Shoppers to get extra Saturday bus link (From Witney Gazette)

West Oxfordshire shoppers to get extra Saturday bus link with Cheltenham

11:40am Wednesday 24th October 2012 in News By William Crossley

SHOPPERS heading from West Oxfordshire to Cheltenham on Saturdays will see their bus service doubled from December.

In addition to the current afternoon round trip to the Gloucestershire town, operator Pulhams, of Bourton-on-the-Water, will launch a morning service as well, after the route was retendered by Oxfordshire County Council.

The service runs to and from Salford via Chipping Norton, Churchill, Kingham, Lyneham, Shipton-under-Wychwood, Milton-under-Wychwood, Fifield and Idbury. New timetables will be available soon.

The No 50 weekday and Saturday service between Chipping Norton and Stratford-upon-Avon will continue on the same timetable as now, run by Stagecoach.

And talks with Stagecoach about Sunday and bank holiday timetables on the S3 Chipping Norton-Woodstock-Oxford route have resulted in a five-year deal to maintain the current level of service.

Heyfordian Travel’s 23A between Chipping Norton, Great Tew, Middle Barton and Steeple Aston will run on Wednesdays only from December, with the Saturday service withdrawn.

Due to the recent collapse of Witney firm RH Transport, which had been awarded tenders for their operation from December, routes 243 (Witney-Finstock-Combe), C1/T1 (Charlbury railbus), X8 (Kingham railbus), and X9 (Witney-Charlbury-Chipping Norton) will be offered for tender again by the county council next year, ahead of the expiry of short-term contracts arranged to keep former RH routes running until next June.

The Charlbury railbus services are now being operated by Abingdon firm Go Ride, with the other ex-RH services run by Stagecoach.