A NATIONAL bus driver shortage is impacting services across Oxfordshire.

Operator Oxford Bus Service has been running on a ‘slightly reduced’ service as a result of the shortage.

A total of 12 buses have been cancelled today (October 10) impacting commuters across the county.

READ MORE: 'I'll miss the customers the most,' says retiring landlord of historic pub

In a statement made online, the operator said: “We are sorry for any disruptions to journeys that passengers may experience due to driver shortage.

“There is a national shortage of bus drivers, caused by multiple factors. When we are forced to cancel services, we do everything we can to prioritise less busy journeys for cancellation and to ensure updates are made available to customers as quickly as possible.

“We are proactively looking for new candidates to join our driving team, and we offer attractive sign on bonuses to anyone with a bus driving licence.

“Bus driving is a hugely rewarding job and we’d encourage people to give it a go.”

Commuters have accused the company of cancelling services in attempts to save money. However, Oxford Bus Service denied this is the case.

It said: “This is really not a strategy to save money. We are facing major operational challenges and are trying to operate as close to our timetable as possible.

READ MORE: Oxfordshire RAF apprentice going for gold at Skills Olympics

“This is the situation we are facing at present. We recognise that this is far from ideal and we are doing everything we can to operate our services as close to a normal timetable as possible.”

-

Read more from this author

This story was written by Gee Harland. She joined the team in 2022 as a senior multimedia reporter.

Gee covers Wallingford, Wantage and Didcot.

Get in touch with her by emailing: Gee.harland@newsquest.co.uk

Follow her on Twitter @Geeharland

A message from our Editor

Thank you for reading this story and supporting the Oxford Mail.

If you like what we do please consider getting a subscription for the Oxford Mail and in return we’ll give you unrestricted access with less adverts across our website from the latest news, investigations, features, and sport.

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Tik Tok for more. 

You can also join the conversation in our Facebook groups: stay ahead of traffic alerts here, keep up to date with the latest from court here, share your favourite memories of Oxford here, get your daily dose of celebrity news here and take some time out with news that will make you smile. 

If you’ve got a story for our reporters, send us your news here. You can also list an event for free here.