following conversion at Oxford. A really professional job is being made of these conversions to single door and Oxford Bus are to be complemented on the excellent work being done by their body builders. Indeed the conversions are fully in-house and much skill is needed to achieve the end result. We hope to bring a photographic record of the work when the buses are completed.

Finally on the Oxford-London services, from reports received, it would seem that both companies are carrying increased loadings and many more people are using the coach. This is good news and should help a little to reducing congestion on the roads. There are now 9 departures offering over 500 seats per hour in peak periods. Often additional vehicles are put in, especially by Stagecoach and it is not unusual to see 2 or even 3 double deck coaches in quick succession on the M40. Indeed the intensity of service for an express route can only have been matched by the long gone X60 service between Manchester and Blackpool, which was at its peak in the 1950s.

Click here to see P&R Trident launch - Dateline Tuesday June 1st 1999 and you can also view the New MAN Tube launch report here.

Photographic Report

New arrivals !
Three of the new Volvo B10BLEs share the line with Tridents 110 and 112
at Oxford Bus Cowley Road Depot last Saturday.

Another interior of Cowley Road Garage with 504 undergoing
a full wash prior to PSV inspection.

Watch this space for further news on the new role of 781.

Olympians 226, 228 and 229 seen last Saturday morning in the bodyshop
at Cowley Road. Work is proceeding on all three on conversion to single door.

All four Olympians transferred from   London after single door conversion.
Taken last Saturday morning. With Brookes University starting Summer Vac,
these buses could see service on other than their intended routes !

Dear old "AFJ" is still serving at the driving school of Stagecoach Oxford
and was under routine maintenance last Saturday at Horspath Depot.

Surprise of the week was a "foreign visitor" in the shape of Hong Kong Citibus 1421
en route to join its brothers in Manchester where they will enter service with Stagecoach.

Another nice surprise at this weekends Morris Commercial Day at the
Oxford Bus Museum was the welcome appearance of 14 LFC, formally
the Band Bus of Morris Motors. It is now in the care of the Museum
and is now under restoration.

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