SHOPPING centre bosses have unveiled a fleet of buses to encourage customers to travel by train.

The designer outlet Bicester Village has experienced an “unprecedented growth” in customers who get there by Rail.

In response, the centre’s bosses have invested more than £500,000 in coaches which will run every 10 minutes from Bicester North Station to Pingle Drive.

According to staff, the number of shoppers using the train over the past five years has increased by an average of 50 per cent year-on-year.

The move comes just weeks after Bicester was heralded as Oxfordshire’s boom town for rail travel.

As well as three modern new buses, designer outlet shoppers will be met at Marylebone and Bicester North stations by dedicated staff to help with tourist information and tickets Miranda Markham, community relations director at Bicester Village, said: “The service is convenient and efficient and is particularly popular with the increasing number of overseas tourists who visit Bicester Village.”

Chiltern Railways is awaiting the outcome of a public inquiry over its plans to create a £260m Oxford-to-London Marylebone route via Bicester from 2013, called Evergreen Three, which will reduce journey times.

Mrs Markham added: “It is very important that we continue to promote rail as a recommended mode of travel.”

Ian Baxter, of Chiltern Railways, which works in partnership with the outlet centre, said “There will be few, if any, public transport services in the UK that have grown so remarkably as the Bicester Village rail shuttle bus.”

Local coach firm Grayline won the contract to operate the buses and has six dedicated drivers who drive a loop between the station and Bicester Village.

Its operations manager Paul Gray said: “We have witnessed first-hand the steady growth in passenger numbers.”