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Bus service to hospital to be axed

From the archive, first published Friday 22nd Jun 2001.

A bus service serving hospital staff and Oxford Brookes University students is being withdrawn because it is underused.

Oxford Bus Company said their hourly service, number 12, which runs from the Pear Tree Park-and-Ride off Woodstock Road to Headington, had not attracted enough passengers to justify continuing a county council subsidy and will finish at the end of this month.

The service started in Autumn 1999 under a funding arrangement between Oxford Brookes University and Oxford Bus Company.

When funding from the university ran out ten months later, the county council stepped in as did the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust.

However, during the past six months, the £50,000 annual subsidy has been met by the council itself.

County councillors have decided that there are not enough people using the service, which visited the Brookes campus, and ended at the Churchill Hospital.

Dick Helling, public transport officer for the county council, said: "The service was only carrying eight passengers per bus, and many of them could equally have used other services.

"Only seven passengers per day travelled to or from Pear Tree Park-and-Ride.

"The council is committed to improving transport to and from Headington, especially once the Radcliffe Infirmary moves there.

"However, this will not happen until about 2006 and the usage of service 12 indicates there are not enough passengers to justify new bus services until then."

Any money saved will be used to fund other "socially necessary" bus services in the county.