Dateline Tuesday June 1st 1999

101, the first of 20 Dennis Trident II Double Deckers is seen with invited guests alighting after a
ride from Redbridge. Car Park to the Oxford City Centre following a launch ceremony at Redbridge.

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Today saw the launch of revised Park&Ride services in Oxford with increased services, changed routing in the City Centre and most significant of all the introduction of brand new low floor double deck buses.

The new buses have Dennis Trident II chassis with low height Alexander ALX400 dual door bodies. Seating is 71 which is reduced to 68 when a wheel chair is carried.
A flat floor for a very large area of the lower saloon is featured and the seating is now to a new specification for Oxford , having individual continental style seats with a special seat covering using the "dreaming spires" motif. This is complemented by a pastel green interior contrasting nicely with the well known green, blue and white exterior colour scheme which remains unchanged for the new deliveries.

For the technically minded, the new buses are 10.5 metres long, 2.5metres wide and 4.2 metres high. This will allow their use on both 300 and 400 services. They feature rear and side destination equipment in addition to the normal front display and also have interior dot matrix signs on both decks. The chassis are designated SFD323 and the engines are Cummins C245.20's The weight of the new buses is 11920 kgs and seating is split to 47 on the upper deck and 24 in the lower deck. 3 tip up seats are provided in the area designated for the wheel chair location, when carried, thus reducing the seating in such cases to 21 in the lower saloon. Luggage racks are provided over the front wheel arches and there is plenty of space for buggies. With the flat floor design they should prove very popular with all the passengers. 20 Tridents are due for delivery at a rate of 4 per week and they will have fleet numbers 101-120 and be registered T101-120DBW. Unusually Oxford Bus has been able to secure a run of registrations to match the fleet numbers including T111DBW !!

Another good feature of the new buses is that the upper saloon staircase has been positioned to the rear of the bus meaning ease of exit for alighting passengers whilst at stops boarding passengers can get on and thereby reduce dwell times at stops.

The build line at Alexander's had up to 114 well in hand by the end of last week and 102-104 are expected very soon after these notes were being written.

Tuesday June 1st saw a special launch of the new bus with invited guests including City Councillors having the opportunity to sample the new Dennis with a run through the City. Various pictures of the new bus can be seen below.

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A fine picture of the nearside front of 101. Side and rear destination
blinds are provided.

With doors open, the extra length of the new buses is apparent.

The new seat covering is seen to advantage in this picture.

The light green interior is seen in the shot of the upper deck
viewed from the rear.

The new followed by the old at Thornhill Park&Ride Car Park.
The livery remains largely unchanged and is seen to be clean
and uncluttered.

The rear aspect of the new Trident. The destination blind will
doubtless prove most useful for intending passengers, especially
in the centre of Oxford where both 300 and 400 services now
many of the same roads and even in some cases the same stops
in the new traffic flows.

More pictures will follow in the coming weeks so do return to this page where we will keep you up to date with deliveries and first service details.

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