Thames Travel[1] 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's Oxford Bus Company operation, having been purchased as a 35-vehicle independent operator by group in May 2011.[2][3]
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.[4][5]
The X38 has since been withdrawn and replaced by the 33 running from Abingdon to Henley-on-Thames via Didcot & Wallingford, and the X39 has also been withdrawn with the X40 now running half-hourly, meaning all services go via Woodcote. [6]
Thames Travel's depot is in Didcot, with a capacity for more than 100 buses. It also has an out-station at Oxford Bus Company's depot in Oxford.
Fleet
As of November 2023, the Thames Travel fleet consisted of over 60 buses, which are numbered under the Oxford Bus Company fleet number system.[12]
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 bus. 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.[13] The two brothers arrested after the incident were convicted and jailed for a total of 15 years for the accident.[14]
The second accident was on 28 January 2008. A Thames Travel single-decker bus 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.[15]
The third accident was on 14 October 2014. A Thames Travel bus collided with a van on the A4074, leaving the bus driver and a passenger injured.[16]
