A number of bus services which are financially supported by Oxfordshire County Council (OCC) are under review. This includes the 95 service which runs from Didcot to Culham Campus via Long Wittenham.
The Community Transport team at OCC wants to hear comments from communities using these services to inform the review in advance of the tendering of new contracts to commence on 31st August.
See the list of bus services under review here.
If you have any comments, please send them to the parish council so that it can collate them and forward them to OCC. Post your comments here, or send them to the Parish Clerk at longwittpc@hotmail.co.uk by 15th April.
We observe the double-decker bus has been replaced by a mini-bus or similar, presumably indicating that the service is less well used – although at the end of the afternoon this service from Culham is often full. (We also note the double decker often finds it difficult to stay in-lane towards Clifton Hampden due to the amount of overhanging trees, combined with potholes on the other side of the road causing vehicles in the other direction to pull over the white line, an additional hazard). We have found this service very useful to/from Clifton Hampden, especially to access the surgery, shop and garage, and it also reduces our car use in this respect.
The change from the double-decker to mini-bus isn’t the best there is no space between the seats the middle aisle is to small when you want to seat with the trolley full of shopping especially when the standing space is occupied it would be better to have normal bus than the mini-bus plus people with crutches are unable to use the seats apart from the one on the side also it would be amazing if there is a bus they goes around 12am – 1pm from Long Wittenham to Ditcot and from Ditcot to Long Wittenham as there is no bus in the middle of the day the there is one from Long Wittenham around 8:30 am and it arrives around 9am at Didcot and the earliest from the Didcot to Long Wittenham is around 3:40pm and from Long Wittenham to Didcot 4:15pm which is a big gap between the available buses especially when you want to go and do the shopping in the town centre
This bus service is important as my daughter is currently using it to get to and from Didcot to attended Sixth form. My middle daughter will start using it in September for the same reason. If anything, I think the village needs a more regular bus service especially if the County Council are actively trying to get more people using public transport.
If you wanted to use this service to shop in Didcot you would have to spend all day there as it means leaving Wittenham before 9am and not leaving Didcot to return home until nearly 4pm
It would be extremely disappointing if this service is suspended by OCC. Council tax has increased and services cut – that hardly seems fair! The service should be increased so that more residents would use it. There are very few facilities in Long Wittenham, if the bus service is suspended it would mean residents without transportation, or a friendly neighbour, are completely cut off and that isn’t right. A lunchtime service should be included to give residents access to Didcot/Abingdon shops, and also the train station at Didcot. It seems OCC are determined not to keep the bus service running by providing such a limited service AND by not maintaining the road – both surface and hedgerow need maintenance work. We are paying the money OCC so let’s some action, please!
Thank you to everyone who responded. Comments are now closed.