BY £2 BUSES
CHRISTOPHER CARTER travels 367 miles from Exeter to Norwich on 12 double-decker buses for just £24.
Walking the two miles from my hotel to Oxford's Gloucester Green bus and coach station, I observe local buses rationalised last year, a Go-Ahead and Stagecoach council-brokered deal reducing duplication and creating greater efficiencies in the ancient university city. Space restricted Gloucester Green is quiet, with three coaches and two banksmen. I find bay 11, the very stop where yesterday's S6 should have deposited me were it not truncated.
I see a waiting room sign but find just a seat in an entrance lobby to the toilets. Controllers hide in a closed office and there is no obvious publicity to pick up. Whilst my hotel displayed Oxford Tube, Airline, Citysightseeing and days out by Stagecoach leaflets, there was nothing for my X5.
The service began in 1995 and initially using second-hand coaches linking Oxford and Cambridge. Significant growth saw 18 new 57-seater Volvo B11R/Plaxton Elite tri-axles replace shorter Volvo B9R/Plaxton Panthers in 2015. They sported a twotone blue livery giving more prominence to the route number and towns served – Cambridge, Bedford, Milton Keynes, Bucki…
