Welcome to the Oxon4Buses website.
What is Oxon4Buses?
Oxon4Buses (O4B) is an informal association of users of bus services in Oxfordshire. Our members are representatives of a wide variety of groups in the County and City, including parish representatives, who all have an interest in improving and promoting bus services. We aim to represent a wide range of views from people who do or might use buses.
Our main aim is to increase bus usage throughout the County.
Find out more about Oxon4Buses, including our work with the county council and bus companies, here.
Find out why people from across Oxfordshire like taking the bus – from comfort, convenience and cost to joy, pleasure and relaxation.
Oxon4Buses report on Park & Ride sites
O4B recently carried out a review of the five Park and Ride sites that serve Oxford, from the perspective of bus users. The review was requested by one of the Working Groups of the Enhanced Partnership in Oxfordshire (which brings together the bus companies and the County Council to work on improving bus services). O4B’s report was submitted to, and welcomed by, the Working Group on 2 June 2023, and has since been sent on to relevant officials at the City and County Councils. You can download the report here.
Tell us your views
O4B would be delighted to hear from you about the major policy issues you believe are important, and that we should be focusing on, in order to improve the experience of bus users. We are particularly keen to hear about proposals that would encourage those who are currently car-dependent to try their local bus.
While our initial emphasis is on providing constructive input to the County Council and bus companies Enhanced Partnership working groups, we anticipate that other issues will emerge as we focus on improving the experience of bus users. We have become members of the Coalition for Healthy Streets and Active Travel (CoHSAT Oxfordshire) and look forward to working with them on the interactions between the various active travel modes – cycling, wheeling, walking and buses – at, for instance, the planned mobility hubs.
Please contact us at: info@oxon4buses.org.uk We look forward to hearing from you.
Could your bus stop be improved?
The County Council is gradually providing more bus stops and the upgrading existing stops to bus shelters. This is a gentle transformation, rather than a rapid one, but nonetheless welcome. If you think that the bus stop near you needs some TLC, let Dave Harrison at the County Council know (dave.harrison@oxfordshire.gov.uk).
Do you feel bus services to Oxford’s hospitals work for you?
Do you ever use the bus for hospital trips? What would make you use the bus more? Oxon4Buses would love to hear from you. We are concerned that there is still too much emphasis on getting there by car and not enough focus on the needs of patients, visitors and staff using alternative modes, particularly the bus. There are some excellent bus services, but they are not, somehow, appealing to people sufficiently. As a result, there are still enormous problems particularly with parking at the JR, the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre and the Churchill.
There are some developments planned that may create extra challenges but also opportunities, including additional construction at the JR which will involve building over some of the car park; and major new buildings at the Warneford, which will increase the number of patients and researchers to visit the site.
What would make using the bus more attractive for you? Or are you happy with the present bus provision and access? Please let us know by writing to info@oxon4buses.org.uk.
News and useful information
Want to know when the next bus is coming?
- Identify your bus stop’s unique number. This is usually 10 digits long and easy to find, somewhere above head height on the pole.
- Next, text 84637, giving the 10-digit code for the bus stop you are at.
- In response you will be sent information about the next 5 or 6 buses that are coming, to that stop, and when. Just for confirmation, the name of the bus stop and time will be included.
Simple – and minimising the need for digital displays and an electricity supply.
Jump on the bus more often!
The new Mybus ticket will enable you to take unlimited journeys a day, within Oxfordshire, for £6.50. For people aged 17-19 the cost is only £3.50 – good value for two or more trips. These can be bought on the bus and are valid on virtually all bus services (a couple of the smaller companies have not signed up). Find out more here.
New services to Bicester villages
New services for the Bicester villages will start on 1 July. The 2 new routes are circular in nature and offer up to 5 journeys a day Monday to Friday. The running order is reversed in the afternoon so the larger villages have the shortest running time.
The routes are
Service 108: BICESTER – CAVERSFIELD – STOKE LYNE – SOULDERN – FRITWELL – SOMERTON – ARDLEY – BUCKNELL – BICESTER
Service 81: BICESTER – FINMERE – MIXBURY – COTTISFORD – HETHE – FRINGFORD – STRATTON AUDLEY – CAVERSFIELD – BICESTER
Changes to bus stops near Oxford Railway Station
Due to health and safety concerns regarding the trees at the forecourt of Oxford Railway Station some bus stops have had to close and / or move.
