Oxford, High Wycombe & surrounding areas

updated - Sunday 16th April 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 !

This week saw little of significance although final deliveries of this years new buses for Oxford Bus were completed. As usual full details of the weeks happenings are given below under operators headings. 

Whilst enforcement cameras have now been installed at the "bus gate" on High Street, many unauthorised vehicles still continue to use the various bus/taxi only streets to make their way through Oxford. Indeed there has to be some question as to how successful the OTS scheme has been ! It would seem that some serious effort in enforcement is needed and it remains to be seen what the authorities do about the problem. 

Fleet News week ending 16/4/00

City of Oxford Motor Services.

All the Volvo B10BLEs have now entered service and on Saturday the latest deliveries were on 15 road as planned. Application of the new vinyls is taking place and a noticeable change has occurred in the placing of the front vinyls on the Volvo B10Bs in the range 601-643 where due to bodywork design, these have had to be offset to the left, thereby avoiding the filler flap in the centre of the panel. Other types have the vinyl centrally placed. Rear fleetname vinyls have begun to appear on buses now, though there seems nowhere for these to be placed on the Volvo B10BLEs. Only a few buses now carry Cityline vinyls and these must surely disappear within the next week or so. 

The final coaches of this year's delivery have also arrived with 20 entering service on Saturday morning and 21 spending time in the paintshop having livery vinyls affixed. So far I have been unable to obtain a photo of the old 21, now a training bus with the new 21 but this should be possible next week sometime. Most coaches now have the new livery but one or two coaches still carried Citylink livery late last week. 

Saturday saw an at home match between Oxford United and Burnley. Supporters, who had arrived en masse at the Rail Station earlier in the day, were bussed in escorted police convoy around 1 p.m. to the ground at Headington. some eight or so police vans and cars escorted two tightly packed Volvo saloons of Oxford Bus (believed to be 638 and 805, to Headington, making for quite a site in the streets of this seat of learning ! Some light damage was occasioned to 805, which seems a sad reflection on modern society. 

Stagecoach Oxford.  

Tube coaches including nr 42 now sport small bus type adverts on their rear panels, one advertising Web Virus protection! It was expected that 50 would attend the Brighton Coach rally today, Sunday and it was receiving a very thorough clean up on Friday last. Some interesting pictures were taken last week of 53 demonstrating its wheelchair access capabilities. There have been several occasions now when this coach has been used for this purpose , most recently when a young boy in a wheelchair was carried on the Millennium dome excursion. As can be seen from the photos below this is a most successful feature of these coaches, unique anywhere in the world in being able, as a double decker coach on express service, to carry wheelchairs. 

Olympians 514 and 516 were in use on route 31 - Wantage last Saturday, since college vacs are with us and the 77 does not need these buses at present. 834 a branded bus for route 3 was seen on route 105 on Saturday, doubtless causing some confusion to the residents of Rose Hill, since the two routes follow the same road. A blue top M A N was also seen down in Abingdon, well off its dedicated route, the 7.

Volvo coach nr 22, the Expressliner, thought to have moved to Scotland (J456FSR) has now reappeared at Oxford. Its fate is not yet known but it still carries the old Oxford Tube livery and vinyls, having so far not been repainted. 

Wycombe Bus Company.

Olympians 237 and 238 are presently thought to have returned to Wycombe and instead 220 and 222 have returned to Oxford, out of service but still carrying Wycombe vinyls. Further Volvo B10Bs from the 620-628 batch have moved to Wycombe and only 620 and 628 remain to move. Both these Volvos were in service on Saturday and it not yet clear what will happen with 620 which carries advertising for a local Oxford company. Can those of your who send me notes keep your eyes open this coming week as to what is happening with these two Volvos. I would also be interested in what routes the Volvos are being used in Wycombe. I have only seen them on 326.

Wycombe Bus gain a new route on May 2nd when the "75" is resurrected as the 275. This will run from Wycombe to Oxford on Mondays to Saturdays, There will five return journeys each day with some most attractive day return fares. Stokenchurch will thus have a service to Oxford, which it hoped the locals will use. It is further understood that the Volvos from the batch 620-628 will be used on this service.  

National II 389 is still at Oxford in withdrawn condition and I presume this will join its stable mates at Cobham.

Jetlink/Cambridge Coach Services.

A variety of coaches is appearing on the two Oxford services, 757 and 767, now that Airlinks have taken over. both Plaxton and Van Hool bodied coaches have appeared and DAF and Scania vehicles have been seen in Oxford. where CCS coaches have been used, in the case of the last new coaches, the cannot show 757 or 767 and so 322 seen on Saturday showed 76 as its route number !  

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.

Saturday was a miserable day and here we see Stagecoach 516 on route 31 pausing at 
Whitehouse road on its way out of Oxford en route to Wantage.

Rear fleetname vinyls are now appearing on the Oxford Bus fleet.
Here 615 is seen awaiting departure on the 1300 Didcot service from St Aldates.
Saturday 15th April 2000.

Volvo 617 shows the offset position of the fleet name on the front panel.



Unusually 906 was in service on route 1 last Saturday. This is nominally a low floor route.

Earlier this month the 52 road became 5 road and here Volvo 810 is seen in heavy rain
setting down after an inward journey from Blackbird Leys last Saturday.

Ex Starline of Manchester H409BVR, now 2069 with Arriva at Aylesbury, 
seen here on the 260 leaving Oxford last Saturday. Your Editor remembers this 
bus new in Altrincham and Knutsford, both now far from their original home !

Oxford Tube nr 53 demonstrates its wheelchair capability. This is presently the only 
double deck coach in the world able to carry a wheelchair boarded in this manner. 

Seen awaiting departure from Gatwick airport on the Oxford express service at
0500 last Friday morning, Volvo nr 22 which has only recently entered service.

Finally 222, seen at Cowley road last Saturday and seemingly back from Wycombe with
220 for good. It is possible that these two buses will be used as Q busters this summer in Oxford.
Doubtless I shall be proved wrong, Wycombe - Oxford and Olympians are an
interesting challenge for those interested in speculation ! 

 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