Shared bus routes to ease travel (From Oxford Mail)

Shared bus routes to ease travel

A £10M revolution on Oxford’s buses has been hailed as the biggest public transport shake-up in a quarter of the century.

MD of Stagecoach Martin Sutton, the county council’s deputy director for highways and transport Steve Howell, and the MD of the Oxford Bus Company Philip Kirk

On Sunday, new joint tickets and timetables will be launched between the city’s main operators – Oxford Bus Company, Stagecoach and Thames Travel – something that would have been illegal just three years ago.

It means that, for the first time, a passenger will be able to buy a return ticket on both Oxford Bus Company and Stagecoach services operating the same route, instead of waiting at stops while the wrong buses whizz by.

From Sunday, the two operators will be running a single service with new timetables along Oxford’s five busiest city routes. Thames Travel is also included for services coming in from outside the city.

A new SmartZone ticketing system – covering the city centre, Blackbird Leys, Botley, Rose Hill, Barton, Risinghurst, Headington, Kidlington, Yarnton, Begbroke and Cumnor – will allow passengers to buy week-long, monthly or annual passes on new smartcards.

Passengers can use joint tickets on all of the companies’ daytime buses, including the U services to Oxford Brookes and Park and Ride services. They will not apply to night buses or routes including the 700 run by smaller operators.

Overall the firms will be running fewer buses, reducing the number of buses on Oxford’s High street by 25 per cent.

But they say by working together and offering joint timetables, their services will be more regular for passengers because they can get on any bus.

Prices of single and return tickets will not increase, but Sunday’s launch will rely on the new ITSO smart card system coping.

Oxford Bus Company managing director Philip Kirk said: “If we were not confident it would work, we would not be putting it in. It has been tested for the last three or four weeks and we have got contingency plans in place to cope with any small snags on the day.

“This is a huge step forward for bus companies working together for passengers.”

Stagecoach managing director Martin Sutton said: “We think this is going to bring lots of benefits to bus users. It takes us towards what people have wanted for a long time, allowing people to buy one ticket and use whatever bus comes along next. I am confident it is going to work. There may be the odd hitch but if there is, we have a first rate team to deal with it.”

The firms, which have spent £7.4m on new double-decker buses and more than £2m on new ticketing, have been working with Oxfordshire County Council for two years to introduce the changes, part of County Hall’s Transform Oxford project to make the city pedestrian-friendly.

Council deputy director Steve Howell said: “This is massive, and the only scheme like this outside of London.”

Bus Users UK’s Oxford representative Hugh Jaeger said: “This will be the biggest revolution since deregulation in 1986 and the bus wars of the 1980s.

“It is going to solve an enormous problem in the city of people waiting for the right bus, and it will be much clearer for people to use.”