Service Changes from 14th April

14th Apr 2024 onwards

3 & 3A
Service 3A will have a revised route from 14th April 2024. Between Kassam Stadium and Templars Square, buses will now follow a more direct route via Grenoble Road, Watlington Road and Garsington Road. We are making this change following the review of strong feedback that we have received from residents in Greater Leys about the use of buses in certain streets.

For those wishing to travel to and from Greater Leys, bus stops are available along Grenoble Road, where Oxfordshire County Council have recently been upgrading the infrastructure for the benefit of bus users. Alternatively, there are high frequency buses to Templars Square from existing stops in Blackbird Leys on services 1, 5, 10 and 100. Services 1 and 5 continue to Oxford City Centre. Almost all residents in Greater Leys will remain within a 5-minute walk of alternative bus stops.

Buses on service 3 will depart at slightly different times to fit around the new 3A.

3S
Service 3B will be renumbered 3S. There will also be changes to the afternoon timetable to better reflect the traffic conditions that we are experiencing.

6
Due to increasing levels of congestion along Abingdon Road and Woodstock Road, it has become necessary to split the weekday evening and Sunday daytime journeys on services 6 and 35 that currently operate across Oxford City. On weekday evenings, the frequency of service 6 will increase to operate up to every 40 minutes, with the Sunday daytime service increased to operate up to every 20 minutes.

11S
We will be making some amendments to the afternoon timetable to better reflect the traffic conditions that we are experiencing.

33, 33A & 44
As part of our continual efforts to improve punctuality and reliability, services 23 and 33 will be revised.

Service 33 will now operate between Abingdon, Sutton Courtenay, Milton Park, Didcot, Wallingford and Henley-on-Thames and will continue to serve Wantage Road in Wallingford. New service 33A will replace the Great Western Park to Wallingford section of services 23 and 23A, and will operate via Hithercroft Road in Wallingford. Certain journeys will extend to Henley-on-Thames. Additionally we are pleased that following the completion of the bus turning circle in the housing development, journeys on services 33 and 33A will serve Highcroft in Wallingford, with buses up to every hour in each direction.

The Oxford to Abingdon section of service 33 will now be operated by service 44, which will continue to serve Botley, Cumnor and Wootton. Connections can be made in Abingdon for services 33 and X2 to Milton Park and Didcot.

All three services will operate up to every hour, with services 33 and 33A combining to every 30 minutes between Didcot and Wallingford, Monday to Saturday.

For services 33 and 33A, please click here for the new timetable and here for a route map.

35
Due to increasing levels of congestion along Abingdon Road and Woodstock Road, it has become necessary to split the weekday evening and Sunday daytime journeys on services 6 and 35 that currently operate across Oxford City. Accordingly, service 35 will have minor timetable adjustments and more journeys will depart from Westgate stop E3 in Oxford City Centre.

43
We are making some changes to the timetable to improve our timekeeping. Additionally, the 1738 journey from Wantage will now terminate at Peachcroft Roundabout in North Abingdon. For those wishing to travel onwards to Oxford City Centre, frequent connections are available in Abingdon on services X2 and X3.

67
Service 67 will return between Wantage and Faringdon via Stanford-in-the-Vale up to every hour, replacing journeys currently provided by service X35. This will improve reliability and flexibility when we experience disruption due to flooding in and around East Challow. The college journeys will continue to operate via Coxwell Road as at present.

136 & 139
Due to challenges experienced with increasing journey times, it has become necessary to split service 136 into two. The section of route between Wallingford and Cholsey will remain numbered as service 136, whilst the section of route between Wallingford and Benson will now be covered by new service 139. The Saturday service will be improved to operate more comprehensive timetables to both Benson and Cholsey, including earlier and later trips.

Service 136 will operate via the current route between Wallingford and Cholsey, with journeys to Wallingford School maintained. Click here for the new timetable and here for a route map. Service 139 will operate in a clockwise loop from Wallingford via Benson, RAF Benson and Clack's Lane back to Wallingford, also maintaining the school journeys to Wallingford School.

X1
We will be making some changes to the timetable of service X1 to improve punctuality. There will also be some changes to the service pattern in the morning and evening peaks to better match demand. Some late evening journeys to and from Wantage will now be covered by service X3, serving Oxford Road in Abingdon instead of Dunmore Road and Abingdon College, operating the same route as service X1 beyond Abingdon to Wantage. There will be some minor changes to the timings of night bus NX1 to coordinate with service NX2 (see below).

X2 & X3
Services X2 and X3 are being retimed to improve reliability. There will be some earlier journeys from Didcot on service X2 and some late evening X3 journeys will extend beyond Abingdon, operating to or from Wantage (see above). We will continue to provide the combined up to every 10 minutes frequency between Oxford and Abingdon on Monday to Saturday daytimes, and up to every 15 minutes on Sunday daytimes. There are some adjustments to the journey pattern on Sunday evenings to better match demand.

Additionally, night bus NX2 will no longer serve Oxford Rail Station and will instead commence from Westgate stop E4, to match night bus NX1.

X34 & X35
Service X35 will be revised to operate between Didcot and Wantage. Journeys between Wantage and Faringdon will once again be covered by service 67 (see above). This will improve reliability and flexibility when we experience disruption due to flooding in and around East Challow.

We will be making some changes to the pattern on services X34 and X35 is being revised to the following:
- 4 buses an hour between Didcot, Great Western Park, Harwell Village and Harwell Campus (same as at present)
- 1 bus an hour (X34) continuing to Newbury
- 1 bus an hour (X35) continuing to Wantage

See below for details of the new weekday extension of service X36 from Kingsgrove to Harwell Campus which will provide an additional two buses per hour between Wantage, The Hendreds and Harwell Campus.

X36
We are pleased to advise that on weekdays, service X36 will be extended from Kingsgrove to Harwell Campus via The Hendreds and Rowstock Corner. On Saturdays, service X36 will continue to operate between Didcot, Grove, Wantage and Kingsgrove as at present. The frequency will remain up to every 30 minutes Monday to Saturday.

River Rapids X40 & 40C
We will be implementing a revised timetable on the River Rapids X40 service to take into account the latest traffic conditions we are experiencing in East Oxford and across the A4074 corridor.

ST1
We will be making some changes to the ST1 timetable from 14th April 2024 to improve the punctuality of the service. To provide greater reliability, an extra bus is being added into the cycle at peak times, and additional trips added at key, peak hour travel times. Increasing the level of resources used at peak times, ensures greater punctuality for users and enables us to add in additional recovery time between trips to cater for the variability in travel time that we are currently experiencing along the A34. To facilitate this, we will be making some changes to the service pattern in the middle of the day, with buses now running hourly at the quietest travel times.

ST2
We are continuing to experience delays in East Oxford. Therefore, we need to implement a new timetable, with different timings in the afternoon peak between school days and school holidays to take into account the significant variance in traffic levels that we are observing. To enable us to operate this new timetable, the service will be transferring from Thames Travel to the Oxford Bus Company.

BB1A
Operation of school service BB1A will transfer from Thames Travel to the Oxford Bus Company. There is no change to the route and timetable.

BB3
To improve our punctuality on school service BB3, the morning journey will depart Reading 7 minutes earlier, with times adjusted throughout the journey.