News from Oxford
High Wycombe & the surrounding areas

update Sunday 26th September 1999 by Malcolm Crowe

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.

Please note, I am using Thumbnails for the pictures. This speeds up the download time.
To see a picture full size, just click on the thumbnail.

This week Gatwick was my midweek destination with new Volvo/Plaxton Excalibur nr 14 of Oxford Citylink. These evening and over night services can be very busy and my return from Gatwick at 11pm was loaded. These new coaches are very smooth and quiet and offer a high level of passenger comfort. On the night services, after 8pm from Oxford, the service operates to Gatwick via Heathrow Central Bus Station, though Heathrow at night is somewhat quieter than Gatwick. Below you can see nr 14 at Gatwick on layover. The Olympus Camedia certainly produces excellent night photos without the use of flash !

Oxford Cityline are as mentioned before, busy with the preparation of ex London Central Darts for Wycombe. A new arrival this week is H881BGN, seen below and awaiting its turn to enter works for refurbishment. 

Talking of Wycombe, opportunity was taken on Saturday to catch a few buses on film including 227, the Travelwise bus, now in full service. Two Oxford Olympians were also noted on loan being 202 and 224. 202 seems to "flit" between Oxford and Wycombe as did Titan 966 in its time.

On the subject of Olympians, 201 and 999 were formally handed over to Graham Wareham, Chairman of the Museum, last Monday, 20th September. This was during a visit by The Omnibus Society. The group were brought to Oxford on two new Citylink Volvos and travelled between Cowley Road and Museum on 201 and 999. Several other Olympians are now stored in the yard in Glanville road, alongside the company depot.

Back to Wycombe but this time with reference to Duxford and Kimes produced an ex Wycombe National 2 at this years rally. Now reregistered YAZ4143, the bus was immaculately turned out as the photo below shows.

On the subject of Duxford two ex Oxford Olympians were on show with their new owners. They were 213, BBW213Y, now with Hedingham as their L306. This bus was well presented and converted to single door, now seating 79 ! Also on show was Worths ex 216 BBW216Y, also well turned out in the blue and grey livery of Worths. It retained its dual door  layout.

Also at Duxford were two representatives from Stagecoach Oxford, being Tube 55 and Volvo 912. A long distance visitor was ex Tube coach L155LBW, now in Stagecoach Express livery from north of the border.

A new local Chilterns coach operator, Wootten of Princes Risborough was represented by Volvo B10M/Ikarus Blue Danube H607SWG  which was well presented with a refurbished interior. This was a first time for this operator at Duxford.

Finally a surprise arrival at Stagecoach Oxford this week were two Olympians, D125FYM and A547HAC, from Midland Red South. This was unexpected since the four ex London ones have only just gone the other way to MRS !! Fleet numbers were not applied at the time of sighting but may be expected to be 531 and 532. They are for the Brookes University contract route 77 and were freshly repainted and both single door..

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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