Public Transport Links

Fri 10 Apr 2009, 23:20

Think Witney! The Stagecoach S1 runs 4 times an hour to Oxford via Botley Road. It does not actually pull into the station forecourt. Timetables, maps etc. are here. (The S2, twice hourly, follows a different route via Woodstock Road to Gloucester Green, so don't confuse the two.)

I agree about the lack of buses on Sundays. They don't even run on bank holidays, when people want to be out and about: e.g. Oxford people coming out to the Cotswolds, and maybe local people going shopping or sight-seeing in Oxford. We expect a poor service and we get a poor service, a self-fulfilling prophecy.

You'd also think the attraction of free journeys for the over-60s would encourage the bus companies to go all out for that market. But when the government introduced the scheme, they made it a condition that the bus companies should not benefit financially. So bus companies have no incentive whatever to provide specifically for the concessionary market: the more the over-60s travel on their buses, the less they are re-imbursed per ticket and the more seats are occupied by unprofitable passengers. Clever, innit?

Oh, and the government does not fully fund the cost of the scheme anyway, so district councils are out of pocket and have to find the balance from the council tax... so the government condemns the councils for raising council tax. It's called politics.

Tue 7 Apr 2009, 14:15

It's good to see that there a new Stratford bus on Sundays from Chippy. But the lack of bus links to Charlbury on a Sunday is also frustrating. And as for the new Rail Bus & links arrangements, it's even worse...

I recently puzzled about how to transport my luggage from the Slade area to the station for the train(s) to Heathrow on a weekday afternoon. I'd thought I would try & book one of the Rail buses in advance, using the 2 hr slot notification: only to discover the afternoon rail buses don't bother to travel via the top end of town. So, instead, I thought I'd get an S3 to Oxford Station: only to discover that after 2.30 they don't go as far as Oxford Station.

In the end, inevitably, this involved calling on a friend (& a car journey) to get me to the station.