No threat to Oxford-Charlbury buses
The Oxford Mail is reporting that Stagecoach believes the 20A bus - connecting Oxford and Charlbury - can now run on its own without council subsidy. As a result, it should continue at its current level no matter what decision Oxfordshire County Council makes about subsidising rural buses. Subsidies for several local services, notably the Charlbury Rail-Bus, are currently under review by OCC.
According to the newspaper report:
'Stagecoach in Oxfordshire managing director Martin Sutton said that, far from being under threat, the service could now run without a subsidy prop on its existing timetable.
'He added: "This is entirely due to continued growth in passengers resulting from improvements to the services, including a £2m investmnent by Stagecoach in new buses earlier this year."'
This means that Charlbury's buses now receive significantly less subsidy than a few years ago when the Oxford-Charlbury service was being run on a subsidised basis by Worths.
Richard Fairhurst · Sun 6 Jul 2008, 23:50 · Link