BUS Users Oxford welcomes Oxfordshire County Council’s Connecting Oxfordshire concept but we deeply regret it almost ignores buses. Oxfordshire has the highest per capita bus ridership of any non-metropolitan county but many Oxfordshire communities still get too few buses for them to switch from car to bus travel.

Many busy Oxfordshire bus stops have ‘RealTime’ electronic information estimating the times when the next few buses will arrive. Each such stop has a mobile phone textback service and many have also an electronic display. But Oxfordshire has almost ceased to expand its RealTime network and Connecting Oxfordshire offers no resumption.

Also, Connecting Oxfordshire ignores two vital improvements provided in other counties for visually-impaired and other passengers.

Every London bus has automated announcements aboard giving the destination and next stop. So do some serving Birmingham, Coventry, Leicester, Nottingham, Reading, Swindon and Warrington. Oxfordshire has none, save for a Reading route to Rotherfield Peppard.

Brighton and Hove, Leicester and West Berkshire have piloted spoken announcements at bus stops. Visually-impaired passengers are issued an electronic fob with which to prompt the stop to announce RealTime information about the next few buses that are due to arrive.

Oxfordshire’s idea for an Oxford mass transit is overdue and it is right to compare trams and guided buses before choosing. But limiting it to one route between St Giles and Kidlington is over-cautious and a monorail on the bypass is nonsense. Mass transit must be one mode, span the city centre and reach all the largest suburbs.

HUGH JAEGER

Chairman, Bus Users Oxford