Stagecoach, Oxford Bus Company and Oxfordshire County Council have worked together to launch coordinated timetables and smarter ticketing on Oxford’s main bus routes.

Oxford SmartZone

Bus routes in and around Oxford are now part of 'Oxford SmartZone'. This means that passengers can make their outward journeys using one company, and their return journey using a different company (excluding Stagecoach Night bus services. Returns bought on Thames Travel buses will only be valid on Thames Travel or Oxford Bus Company buses).

Passengers will also be able to use a single smartcard on any bus operated by Oxford Bus Company, Stagecoach and Thames Travel within the SmartZone area. There will be a range of joint ticketing deals on routes within Oxford.

The Oxford SmartZone includes:

• Oxford city centre
• Blackbird Leys
• Botley
• Rose Hill
• Barton
• Risinghurst
• Headington
• Kidlington
• Yarnton
• Begbroke
• Cumnor

• Oxford SmartZone map (pdf format, 8 MB)

Passengers will be able to buy one week, four weeks, 13 week and annual passes, with travel costing from as little as 96p per day. 

Already have a smartcard?

Each of the bus companies’ own smartcards can accept Oxford SmartZone products, which can be bought online via each company’s own website (Oxford Bus Company and Stagecoach), so passengers can store all their travel on one smartcard.

Co-ordinated routes and timetables

Oxford Bus Company and Stagecoach have coordinated their timetables along the busiest routes between Oxford and Kidlington, Blackbird Leys, Rose Hill, Barton and Risinghurst. This means:

• a more frequent and reliable service for passengers
• all buses that go to the same destination will have the same route number
• buses on these routes will leave from the same bus stops.

The service numbers for these co-ordinated routes will be as follows:

• 2 - Kidlington to city centre
• 3 - Rose Hill to city centre
• 8 - Barton to city centre
• 9 - Risinghurst to city centre
• 1 and 5 will keep their existing service numbers between Blackbird Leys and city centre/rail station.

New timetables can be found on the Oxford Bus Company and Stagecoach websites.

Transform Oxford

The new timetable and smart ticketing arrangement follows the launch of Oxfordshire County Council’s Transform Oxford strategy, which aims to reduce the number of buses in Oxford city centre.

In preparation for the timetables and ticketing scheme the bus companies invested over £12 million in 46 state-of the-art double deck buses which deliver a significant reduction in carbon emissions.