West Oxon rail-bus links to continue

[whole diary]

[willc]

Oxfordshire County Council has announced the bus services connecting with trains at Charlbury and Kingham will be retained on their list of subsidised services from mid-December, though with changes to operating patterns and routes, with the Wychwoods villages covered off-peak by the Kingham service, rather than from Charlbury. Full details below.

In addition a new service 233, running on Sundays and Bank Holidays between Chipping Norton, Kingham station, Milton-under-Wychwood, Burford and Witney is planned to start in the spring of 2009.  To be operated by Stagecoach.

The 20/20A from Oxford (many services run to and from the railway station) to Charlbury and Chipping Norton is now run on a fully commercial basis by Stagecoach, without subsidy. New timetables and new double-decker buses - now with free Wi-Fi on board - have pushed up passenger numbers substantially over the past couple of years.

The rail-link bus services will run as follows from December:

Service C1^▸ ((on coaches) National route restriction), Shipton-u-Wychwood - Leafield - Charlbury Rail Station
Service reduced to operate in peak hours only. A new demand responsive off-peak service between Leafield and Charlbury will be introduced (see service T1 below).  Operator unchanged (RH Transport).

Service T1, Leafield - Ramsden - Charlbury Rail Station
New Monday to Friday demand responsive off-peak service introduced to replace service C1 at these times.  To be operated by RH Transport.

Service X8, Chipping Norton - Churchill - Kingham Rail Station
Peak journeys will continue to operate between Chipping Norton and Kingham Rail Station for rail connections to and from Oxford and London (including a new earlier journey on Monday to Friday).
Off-peak journeys will be extended from Kingham Rail Station to and from Idbury, Fifield, Milton-u-Wychwood, Shipton-u-Wychwood and Ascott-u-Wychwood to give an hourly off-peak service between these communities and Chipping Norton. The off-peak service will continue to connect at Kingham Station with trains to and from Oxford and London giving The Wychwoods villages access to the rail network at these times.
Bledington and Cornish Road will no longer be served.
Most journeys are extended in Chipping Norton to London Road.
Operator unchanged (RH Transport).

Service X8A, Kingham - Cornwell - Salford - Chipping Norton
This service will be withdrawn.  However, Salford and Cornwell will continue to be served by Villager routes.  A Saturday afternoon link from Salford to Chipping Norton is also maintained via Pulhams service 811.