Oxford Bus Company
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Oxford Bus Company is a bus operator serving the city and surrounding area of Oxford, England and is the trading name of City of Oxford Motor Services Ltd . It is now a subsidiary of the Go-Ahead Group. The company operates four different brands:
- The Oxford Bus Company and City brands are used for local buses in and around Oxford.
- The Park & Ride brand is used for express buses from the well-developed network of peripheral park and ride car parks around the city.
- The Espress brand is used for express buses between Oxford and London
- The Airline brand is used for express buses between Oxford and London Heathrow or London Gatwick airports.
The local buses operate in fierce competition with services operated by Stagecoach in Oxfordshire. Oxford is one of the few UK cities where such free and unsubsidised competition (as envisaged by the architects of bus deregulation in the 1980s) still exists. Similarly the Espress buses compete with the Stagecoach in Oxfordshire's Oxford Tube service. This unusual level of both service and competition is facilitated by Oxford's status as a prestigious university city and the consequent large numbers of young, affluent but car-less inhabitants, assisted by Oxford’s pro-public transport Balanced Transport Policy of 1973 and Oxford Transport Strategy of 1993.
Recently, the Oxford Bus Company have replaced some of its older buses with the Mercedes-Benz O530 Citaro. Another 11 are due at the end of 2006, and although Euro IV emissions take place from October 2006, these are to be Euro V.
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[edit] History
A horse-drawn tram system first operated in Oxford from 1881 and its operation was taken over in 1906 by the City of Oxford Electric Tramway Company Ltd. This did not in fact electrify the tramway, but over the period 1913-14, and under threat of competition from William Morris (later Lord Nuffield), replaced the trams by Daimler Motor Company buses.
In 1921 the company was renamed City of Oxford Motor Services Ltd and continued to expand its operations into the surrounding countryside. From the 1930s the company was controlled by British Electric Traction with a large Great Western Railway shareholding. Most of the fleet comprised AEC vehicles in the traditional red livery with green and maroon relief.
On becoming a subsidiary of the National Bus Company in 1969, moves towards greater integration of city and country services began. In 1971 the coach operator South Midland (established as South Midland Transport & Touring Company Ltd in 1921), whose main fleet was based in Oxford but controlled by the neighbouring Thames Valley Traction company, was transferred to City of Oxford and the fleet name for the entire operation became Oxford South Midland. A particularly acute problem for the operator was the competion for staff with the Morris Motor Company whose works was located close to the Oxford garage. One solution was the move to one person operation of buses during the 1970s.[1] Following several trials, the Oxford company has operated the city’s pioneering park and ride bus services since 1978, the year in which the London express service on its present routing began.
In 1983 the operation was split into separate Oxford and South Midland units which were subject to management buyouts. The South Midland company was soon resold to Thames Transit (later Stagecoach) who introduced minibus competition, countered by the Oxford Bus Company under the brand name Oxford City Nipper. OBC was sold to the Go-Ahead Group in 1994. Prior to adoption of the present branding in 2000 the name City Line was used. The company's long-standing main depot site in Cowley Road, Oxford was abandoned in 2004 in favour of a new works in Watlington Road.[2]
[edit] References
- ^ Jolly, Stephen and Taylor, Nick (2003). The Book of Oxford Buses and Trams. Oxford Bus Museum Trust. ISBN 0-9506739-2-7
- ^ Ashworth, Phil (2006). The Oxford Bus Company — the first 125 years. Oxford Bus Company.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
| Bus operators owned by Go-Ahead |
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| Brighton & Hove | Diamond | Docklands Buses | Go North East | Go West Midlands | London Central London General | Metrobus | Oxford Bus Company | Solent Blue Line | Southern Vectis | Wilts and Dorset |
