Thames Travel


Thames Travel is a bus operator serving the southern part of the English county of Oxfordshire. It is based in Didcot and is a subsidiary of the Go-Ahead Group.

History

Thames Travel was founded on 14 April 1998 by John Wright with four buses. He expanded his business by winning subsidised bus contracts awarded by Oxfordshire County Council and unitary councils in Berkshire, and by taking over work from operators who ceased trading such as Tillingbourne Bus Company in 2001, and Chiltern Queens of Woodcote in 2011. Thames Travel also benefited from operators including First Berkshire & The Thames Valley, Reading Buses, and Stagecoach in Oxfordshire reducing their commercial operations.
In May 2011 the Go-Ahead Group bought Thames Travel.

Branded routes

River Rapids

Early in its history Thames Travel began a direct bus service between Oxford and Reading via Wallingford. This comprises two routes: the X40 which runs via Woodcote, and the X39 which bypasses Woodcote. The company also operates a service to Henley-on-Thames and Wallingford, which until 2017 was numbered 139, ran seven days a week and terminated at Wallingford.
At the end of October 2017 Thames Travel withdrew the Sunday service from route 139, but extended the Monday to Saturday service from Wallingford to Oxford and renumbered the revised route X38. It retimetabled the X38, X39 and X40 to provide a service every 20 minutes between Wallingford and Oxford. It has branded the three routes "River Rapids" and applied prominent graphics to its dedicated fleet to promote it.

Connector

The Connector brand is used for Didcot focused services, and covers routes between Didcot and Oxford, Abingdon, Wallingford, Wantage, Grove, Faringdon, Harwell Campus, Great Western Park and Milton Park. The Connector brand also covers the Science Transit Shuttle, which operates between Oxford and Harwell Campus and between Wytham and the JR Hospital, under contract from the University of Oxford.
The Connector routes have a dedicated fleet in a livery of two-tone grey with a light green coachline, and "Connector" graphics promoting the route.

Fleet

As of September 2016 the fleet consisted of 58 buses and four vans. The fleet is now numbered in the Oxford Bus Company series.
The most numerous vehicles in the fleet are Mercedes-Benz Citaro single-deckers transferred from Oxford Bus Company. Other single deckers include two Wright StreetLites and six Enviro200 MMCs. The fleet has several types of double decker, including Enviro400s, most with Scania N230UD chassis. Other double deckers include six Wright StreetDecks, a few Volvo B7TLs and B5TLs with Wright Eclipse Gemini and Wright Gemini 3 bodies and a few Scania OmniCities.
Fleet NumbersChassisBodyYears NewNumber OwnedLiveryImage
206–210
212–214
221, 223
228–231		Scania N230UDAlexander Dennis Enviro4002009–201014Blue/Green,
Connector,
River Rapids
251–254IntegralAlexander Dennis Enviro40020134River Rapids
441–442IntegralWright Streetlite20162Connector
451-453
511-513		IntegralAlexander Dennis Enviro200 MMC20196Connector
621–623Volvo B5TLWright Gemini 320183Connector
849–855
860–868
879–881		IntegralMercedes-Benz Citaro2006–200919Blue/Green,
Connector,
River Rapids
904-909IntegralWright StreetDeck20206Connector
912–914IntegralScania OmniCity20083Blue/Green
933–937Volvo B7TLWright Eclipse Gemini2005–20065Blue/Green

Depots

Thames Travel's depot is in Didcot, with a capacity for 51 buses. It also has out-stations in Reading and at Oxford Bus Company's depot in Oxford.

Notable incidents

Thames Travel vehicles have been involved in three major accidents, reported in the local media. All were on the A4074 road, nicknamed locally the "13 bends of death".
The first accident was on 21 July 2006. A 26-year-old woman was killed when her car collided head-on with a Thames Travel Dennis Dart SLF bus with MCV Evolution body, fleet number 155. It was found that the woman was taking avoiding action to prevent her car from colliding with two cars that were coming towards her, whose drivers had been recklessly overtaking numerous other cars before the accident. As a result of the collision both vehicles caught fire and were completely destroyed. The bus was replaced with the next intake of new vehicles. The two brothers arrested after the incident were convicted and jailed for a total of 15 years for the accident.
The second accident was on 28 January 2008. An MAN 14.220 bus with MCV Evolution body, fleet number 256, collided in fog with a Land Rover that was turning off the road across the bus's path. The Land Rover landed on its side; the bus in a ditch. The accident was on the A4074 at its junction with the B4526 road. Five people were injured.
The third accident was on 14 October 2014. A Mercedes-Benz Citaro, fleet number 853, collided with a van on the A4074, leaving the bus driver and a passenger injured.