Oxford Bus Company and Thames Travel have announced a series of service improvements across south Oxfordshire, made possible by a reduction in congestion within the city.
The changes, which will come into effect on Sunday 22 February, include faster journey times, additional services on key routes and improved punctuality and reliability across large parts of the bus network.
The operators say the enhancements follow improved traffic flow resulting from Oxfordshire County Council’s temporary congestion charging measures and the introduction of free travel on Park & Ride services.
Extra services on the X40 route will deliver faster journeys to Oxford from Reading, Wallingford and Benson, while multiple services via Abingdon will also benefit from revised timetables designed to improve journey times and reliability.
Luke Marion, Managing Director of Oxford Bus Company and Thames Travel, said:
“We’re introducing a significant amount of service improvements across our network, which has been made possible thanks to the initial positive impact of temporary congestion charging and the large uptake of free Park & Ride travel.
“Combined the measures have helped reduce congestion in Oxford and this means we are able to reinvest resources elsewhere to help improve the network to deliver continued improvements for bus passengers.
“This underpins our continued commitment to making bus travel an attractive alternative to using private vehicles, where possible, and improved traffic flow directly enables us to introduce improvements to services.”
Abingdon Road has seen a noticeable reduction in traffic since the temporary congestion charge was introduced. As a result, revised timetables on the X2, NX2 and X3 services will now deliver faster journey times and improved punctuality for passengers travelling along this corridor.
While many routes have benefited from better traffic conditions, the expected journey time improvements have not materialised on the 700 service between Blackbird Leys and Kidlington. To address this, an additional bus has been added to the route to maintain a peak-time frequency of every 20 minutes.
Further enhancements are being introduced on routes 400 and the N400 night bus between Thame and Oxford, with the N400 frequency increased to every 30 minutes. Improvements have also been made to the X32 between Didcot Parkway and Milton Park to support punctuality and maintain service frequency.
Residents in Grove will see improved services on the X24, X34 and X35 routes, while the timetable on the 100 service between Oxford and the John Radcliffe Hospital via Cowley has been strengthened. This will help maintain punctuality and deliver a combined frequency of up to every 10 minutes when operating alongside the 700 service.
With multiple timetable changes being introduced, passengers are advised to check the operators’ websites for full details before travelling.
