History & current operation details
Details of the current fleet list may be found by using this link
Stagecoach acquired the operations of Thames Transit on 22nd July 1997. This company had been founded by Harry Blundred in 1987 to compete against City of Oxford Motor Services in the then new free and competitive atmosphere being generated by new Government legislation. TT had built up a fleet of minibuses following on from the lead taken by another group company Devon General. Few of the first batch of minibuses survive and indeed only 132 is still in service, albeit at Witney. A few more exist as service vehicles, including 103, 122, 137, 139 and 789. Many of the later Mercedes and Ford small buses have already left the fleet and the trend is now to low-floor Dennis Dart and Volvos, plus a number of Volvo B10M's and Dennis Lances. Additionally a fleet of Volvo Olympian deckers was delivered earlier this year and whilst the single door batch 501-13 have now been transferred to Stagecoach Manchester, in exchange for an equal number of Volvo B6BLE's, the dual door batch 514-526 remain in service, though now transferred to Witney for the X1 and 100 group of services.
On the coaching side, the Oxford Tube has made its presence felt with an ever increasing number of departures on the Oxford-London Motorway corridor. With as many as 6 scheduled departures per hour at certain times of the day, this can said to be the most intensive express service routing anywhere in the world. From an initial fleet of Leyland Tiger/Duple Laser C44F's, the company has progressed through Plaxton Tigers, Ikarus Volvos to a mixed bodied fleet of Volvo B10M's, which are due to be replaced later this year with a brand new fleet of 26 Man/Jonckheere double deck coaches. This will offer a high level of comfort and passenger amenity which will doubtless intensify competition in this area of the companies operations.
The pages linked below give full details of the current fleets and the operations of the company can be gained from a visit to their own web site.
Links
Stagecoach Oxford Official Page
Details of the Bus Fleet
Details of the Tube Fleet