Thames Travel
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| Parent | Go-Ahead Group |
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| Founded | April 1998 |
| Headquarters | Wallingford |
| Service area | South Oxfordshire |
| Service type | Bus services |
| Destinations | Oxford, Abingdon, Bicester, Didcot, Reading, Wallingford & Wantage |
| Fleet | 42 (February 2017) |
| Website | www.thames-travel.co.uk |
Thames Travel is a bus operator based in Wallingford, Oxfordshire, England. It is a subsidiary of the Go-Ahead Group.
Thames Travel was founded on 14 April 1998 by John Wright with four buses. It expanded by winning new contracts in Oxfordshire and Berkshire, and taking over work from operators that have ceased trading such as Chiltern Queens of Woodcote and Tillingbourne Bus Company on 19 March 2001. Thames Travel has also benefited from operators including First Berkshire & The Thames Valley, Reading Buses and Stagecoach in Oxfordshire, giving up commercial work. However in recent years smaller competitors including Heyfordian, RH Transport, Weavaway Travel and Whites Coaches have won work that Thames Travel had operated.
In May 2011 Thames Travel was purchased by Go-Ahead Group.
As of May 2015, the fleet consisted of 52 buses. The fleet is numbered in the Oxford Bus Company series.
The main fleet is made up of ex-Oxford Bus Company Mercedes Benz Citaros, along with a number of Optare Solos and newer Solo SRs (for use on the Bicester operation).
Depots are located in Wallingford and Oxford, with outstations in Reading.
Thames Travel vehicles have been involved in three major accidents, widely reported in the local media. All happened on the A4074 road, locally known as the "13 bends of death".
In the first accident, on July 21, 2006, a 26-year-old woman was killed after colliding head on with a Thames Travel MCV Evolution bodied Dennis Dart SLF number 155 in plain white livery. It was found that she did this to avoid a collision with two cars coming towards her, who 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 charged and jailed for a total of 15 years for the accident.
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