A new circular bus route has been introduced within Thame and, on Saturdays and Sundays, this will result in various changes to the 280 service.
Users of local buses are strongly advised to get hold of the new timetable, copies of which should be available in Haddenham train station, Haddenham Community Library, and Thame Town Hall. The revised timetable is also on the Arriva website, where a search facility is provided.
The most important Thame route change for passengers from Haddenham is that if the bus turns left at the top of North Street into the Upper High Street, instead of right down the High Street towards the Co-op and the Town Hall, it is following the new route for a journey going towards Oxford.
Full details of the changes are that:
(1) on leaving North Street buses will travel via Upper High Street, Park Street and Chinnor Road to serve the new houses along Wenman Road (part of the ring road), before returning via Thame Park Road and Park Street to Upper High Street and High Street.
(2) On Mondays to Fridays this will usually be worked by extending buses on route X8 (Oxford-Thame) and will thus not affect the 280.
(3) On Saturdays and Sundays, however, the 280 will be diverted to cover the new route.
(4) On Saturdays, when there is a 20 minute interval service, one of the three 280s per hour will divert via the new route, and will call at stops in Haddenham five minutes earlier than now when going to Oxford, and five minutes later when bound for Aylesbury.
(5) On Sundays, when there is a half-hourly service, alternate 280s will divert via the new route with the same timing changes as on Saturdays. In addition there will be two additional early morning 280s on Sundays and several very minor timing changes in the rush hours.
Thanks go to Peter Gulland (one-time member of the Aylesbury Vale Transport Users Group) for the information provided.
