Oxford, High Wycombe & surrounding areas

updated - Sunday 5th March 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.

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 !

Having spent much of this week confined to quarters as a result of 'flu, I have taken the opportunity to put in some work on the page and to make a redesign which I hope meet with approval. I am continuing this work and hope to have more improvements as the weeks go by.

Fleet News week ending 5/3/00

City of Oxford Motor Services.

My correspondents have kept me in touch and a few interesting items have occurred. Vic Gackowski wrote to say that a visit to the Dentist on Tuesday 29/02 put him at Carfax watching the working from 1515 to 1630 , 1700 to 1720 and 1745 to 1800 . Roadworks in the Abingdon Road and St Aldates was clearly causing disruption . The 1615 and 1630 35 Road Departures to Abingdon arrived from High Street instead of Queen St obviously having been diverted. Delays meant that the 1745 was delayed at St Aldates until 1755 and was parked BEHIND the 1800 to Didcot. It appears 2 35s had ended up following each other and the 1745 left at 1758 with the 1800 close behind and on time, such are the delays being caused.

Also noticeable were a lot of Oxford Bus allocation mismatches on Tuesday . 29/02

514 was on 2 Road vice a Volvo (Not 2C/D which are booked 5xx)
801 was on 2 Road
640 and 643 were on 4 Road normally covered by Volvo/NC
650 was on 15 Road vice its normal haunt of 4 Road  
610 was unusually on 16 Road vice a 5xx
806 was on 22 Road
653 was on 52 Road vice its normal haunt on 4 Road

Thursday 2/03 saw the following mismatches -
814 on 2 Road
613 on 16 Road

Vic has also provided me with a full detail of all Oxford Bus company vehicles running on 17th January and I will be publishing this on a new page, being designed for this type of information, in the near future.

Paul Goodwin advised that Volvo B10M 602 turned up on rail replacement work for Chiltern Railways, more normally the haunt of Wycombe and Arriva vehicles. 

Stagecoach Oxford.  

Olympian 516 is now back from repaint and has lost its Brookes vinyls ! 

Mercedes 709Ds with Alexander Sprint B25F bodywork 456, 458 and 459  N 656,8,9 VSS have not so far entered service and are presently parked up at the depot. 

Sunday saw a "Blackbird flyer" livered M A N operating the 77, number not known. .

Wycombe Bus Company.

Nigel Peach reports that 228 is back from Oxford and was seen on route 326.  National IIs 388 390 & 391 were in the Bus Station with 389 out on route 364.He also 
watched Wycombe Bus "Sainsbury's" Merc 720 pass its Arriva "twin" 2142 outside the Bus Station which he comments "if only I'd had your camera...!! " Certainly that would be one for the record. Must try to fix that !

Arriva serving The Shires.

Paul Goodwin who does some work for Arriva noted that Lynx 3070 was on rail replacement work on Saturday. This is something I must follow up on and get some photos as there is a great deal of variety on this work.

I will be pleased to receive your reports for this section
Please send your reports to MalcolmHC@aol.com and thank you for all your sightings, they are most welcome.

  PHOTO CORNER
If anyone else has a digital camera and wishes to submit photos for this page please send them to the above email.

Seen leaving Stokenchurch on the 1100 journey from Oxford to Cambridge, 
CCS 312 serves as a timely reminder that this service will soon cease to serve this Chilterns village, 
leaving the area with no Sunday bus services at all !! 
Is this what the current transport policy is all about ? Maybe profit is a greater incentive.

Classic Coaches operate from a site near High Wycombe known as Cryers Hill. 
A very mixed fleet is used, mainly for school contracts.
More recently some ex WMT Metrobuses have arrived and three are seen
above last Tuesday afternoon with Bristol VRs for company.

The Oxford 400 Park & Ride service now operates on Sundays and Trident 101
is seen here passing Brookes University before descending Headington Hill
on its way into the City Centre on Sunday 5th March.

Climbing the same Headington Hill, on its way to London we see Volvo coach 53, 
one of a number of Oxford Citylink coaches now without appropriate vinyls !
Although the destination screens are "out of use" following transfer to the X90,
they can still be seen behind the large route vinyls ! 

Still in "complete" livery, coach nr 4 is seen setting down at St Clements on its way from London.
 

Climbing Headington Hill, out of Oxford, Stagecoach nr 49 seemingly enjoys 
the Spring sunshine, as it heads for London.

The end of the road has come for the mixed training fleet of Stagecoach Oxford.
These older vehicles have been replaced by ex MOD Dodge G13s, an event
which is happening in many group fleets up and down the country.
The Tiger, in its early life was an Oxford Tube, having been ordered by South Midland.

 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.

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

THE OXFORD BUS MUSEUM