about us

We are part of the Go-Ahead Group plc, one of the five major groups involved in running buses in the UK. The Go-Ahead philosophy is for each subsidiary company to run as an autonomous business in tune with the local market. In Oxford, this policy has enabled us to double the use of buses in the last ten years.

We run 154 buses and coaches on a variety of services:

• City: an extensive network of local bus routes in Oxford and the surrounding areas of Kidlington, Abingdon and Didcot

• Park & Ride: bus connections between the city centre and each of the five Park & Ride car parks at the edge of Oxford

• the airline: frequent, high quality coach services from Oxford to Heathrow and Gatwick airports

• Oxford espress: a frequent, high quality coach service from Oxford to central London

• BrookesBus: a frequent U1 service from Wheatley to Harcourt Hill and a frequent U5 service from Marston to Oxford using the cleanest emission buses vehicles in the UK.

We are one of Oxford's largest employers with 566 staff and operate from a purpose built site on Watlington Road, Cowley. As services have been improved over the last ten years, the number of drivers required to run them has risen by 50%.

today's buses

Each year, we invest heavily in new vehicles for our services. All of our City and Park & Ride buses are easy access low floor models so that pushchair, pram and wheelchair users are welcome aboard. In addition, we have fitted controlled exhaust systems to our fleet which cut out a large proportion of harmful emissions. We run the lowest emission bus fleet of its size in the UK. The average age of our fleet is around five years - half of what government guidelines suggest.

Oxford Bus and corporate responsibility

We take our responsibilities very seriously and monitor continuously the way in which our business impacts on the world around us.

Each year we publish an environmental and social report. To download this as a pdf file click here

fare deals

We offer value-for-money fares, and the driver can offer single and return fares. In addition, we offer a wide range of fare deals for the frequent and not-so-frequent customer.

In 2006, we changed our ticketing system to keep pace with the tremendous advances which are being made in technology. Our new 'smartcard' system offers a new dimension in the way you pay for your bus travel.

working in partnership

We work in close partnership with Oxfordshire County Council and Oxford City Council. Since 1973, both authorities have been promoting a pro-public transport policy and have introduced traffic management measures which give buses priority in the urban area.

Working together, we have achieved a remarkable result - 44% of people travelling to and from central Oxford use buses!

In partnership with Oxfordshire County Council, we introduced a 'Real Time Information' pilot scheme on Banbury Road in 2004. This gives customers a clear indication of when their bus is due.

Bus services outside London operate as a deregulated market. Once a company has an Operator's Licence, it can register any route: these are run commercially. If a local authority believes that a social need is not being met by commercial services, then it can offer a contract to run such services, awarded by competitive tender.

We do not receive huge subsidies from central or local government to operate our services: in fact we receive payment for less than 2% of our network, and that is to operate non-commercial services on behalf of Oxfordshire County Council. We believe strongly that, wherever possible, bus services in urban areas should be developed so that they can be run without subsidy.

oxford bus and the community

Having been around for nearly 130 years, we are certainly part of the Oxford scene. We are actively involved in a number of local initiatives, click here to find out more.