THE roll-out of 20,000 new Oyster-card style smart cards has caused chaos for hundreds of bus passengers in Oxfordshire.

Oxford Bus Company’s new ‘key’ card was launched on Sunday amid a flurry of publicity saying the device would pave the way for joint ticketing with Stagecoach and a new era of bus travel in Oxfordshire.

However, when passengers tried to board services on Sunday and Monday their cards could not be scanned by the new machines which told them they were carrying an ‘invalid card’.

Some passengers were told to pay for their journeys and reclaim the cash.

Now the firm is allowing anyone to travel carrying a new or an old ‘key’ card until the problem is resolved.

Queues of more than 60 people waited at the firm’s helpdesk at Debenhams in George Street for up to four hours on Monday.

Prof Virginia Crossman, 51, a history lecturer at Oxford Brookes University walked out of the queue yesterday.

Prof Crossman, who lives in Cropredy, near Banbury said: “They’ve got an horrendous queue.

“There’s a lot of confusion and I haven’t got time to queue up so they said I could email them and try to sort it out that way.

“I needed to get the balance transferred from my old card and they told me it would not get transferred automatically but now they’ve said it will.

“For a lot of people up there it’s very frustrating.”

Oxford Bus Company said the biggest cause of the problem was passengers not confirming their details with the firm so they could get the new card in time.

Engineers, operational and customer service staff worked through the night into Sunday morning to install the new ticket machines on the firm’s fleet of 156 buses.

The firm said it still does not know how many cards were affected by the problem, but estimated that it was a “few hundred”.

Queues inside Debenhams on Monday were taking so long no new people were allowed to join after 3.30pm, two-and-a-half hours before the help desk was set to close.

Managing director Philip Kirk said on Monday more than 23,000 journeys were made on buses using the new card and 16,000 on Sunday.

He said: “For the majority of our customers the changeover has gone well.

“But we realise that is no consolation for the limited number of our passengers who’ve had problems with their cards.

“Once we knew there was an issue with some of the cards our drivers were told that, until the gremlins are sorted out, they should honour both the old and new style key and allow passengers to travel as normal.

“Although we had extra staff on duty both at Cowley House and at our outlet in Debenhams, we are sorry that queues developed to an unacceptable level.

“Despite the publicity a significant number of passengers did not confirm their details with us or respond to our communications and so we couldn’t send them a new updated version of the key in time for the changeover.

“It is this single factor that alone that has created more problems than anything else.”

Mark French, 37, a roadsweeper for City Works, from Croxford Gardens in Kidlington, queued up for more than two hours.

He said: “I’m so fed up.

“They’ve had all this time to sort it out and they’ve left it until the last few days before it happens to do the changeover.”

If you have any problems with your card call the company on 08456055050 or email thekey@oxfordbus.co.uk.