News from Oxford, High Wycombe
& the surrounding areas

last updated Sunday, March 14th 1999 - 2200hrs

As some of you may know Oxford's peace and tranquillity was somewhat disturbed on Friday when a Gas Main started leaking during roadworks on the Magdalen Bridge. The resulting closure of the bridge and it's impact on traffic is not hard to imagine. Magdalen Bridge is the main access to the City from London and the East. All bus companies were thus forced to reroute services and try somehow to maintain a service to the travelling public. Matters for the two major companies were not helped by the fact that many services are of a cross city nature and at least 65% of the services were affected. Buses and Coaches (Citylink and Tube routes sue this access)  approaching from the East were rerouted via Iffley Road, Donnington Bridge and thence along the Abingdon Road into the centre. In the case of the Arriva Aylesbury service, this company provided a "pilot" to go into the centre and out again with each bus. The very excellent radio communications of the Oxford Bus Company and Stagecoach helped significantly and on Saturday morning for a short time both companies were accepting each others passes, a nice touch in an "hour of need" Whilst services such as the 300 Park & Ride were not affected by diversion, they were much delayed due to the extra traffic on the Abingdon Road. A further diversion of interest was the 400 P&R which operates from Thornhill on the A40 East and the Botley Road on the West of the City. This service whilst routing inbound from the East via the Donnington Bridge operated back to Thornhill via Banbury Road and Marston Ferry Road presenting the unusual sight of P&R buses in the Summertown area of the Banbury Road. It must be said that all bus companies made a sterling effort and in a City much used by bus travellers inconvenience was minimised even if some unusual workings occurred. We were treated to the ex London Volvo B10Bs (644-656) on 2, 15 and 52 roads with 647 on the 15 for most of Saturday. Stagecoach Blackbird Flyers using the Abindgon Road was also a change to the norm'.

The scene on Saturday morning around 11am at the junction of the Abingdon Road and
the Donnington Bridge road with a 52 road OBC Volvo followed by a Stagecoach MAN
heading City bound passing outbound a Blackbird Flyer M A N which in turn is followed
by an Arriva Olympian on the 280 to Aylesbury.

Further into Oxford the long line of slow moving traffic leaving the City on
the Abingdon Road sees a Volvo B10B on 52 road heading towards Donnington Bridge
whence it will head back to the City along the Iffley Road before rejoining
its route at St Clements right by the closed bridge !!

The bridge reopened at 1600hrs on Saturday afternoon and what was a difficult but interesting time for all concerned was over. Delays were not over however so fat as Headington was concerned when a serious traffic accident close to Manor Ground of Oxford United caused major delays with traffic at a standstill for over 15 minutes around 1700 hours in both directions.

Moving on to more mundane matters but of some importance is the fact that new rural services are beginning to appear following the Government initiative in providing funding for new services. One such service is provided by Bucks County Council from Stokenchurch to Marlow and run by Classic Coaches.

Here we see the 0915 Monday to Saturday departure from Stokenchurch operated by an ex London
Metrorider D462PON nicely turned out by Classic Coaches. 9/3/99.

An interesting sighting on the M40 Oxford bound late on Saturday evening was one of the newest Volvo/Plaxton coaches of Cambridge Coach Services operating the 75 service. This route is normally the preserve now of the N registered batch of since the newer S reg batch arrived to work the Airport services.