DAYS after the launch of Oxford’s bus smartcard scheme passengers are calling for it to be extended to a park-and-ride route to the city’s hospitals.

The 700 Hospital Link connects Water Eaton park-and-ride near Kidlington with Summertown, the John Radcliffe and Churchill hospitals and the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre in Headington.

The route is operated by Witney firm RH Transport Services, which is not part of the Smartzone system involving the Oxford Bus Company, Stagecoach and Thames Travel.

Noam Bleicher, a data analyst and regular bus user, said: “I think it would be good for the 700 to be in the scheme. It’s quite an important service, because it links places not served by many other routes and is very useful for the areas of Oxford it serves.

“It's a really smart idea to make bus travel in the city easier, regardless of the operator, and I would call on the county council to come up with some sort of solution for the 700.”

Bus Users UK’s Oxford representative Hugh Jaeger said: “It's probably the most important route in the city that’s not part of the smartcard network.

“It's a shame it’s not on the network, but RH is a smaller, value-for-money operator and the technology and cards would be a big investment for them.”

He added: “It has taken 18 months to get three firms up and running and it would probably have been too much to ask RH to have a crack at it from the start, but it’s something to hope for in the future.”

RH operations and marketing director Dilwyn Roberts said one of the key aims of the Smartzone scheme was to reduce the number of buses on the city’s main arterial corridors, by allowing passengers to use all services on those roads, a factor which did not apply on radial routes like the 700.

He added: “We do not believe that a Smartzone partnership is a possible advantage at present. However, RH are prepared to talk to Oxfordshire County Council and consider any suggestions they may possibly have on the subject.”

Oxfordshire County Council had not commented by the time the Oxford Mail went to press.