News from Oxford
High Wycombe & the surrounding areas

update Sunday, June 13th 1999 by Malcolm Crowe
with Stop Press News Friday 18th June 1999

Well, it seems that everyone is getting used to OTS and all the changes. George Street is probably the worst affected with much more traffic, buses and taxis, vying for space, especially in the evening with evening visitors. Oxford Bus has been running a full service but it does seem that Stagecoach, even with many drivers "imported" from as far away as Fife, are not always running a complete service. 

On the Oxford Bus front work continues with repainting of the early Volvo B10Bs with work completed now up to 605, although some later examples have of course been done including 616-619 for X3 and 625-627 ex X3 dedicated livery. Still the new Park and Ride Tridents have not entered service and 101 was , as of Saturday, the only example so far delivered. It is still on driving familiarisation duties. The Metroriders have now all but ceased passenger service and early Darts from the 501-520 batch are used on those routes which until recently were served by Darts, notable being the 51 and 61 roads. Coach nr 5 has acquired roof top adverts, telling those who can see theses, that the X90 service is the best way to "Express" yourself to the Capital. Watch this page for details of new deliveries, it seems 8 Tridents are imminent. plus the new Volvo B10BLEs 801-815 should commence delivery in the third week of June. Also we will shortly have details of the Q buster fleet of double deckers for the Summer students. This will include some surprises.

On the Stagecoach front the latest fleet allocation is to hand. It is noted that many Tube coaches have left the fleet to pastures new. 1,2 and 5 have been returned to the Leasee. 26 and 33 have gone to Fife. 12, 19 and 23 have gone to United Counties, 8, 14 and 32 to Midland Red South and finally nr 6, an ex Wallace Arnold/Plaxton has gone to Cumberland. 514 is back after repair and reallocated to Witney and Mercedes 351 has gone to Slaemuir Coaches. It is also noted that three other Mercedes are awaiting disposal being 350, 352 and 353. Atlantean open top, 500 - SVK624G is stored at Gloucester. it is not known if anymore Tube deckers have arrived this week and to date 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52 and 53 are in service. 44 is still without chrome wheel trims and looks less than attractive. Nr 50 has contravision on the windows making for a much better interior and other will be retrofitted with contravision. Finally it is noted that the four ex London Olympians can be seen on route 7B as well as 10s and 77s.  

Please 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

As mentioned above Carfax in the centre of Oxford was the scene of a demonstration on
Saturday afternoon and considerable delays were caused to bus and coach services
as a result. At one stage no buses moved out of Queen Street for 20 minutes
and many services were re-routed to get services back on schedule.

Here we see the same view earlier with Oxford Bus 221 sharing the picture
with a Thames Valley Police horse !  Cornmarket witnessed a different scene
than that the carnival atmosphere created on June 1st (see last week's picture).

Things were hotting up when this picture was taken and Stagecoach 939
edges past the crowds.

M A N Tube nr 36 eases by the Police horses, on its way to London.

Was the horse a bus enthusiast ?  I wonder !!!!!

101 during a layover from driver training shows the offside which has
gained an advert for the service since delivery.

Stagecoach 527 after service on the 7B route. The single door conversion
can be seen in this view at Horspath Depot.

Stagecoach M A N saloons come in three different liveries  in Oxford.
Here we see Blackbird Flyer, Kidlington and standard liveries plus
entering the garage one of the Plaxton bodied Volvo B10Bs of which there
are nine in service with this Stagecoach company.

Front and rear comparison with 528 C112CHM and 529 C115CHM
awaiting service at Horspath Garage.

Finally and seen Heathrow Central Bus Station, where Oxford Citylink services
and Stagecoach's X39 rub shoulders with many other operators, Speedlink
has just taken delivery of 6 DAF-Van Hools for their Heathrow-Gatwick service.
T206AUA is seen loading at Heathrow last Tuesday 8th April.