News from Oxford
High Wycombe & the surrounding areas

update Sunday 28th November 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.

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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 !

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The festive season is fast approaching and it is now the time of Christmas Lights and lots of shoppers. Oxford was very busy last weekend and the buses have been fully loaded. Oxford's Park&Ride services have been especially busy with extra buses needed on both Saturday and Sunday. What must have been a first, happened on Saturday afternoon, when Volvo B10BLE was "grabbed" off the 52 road to put in an extra journey on 300 road to Redbridge. The queues in St Aldates around 5pm were so large that it was a case of all hands to the pump ! Olympian 208 came down from the garage to make two extra journeys to Redbridge and 806, as mentioned above, also made a trip. I was lucky enough to record the event and you can see the result below. Extra buses were out on Park&Ride on Sunday with an 8 minute service for most of the day ! The normal Sunday service on 300 road (Pear Tree to Redbridge) is every 15 minutes. On the Citylink front I was able to get pictures of both 50 (in VCS livery) and 52 (X90 livery) , both of which have returned to service. Whilst 59 is still "helping out" , 63 seems to have been withdrawn now, you will maybe remember that 63 is the "old VCS" coach. A coincidence is the fact that Dennis Javelin 50 was also the first VCS liveried coach some 4 years or more ago.

On the Wycombe front Dart 524  was delivered for service to Newlands Bus Station on Friday morning. I hope to get some "in service" pictures shortly.  522, 526, 528 and 530 are all close to readiness for service. 

At Oxford there was another batch of unusual workings this weekend apart from 806 on 300 road. Volvo/NCME Paladin 651 was on 2 road and a Verde bodied Volvo once again on 22 road. 

On the Stagecoach front THE news of the week was that The Oxford Tube won an "Oscar" ! Tuesday 23rd November saw Stagecoach Oxford nominated in this year's Bus Industry Awards. The Oxford Tube, the most frequent coach service in the world, which runs between Oxford and London was presented with the Sema Group Innovation Award, following the introduction of its wheelchair accessible coaches earlier this year. It is claimed that 1.5 million people now use the Tube between Oxford and London every year. I believe congratulations are in order, well done The Tube and Stagecoach Oxford !

Further Stagecoach news is of the arrival of a Mercedes Vario/Plaxton dealer stock bus to act as in stand in for company Varios away for modification work.  The bus in question is V251BNV. It is presently in use as a staff shuttle. Vehicles which have left the fleet are Mercedes 326 to Midland Red, 332 for disposal and Bristol LH 1010 which is also for disposal. The total fleet is presently 173. All the fleet is now in Stagecoach livery with the exception of the 27 MAN double deck coaches (Tube livery), nr 3 which is in the gold Oxford Tube livery and 912 which is in bus points livery. Work is in hand repainting the Volvo B6s received last year from Manchester.  An unusual sighting today (Sunday) was of a Vario on route 3 !!!

THIS WEEKS' PICTURE PARADE

The unexpected appearance of 806 on 300 road was caught by
your Editors camera, A scoop !  Saturday 27th November 1999.

Volvo 651 seen here on 2 road on Saturday 27th November.

Volvo coach 50, resplendent in its VCS livery
Seen at Gloucester Green on Sunday 28th November.

Looking very different from the backend, coach 50.

Another "relivered  Volvo , nr 52 seen at Cowley Road Garage. 

612 is now the only Volvo of Oxford Bus to sport 
the large Cityline on its rear panel. 27/11/99

V251BNV on loan to Stagecoach Oxford. 27/11/99

Another Vario, another back, Thames Travel's Vario T465HNH en route 
to Henley and seen loading in St Aldates. 27/11/99

If anyone else has any interesting news items please send them to me at 

Malcolmhc@aol.com 

It adds to the interest of the page which I'm sure everyone appreciates.

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You can still view 
the Tube launch report  
and 
the Oxford Bus P&R Trident launch - Dateline Tuesday June 1st 1999  
Click above

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THE OXFORD BUS MUSEUM