THAMES Travel’s River Rapids bus route has welcomed more than 790,000 passengers between Oxford, Wallingford, Henley and Reading this year.

It has carried 791,000 passengers in the first 12 months since it revamped the service. On average 2,300 passengers have used the service every day.

This represents 158,000 extra passengers and a 20 per cent increase on the previous year.

The River Rapids route X38 reinstated the direct service from Oxford to Henley last November. The service also increased the frequency of buses between Oxford and Wallingford from every 30 minutes to every 20 minutes on Mondays to Saturdays. The service provided three buses and hour between Wallingford and Reading compared to the previous two.

Phil Southall, managing director of Thames Travel, said: “We made a significant investment in our River Rapids service, as part of our growth strategy to improve services to destination centres.

We’ve had a fantastic response to the River Rapids service.”