News
from Oxford, High Wycombe
& the surrounding areas
last updated Monday, February 22nd 1999 - 2200hrs
It would be wrong to say that nothing has been happening in the area recently but lets say that we are in a period of "quiet before the storm" ! The spring should see the delivery of new coaches for the Tube (at last!), Double decks for Oxford and during the mid year both Volvo saloons and coaches for Oxford Bus. Quite a period of change is ahead.
Your Editor has been away for the past week in the land of windmills and tulips plus a brief visit to the wet streets of Manchester. Thus we have limited photographic updates and somewhat restricted news.
Stagecoach Oxford has reregistered another Volvo coach. This time they have used 6253VC and we think that N43MJO is the recipient of this cherished mark. Still no sign of the coaches for the Tube though and it must be said that the present fleet is beginning to look less than impressive and we feel sure that everyone at Horspath is looking forward to the new arrivals. The three Selkent Olympians on loan to assist with the Brookes University contract have been seen in service on the 77 although 516 was in evidence on Saturday 20th February. 913 , a MAN/ALX300 was operating the X39 at 1800hrs and a nice surprise was that 938 - one of the Blackbird Leys branded fleet - was wearing a M A N badge complete with horse appended to the centre rear panel. One was wondering why a fleet of nearly 30 buses seem not to proclaim who made the chassis. Does anyone know why ?
Update to the Oxford Transport Strategy's changes to traffic in the centre of Oxford sees some improvement to the works near the Rail Station with a mini roundabout replacing the three way stop lights which have been the cause of serious delays to traffic leaving and entering the City from the Botley Road direction. This has in turn improved flows into the Station which now sees terminating Arriva services to Aylesbury and High Wycombe. I regret that as yet we are unable to bring you details as to how the bus services will be re-routed when the full scheme is implemented in April. Cornmarket will be closed to ALL traffic between 7.30am and 6.30pm. causing services using that route to be diverted. This will include both Park & Ride services which are due for new double deck Dennis Tridents carrying Alexander ALX400 bodywork. These buses will be to a low height of 13ft 8in enabling them to negotiate the Botley Road rail bridge. You can review the changes and look at a map on the Oxford County Council Web Site: http://www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/
This week sees only a limited selection of pictures but we hope to revert to our full coverage next week.
On the Oxford Bus scene, 508 has just emerged from works looking very smart. In Wycombe the scene is changing with the arrival of the 5 Olympians and the departure of 5 saloons and minis. At weekends in fact Wycombe Bus deckers can be seen in various locations in London on Rail Replacement duties etc.
STOP PRESS |
Watch this space for details of the Tube double deck coaches
|
We hope you continue to like this news section, which will give us the opportunity to comment on the local scene in an informal way.
Please e-mail Malcolm Crowe with any comments.
The changing face of buses at High Wycombe with Titan 966 and Alexander RL bodied
Olympians
flanking an ex LR class Olympian.
Good use is being made of the nearside number blind equipment of ex LR13
now
Wycombe Bus 977 (TPD113X)
Oxford Park & Ride services newest buses are five Alexander bodied
Olympians which have run these services
since new.Indeed when new no destination equipment was fitted and 225 is now unique in
having
electronic equipment fitted and in the fact that is route number is on the nearside as
opposed to the
offside position on the other four of the batch.
For comparison we show 229 with normal destination equipment.
An evening shot of Dart 511 on service 2D from Oxford Rail Station to
Kidlington.
(Spires business Park) also serving the Airport at Kidlington.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In the run up to the introduction of the new
Oxford tube fleet of double deck coaches
I thought it would be nice to share some memories with you all of the early days of
the service, March 1987 to be exact, when Duple Laser bodied Leyland Tigers
imported from Devon were the mainstay of the service !
Below is reproduced the first timetable
leaflet for the service dated 7/3/87.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There were 28 departures every weekday compared to the 1999 over 88 departures round the clock !
.
A quiet Sunday morning on The Magdalen Bridge sees on of the Lasers leaving Oxford for
London.
July 29th 1990 sees another Laser Oxford bound on the M40 at
Stokenchurch.
Of equal interest are the roadworks when this section of the M40 was widened from2 lanes
to three.
THE OXFORD BUS MUSEUM.
A recent arrival at the museum is this ECW B51 bodied Leyland Leopard which spent many
years
on Citylink work and after sometime with South Midland in their formative years left the
area
until 1998 when it returned to long Hanborough to join the Museum collection.
You can see nr 30 on March 21st at the VR open day.
Why not take time out to visit us ?
A VR meet was held on the 22nd March 1998 - and you can see photos
of each VR that attended.
1999 will see this event held once again at the Museum on 21st March.
PHOTOS
ON THIS PAGE WERE TAKEN |
Photo Miscellany
contains updated photos which are added from time to time.
New photos were added on 16/4/98.
Take a look at our picture report from Manchester,
featuring ex-Oxford buses!
Visitors to this News page since 17th March 1998.
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