Oxford bus operators enhance services following congestion charge

Oxford’s temporary congestion charge and free travel on park & ride have improved bus service reliability, report Oxford Bus Company and Thames Travel.

As a result of improved reliability, the bus operators said they are introducing more services on key routes across the south of the county, creating faster journey times to Oxford from Reading, Wallingford and Benson. The new timetables, which will start on 22 February, will further improve punctuality and reliability across large parts of the network, said the bus operators.

Oxfordshire County Council introduced the congestion charge scheme in October 2025 to reduce congestion in Oxford while Botley Road is closed, which has delayed the start of a trial of camera-enforced traffic filters (LTT922).

The Botley Road scheme, which is part of the £161m Oxford Station Enhancements Project, has been delayed by a range of problems including the unearthing of a Victorian brick archway on the site.

The congestion charge was designed to improve bus services and make it easier for those with permits such as community health and care workers, carers, Blue Badge holders, and mobile traders, to travel by car into and around Oxford.

Those without a permit have to pay a daily charge of £5 to go through six charge locations on roads in Oxford. The scheme is enforced using automatic number plate recognition cameras (ANPR) positioned at six locations.

The congestion charge will remain in place until the introduction of the traffic filters trial once Botley Road reopens, expected to be August 2026, said the council. The maximum time the congestion charge scheme will be in place as a temporary  measure is two years, it added.

In conjunction with the congestion charge, the county council introduced free park and ride bus journeys in Oxford.

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.”

Data published by the county council revealed continuing improvement to city centre traffic and key journey times during December.

The monitoring data includes car and bus journey times, and park and ride usage. Data is presented alongside figures for the same month in the previous year for comparison and is published each month.

Andrew Gant, Oxfordshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Transport Management, said: “While the data shows promising improvements to some key journey times and park and ride uptake, it’s far too early for us to draw firm conclusions.

“There are, however, some clear shifts in the right direction, data for December, for example, shows a significant year on year improvement in bus journey times along St Clements and Cowley Road. It’s also very encouraging to see how many people have taken up our offer of free park and ride bus travel into the city.

“We will continue to watch the impacts carefully as residents, visitors and businesses adjust to the temporary congestion charge.” 

Park and ride operators have reported over 179,000 additional journeys in the first two months of the free rides offer compared with the same period the previous year, said Gant.