Sir – At the height of the tourist season there is not a little black humour surrounding your front page reporting of the proposal to start horse-drawn carriage rides in the city centre (July 14).
Whatever enjoyment it might bring for a few it is a sublime irrelevance for the many. Literally thousands of visitors and residents, especially those with luggage, pushchairs or mobility difficulties have to cope with the lack of basic public transport for short, but not insignificant journeys around or across the city centre. At present only the main rail station-Carfax-St Clements axis is well served by ordinary buses. Otherwise places such as Gloucester Green, the Ashmolean, Pitt Rivers, Magdalen Bridge, Oxpens and links between them and the city centre and rail station are mostly not served at all or only by infrequent services from a plethora of stops which would defeat even the most ardent bus enthusiast.
Many other cities in a similar situation operate a specially designed and distinctively branded circular service. This provides a ‘hop-on, hop-off’ facility for people wanting to travel within or across the city centre, or a convenient transfer for people who arrive at the rail station or similar drop-off points.
In Oxford the scale of the tourist market is such that, within the summer months at least, the service might be supplemented by a ‘road-train’ of the kind commonly used at seaside resorts and leisure attractions which would be fun, eye-catching and revenue-generating.
Operating mostly on bus/access-only roads it would have minimum impact on ordinary traffic.
Whilst undertaking pubic consultation on horse-drawn carriages could the city and county councils therefore possibly extend their efforts to investigate the scope for a scheme of vastly greater public benefit?
Peter Headicar, Oxford
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