ABOUT 24,000 cars per day entering central Oxford cause congestion; a few hundred buses per day prevent gridlock.

Almost half of all travel in or out of central Oxford is by bus. Passenger increases in recent years have required bigger buses on Quality Partnership routes and more frequent buses on many others.

More direct bus links in central Oxford could minimise congestion. Instead, banning buses from Cornmarket destroyed cross-city connections.

Reducing buses in Queen Street chokes St Aldate’s with extra buses and stops. Seemingly indifferent to harm already done, councillors want fewer buses in High Street. One senior councillor refuses requests for bus shelters in High Street and Bonn Square. Reducing central Oxford bus access reduces personal mobility. For passengers with disabilities, many journeys are now impossible except by dial-a-ride or car.

However, trams are more welcome in pedestrian-priority areas, as in Birmingham, Croydon, Manchester, Nottingham and Sheffield. And whereas double-deck buses seat about 84 people, an articulated tram can seat over 200. Typically 30 to 40 per cent of journeys on new tramways are former car journeys.

And trams help buses: opening Montpellier’s tramway increased bus use by 36 per cent. Compared with diesel buses, hybrids reduce fuel use and emissions by 30 per cent. Even with fossil-fuel electricity, battery or trolleybuses achieve 50 per cent reductions and trams 70 per cent. New buses last 15 years; trams over 30. Making trams is twice as energy-efficient as making buses.

HUGH JAEGER, Oxford