Sir – Peter Headicar (Letters, August 11) seems to be leaping to huge and incorrect conclusions about both the regulatory nature of the new bus co-ordination arrangements and ticketing in Oxford.

He writes about “bus companies are effectively being granted monopoly status” — this is absolute nonsense.

The timetable co-ordination has been achieved through a Qualifying Agreement under the 2008 Local Transport Act; as Peter should perhaps know, this does not give anyone monopoly status as other operators are at liberty to compete, just as they have been since 1986.

Secondly, he assumes savings “of 25 per cent or so in operating costs”. Again, not true. To achieve the reduction in the total number of buses, both Oxford Bus and Stagecoach have invested £10m in new buses and ticketing equipment for the new scheme (to replace existing assets which were not life-expired) which will take many years of lower (and not 25 per cent lower) operating costs to recover.

Philip Kirk, Managing director, Oxford Bus Company