- Stagecoach services 1 and 14 will not be able to serve the R2 – R4 stops.
- As a result the Stagecoach 1 service will drop off and pick up at a temporary bus stop at the end of the forecourt closer to the exit.
- The Stagecoach 14 service will terminate in Frideswide Square bus stop R8 and depart from Frideswide Square stop R7.
Oxford Bus Company services are also affected.
- 3X Rail Station to Oxford Science Park: Will drop off and pick up at Stop R6.
- 5 Rail Station to Blackbird Leys. Will use temporary bus stops , adjacent to the Said Business School.
- 43/X1 Oxford to Wantage: Will start/ finish in Frideswide Square
- 400 Unaffected and will continue to use Stop R1.
Free Park & Ride bus travel for OUH staff
Staff working at the JR, Churchill and NOC have been sent letters stating that from Monday 29 April they will be able to get FREE Park and Ride travel for work journeys to all 3 main hospital sites by showing their OUH ID badge to the driver. This is available from Thornhill, Redbridge and Oxford Parkway but not from Pear Tree or Seacourt. This is on the 700, X3 and X32 as well as the 400 which can be accessed at Headington shops.
This scheme is Monday to Friday only and only the bus travel is free not the parking. It is a 6 month pilot which will be reviewed monthly for its impact.
New service between Chipping Norton and Moreton-in-Marsh
Thanks to Gloucestershire’s Bus Services Improvement Plan, Pulhams are introducing a welcome service between Chipping Norton and Moreton-in-Marsh. You can read about it here. You can use it, for example, to visit the remarkable Four Shires Stone.
New buses services to be launched in April
Oxon4buses is delighted to report that, following Oxfordshire County Council’s allocation of £1.2 million for rural public and community transport, further new buses will be launched on 15 April 2024 to connect more villages to market towns and Oxford. For details, click here.
Faringdon special bus service
Until 28 September 2024, thanks to Faringdon Town Council, on Saturdays (only) you can use the Faringdon Tourist Bus to visit (for example) Kelmscott Manor, White Horse Hill, or Buscot. You can check the timetable here.
£2 bus fare now extended to December 2024
The Government has announced a continuation of the £2 bus fare to 31 December 2024.
Accessing hospitals by bus
Oxford Bus Company’s helpful webpage sets out which buses go to which hospital. Stagecoach explain theirs here. County Council officers have worked with staff at the Churchill Hospital to move a fine bus shelter to this bus stop in Roosevelt Drive. It is near the hospital’s main entrance, and very near the entrance to the cancer and haematology centre. You can check here when your bus is coming.
Visit Harcourt Arboretum by bus
You can get to Harcourt Arboretum on bus X40 from Oxford (via Iffley Road) or Wallingford; or bus 45 from Cowley, Littlemore, Berinsfield or Abingdon. The stops for the Arboretum are called Baldon Lane.
Visit Cogges Manor Farm by bus
Cogges Manor Farm is easily reached by bus from Oxford, Carterton, Woodstock, and Abingdon. See here for opening dates and times. Use the Oxford Bus Company’s journey planner (which also knows about Stagecoach buses). It is a short and pleasant walk to Cogges along Church Lane from Newland, alighting either at the stop called St Georges Field (just past Church Lane, heading into Witney), or the stop immediately opposite Church Lane (heading away from Witney). Alternatively, it is about 10 minutes walk from Witney Market Square.
Roger French’s blog
Roger French had a notably successful career managing buses in Brighton and Hove. He now writes a ‘blog’, several times a week, about journeys by bus (and sometimes train). His recent posts about services in Oxfordshire include the following:
Oxfordshire’s new bus route bonanza
A review of the X34 from Didcot to Newbury
The revived buses serving Bletchingdon and the Heyfords
The astonishing route 46 from Oxford to Great Milton
First & Last Mile services around Eynsham
Is this the perfect rural bus stop? It has a seat, a shelter, no pole. It is set back from the path. Seen near St Endellion, Polzeath, Cornwall. Please send us your photos to illustrate what you consider to be a good design for a rural bus stops, so that we can find the best ones:
