Oxford's Park & Ride services are some of the best used in the country. Hence doubledeckers are the
normal requirement. The operation has seen a mix of vehicles over the years, including Willowbrook
Warrior rebodied Leopard singledeckers DMSs and more recently ex London Titans. These days Olympians,
displaced by singledeckers from city services support the service in a quite eye catching livery. Brand
new deckers are due soon.
|
|
A newer Alexander bodied Olympian is one of a number operating the Park & Ride services alongside the older ECW
Olympians illustrated above.
|
|
|
You wait ages for abus then.......
Three turn up at once. An unusual delay at Oxford's Northern Pear Tree Bridge Park & ride site.
Post Christmas sales caused delays on the cross - city service, by which time the queue, pre -
serviced by a car park based conductor was more than one Dennis Trident could cope with.
Whlst teh first two buses coped with the queue, the third dropped its passengers and high tailed
it out of the car park to get the service back in line. Meanwhile a fourth Trident appeared.
|
|
|
113 (T113DBW) was the first to arrive and its rear end is just visible in the above picture. The attractive
livery suits the Alexander ALX400 bodywork well.
|
|
|
The rear end of 113 here shows the lack of window on the lower deck, which has effectively been replaced
by a destination blind. It was surprising to find that car park charges had been introduced at the Park &
Ride sites - 50p for 24 hours - reasonable enough for a long stay, but when added to the £1.30 return
on the bus car drivers would find it hard to justify use of Park & Ride car parks against the cost and
convenience of city centre multi-storey car parks if more than one passenger was visiting the city for
a couple of hours, or more than two for three hours or so.
|
|
|
