WORSHIPPERS can visit city centre churches by bus on Christmas Day as Stagecoach offers a December 25 service for the first time.

The bus company will operate its Route 1 service on an almost hourly basis from Blackbird Leys to central Oxford.

This year Christmas Day lands on a Friday, meaning it coincides with the Islamic congregational day of prayer, which will see thousands of Muslims attend mosques in Oxford.

Although Cowley-based Stagecoach has run the Oxford Tube service, which stops at Heathrow and London, on December 25 for the last decade, neither Stagecoach nor Oxford Bus Company has operated a city bus route on Christmas Day before.

Commercial manager Robert Williams said: “If it is successful this year then we might consider something similar again next year.”

The first bus will depart at 9.35am from Pegasus Road while the last return bus will leave Speedwell Street in Oxford at 6.10pm.

There will be no services between 12.30pm and 2.10pm.

Passengers will pay £2.50 for a single journey on the day or £3.70 for a return trip.