THE SHOWBUS LONDON & HOME COUNTIES BUS IMAGE GALLERY
Wycombe Bus Company
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December 14th 2000 saw the end of the Wycombe Bus Company, an operating division of City of Oxford Motor Services and part of the Go-Ahead group. The operations were acquired by Arriva the Shires under the operational name 'Arriva the Shires & Essex'. The deal is part of an exchange between Go-Ahead and Arriva nationally, where Go-Ahead acquired the Gilmoss depot and operations of Arriva Merseyside, which the OFT had forced Arriva to sell as a consequence of its acquisition of MTL. Oxford originally acquired Wycombe Bus around 1991 when it was part of Len Wright's Beeline operations, which were broken up and shared amongst several buyers - becoming Stagecoach Hants & Surrey, British Bus (now Arriva) Guildford & West Surrey, Newbury Buses and Reading Buses. The remaining Beeline operations ultimately went to First Group, but not before they acquired the Slough routes of the ailing London Country North West, then under Luton & District control. Slough and High Wycombe had one thing in common, they both had operations shared between what was once the country area of London Transport and the former Tilling operations of Thames Valley. So Wycombe followed Slough in consolidating the operations under one operator, though time it is 'London Country North West' as the victor - or Arriva the Shires as that operation became. Some early consolidation had taken place when Arriva acquired Motts Travel's Yellow Bus operations and route exchanges between the Go-Ahead company and Arriva resulted in most local rural services ending up in Arriva hands - with the notable exception of routes to Thame and Reading - and town services with Wycombe Bus. In 2000 Wycombe Bus assumed responsibility for the Oxford - Wycombe section of Uxbridge - Oxford service 300 from Arriva , as route 275. With these exchanges Arriva got the 275 back, but it subsequently passed to Red Rose. Go-Ahead returned to Wycombe in 2012 with the acquisition of Carousel Buses and has subsequently regained the Thame service and started competing on the Reading.
The acquisition went some way to solving the difficulties Wycombe Bus faced with an eviction order hanging over its combined depot and Bus Station with the Eden Centre redevelopment due in the area shortly. However, the Lincoln Road premises of Arriva could not hold both fleets. Indeed, Arriva had some vehicles outstationed at Tesco in Amersham. Wycombe Bus vehicles quickly acquired Arriva the Shires & Essex fleetnames, whilst native Wycombe based vehicles still operated with little hint of Arriva ownership in The Shires old blue and yellow colours, though more and more of the fleet soon acquired Arriva corporate livery. The first three pages show pictures taken shortly after the acquisition and later pages are earlier photos. A list of vehicles at takeover can be viewed HERE |
 Affirming its new Arriva identity is Volvo B10B, 627 (N415NRG), recently transferred from Oxford and usually used on longer routes than the 326. Across the road is the local Rover dealer - which was also part of Arriva. Coming up behind is new fellow fleet member, Arriva the Shires 5110, one of the Northern Counties bodied Olympians acquired from Ensignbus by London Country North West, and still in Chiltern Rover livery, with scant mention of Arriva! |
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 Saturday 16th and a selection of Wycombe Bus vehicles circle outside the Bus Station. The Lynx is 301, distinguished by its 326 branding. The Olympian shows clear signs of new ownership, but low floor branding on the front of the Dart leaves little room for Arriva logos. |
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Now 421 (originally 521) and registered accordingly as N521MJO, is one of the few machines bought new by Wycombe Bus, who had survived on Go-Ahead cast-offs from London, Oxford and Brighton. The batch of low-floor Darts was bought for the 313 services as part of a Quality Partnership with the local authority.
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One of the few surviving Mercedes, 703 (H189RWF), passed into Arriva ownership. The Reeve Burgess bodied Mercedes 811D was new to London Buses as MTL3.
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Olympian 232 (G232VWL) is on the recently enhanced half hourly 316/317 services to Maidenhead. The route goes via Bourne End and parallels the Thames Trains service to Maidenhead. An enforced closure of Cookham Bridge resulted in Go-Ahead owned Wycombe Bus transferring passengers to Go-Ahead owned Thames Trains to enable passengers to complete their journeys. With the train service passing to First Great Western and the bus route to Arriva that might be less easy to arrange in future.
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