Oxford's Buses 2020
In August 2020 the independent
transport videos cameras paid a visit to the historic, picturesque city
of Oxford to catch up on the contemporary bus scene. Quite a lot has happened since our last filming
visit in 2014. The main operator is the
Oxford Bus Company, which is a member of the Go Ahead group. Thames Travel is also part of the group and
are seen in their two-tone grey ‘Connector’ livery for services to Didcot or in
their blue and green standard livery. Thames
Travel also run the ‘River Rapids’ group of services (X38, X39 & X40) in a
mainly blue livery. The City Sightseeing
open-top buses seen are also operated by the Oxford Bus Company. Stagecoach operates in the city with some
local and interurban routes whilst Arriva run into Oxford with their frequent
280 route from Aylesbury. The Oxford Bus
Company buses carry route branding for many routes in an overall colour to
denote the route or group of routes that the buses operate on. The fleet is made up of a variety of types
with some of the newest being low height Wright StreetDeck double-deckers. Low height buses have almost always been
specified for Oxford due to a low bridge at the railway station. An interesting addition to the fleet is a
batch of nine normal-height Wright StreetDecks delivered just a few days before
our filming. They have been diverted
from Go North East. Numbers 901-903 are
in a smart Oxford Bus Company red and black livery and 904-909 are in the grey
Thames Travel ‘Connector’ livery. They
are seen in service on this programme.
You will also see the large Van Hool Astromega coaches operating the
frequent Stagecoach ‘Oxford Tube’ service to London and in contrast small
ADL200 single-deckers operated by the independent, Red Rover of Aylesbury.
Our filming begins at the Redbridge Park
& Ride site where our cameras board Wright StreetDeck 668 (SK66 HUH) for
the ride into the city. On arrival we
get to work to film the action for you to enjoy. We visit a good number of locations including
High Street, The Plain, St Aldate’s, St Giles’, George Street as well as a
brief visit to Gloucester Green Bus & Coach station. Further locations include Worcester Street,
New Road, Park End Street, Botley Road, Castle Street and Speedwell Street with
our final scenes at Redbridge Park & Ride where a number of through
services are filmed that serve the site.
The second part of this DVD programme was filmed in September 2018 on
the occasion of the ‘Heritage Open Days’.
This is when a number of historic buildings are opened to the public all
over the country. During our visit the
Oxford Bus Museum were operating four buses from their collection on free
services connecting various buildings in the city. The buses included AEC Regent V – 956 (956
AJO), AEC Renown - 371 (FWL 371E), Dennis Loline – 304 (304 KFC) and AEC Regal
– 703 (NJO 703). The latter was
stationed in Queen Street as an information point handing out brochures about
the bus museum. During our filming that
day we captured the contemporary scene on George Street, Queen Street, the
railway station and High Street as well as a journey onboard the Dennis
Loline. We hope you enjoy your ride and our
two visits to this beautiful city.