Improved bus services announced thanks to reduction in Oxford congestion and free Park & Ride travel

• Extra X40 services will deliver faster journey times to Oxford
• Improved services for Wallingford and Abingdon
• Additional services for Didcot and Grove
• Enhancements follow reduction in congestion

Oxford Bus Company and Thames Travel will introduce numerous service improvements later this month, thanks to a reduction in congestion in the city.

The bus operators are introducing timetable improvements across the south of the county, creating faster journey times to Oxford from Reading, Wallingford and Benson via the X40 service and via Abingdon on multiple services.

The service improvements which will commence on Sunday 22nd February have been made possible due to an improvement in traffic flow following Oxfordshire County Council’s introduction of temporary congestion charging in Oxford and free travel on Park & Ride services.

They will provide more services on key routes delivering faster journey times and further improve punctuality and reliability across large parts of the network.

Luke Marion, Oxford Bus Company and Thames Travel Managing Director, said: “We’re introducing a significant amount of service improvements across our network, which has been made possible thanks to the initial positive impact of temporary congestion charging and the large uptake of free Park & Ride travel.

“Combined the measures have helped reduce congestion in Oxford and this means we are able to reinvest resources elsewhere to help improve the network to deliver continued improvements for bus passengers.

“This underpins our continued commitment to making bus travel an attractive alternative to using private vehicles, where possible, and improved traffic flow directly enables us to introduce improvements to services.”

Abingdon Road has seen reduced traffic since the temporary congestion charge started and will now benefit from faster journey times thanks to revised timetables to improve punctuality via the X2, NX2 and X3 services.

While some services have benefited from improved traffic conditions, there has not been the journey time improvements expected on the 700 service between Blackbird Leys and Kidlington, so an extra bus has been added to the route to maintain a frequency of every 20 minutes during peak times.

Enhancements are also being made to routes 400 and the N400 night bus between Thame and Oxford, with the frequency of the N400 improved to operate every 30 minutes. While an extra bus has been added to the 700 service between Blackbird Leys and Kidlington to maintain an every 20 minute frequency during peak times.

Improvements to the X32 between Didcot Parkway and Milton Park have been designed to improve punctuality and maintain frequency of service. Enhancements have also been made to the X24, X34 and X35, including providing improved services for residents in Grove.

The timetable on the 100 service operating between Oxford and the John Radcliffe Hospital via Cowley has been strengthened to improve punctuality and maintain a combined frequency of up to every 10 minutes with the 700 service.

With multiple timetable changes being introduced, customers are encouraged to visit the operators’ websites for full details.