transport by bus

Espress Transportation Packages

We offer a comprehensive network of bus services in Oxford and Abingdon, Kidlington and Didcot. For more information

Flying away ? Begin your journey on The Airline, the coach to and from Gatwick and Heathrow 24 hours a day. We hope the rest of your travels are this relaxing. For more information.

The refined coach to London and back. Cut from a different cloth, the Oxford Espress will take you to London in style throughout the day and night.
For style

Preserve our city centre and your nerves. Find ample parking at one of many convenient Park & Ride sites around Oxford, then hop on a Park & Ride bus and get off without a worry in the world. Put your feet up and.

About Us

about us We are part of the Go-Ahead Group plc, one of the five major groups involved in running buses in the UK. The Go-Ahead philosophy is for each subsidiary company to run as an autonomous business in tune with the local market. In Oxford, this policy has enabled us to double the use of buses in the last ten years.

We run 160 buses and coaches on a variety of services:

We are one of Oxford’s largest employers with 550 staff, and operate from a purpose built site on Watlington Road, Cowley. As services have been improved over the last ten years, the number of drivers required to run them has risen by 50%

today’s buses

Each year, we invest heavily in new vehicles for our services. Around half of our local buses and all our Park & Ride buses are easy access low floor models so that people with pushchairs, prams and wheelchair users are welcome aboard. In addition, we have fitted controlled exhaust systems to our fleet which cuts out a large proportion of harmful emissions. We run the lowest emission bus fleet of its size in the UK. The average age of our fleet is around five years – half of what government guidelines suggest.

fare deals

We offer value-for-money fares, and the driver can offer single and return fares. In addition, we offer a wide range of fare deals for the frequent and not-so-frequent customer.

In 2004, we are changing our ticketing system to keep pace with the tremendous advances which are being made in technology. Our new ‘smartcard’ system will offer a new dimension in the way you pay for your bus travel. More details will be available soon.

working in partnership

We work in close partnership with Oxfordshire County Council andOxford City Council. Since 1973, both authorities have been promoting a pro-public transport policy and have introduced traffic management measures which give buses priority in the urban area.

Working together, we have achieved a remarkable result – 44% of people travelling to and from central Oxford use buses!

In partnership with Oxfordshire County Council, we intend to introduce a ‘Real Time Information’ pilot scheme in Banbury Road in 2004. This will give customers a clear indication of when their bus is due.

Bus services outside London operate as a deregulated market. Once a company has an Operator’s Licence, it can register any route: these are run commercially. If a local authority believes that a social need is not being met by commercial services, then it can offer a contract to run such services, awarded by competitive tender.

We do not receive huge subsidies from central or local government to operate our services: in fact we receive payment for less than 2% of our network, and that is to operate non-commercial services on behalf of Oxfordshire County Council. We believe strongly that, wherever possible, bus services in urban areas should be developed so that they can be run without subsidy.

Sending packages

It is possible to send packages with Royal Air Mail in england and Colissimo in France. Fast delivery and tracking are provided for a reasonnable rate. The price of sending a package will mostly depend on its weight and also its dimensions.

oxford bus and the community

Having been around for nearly 125 years, we are certainly part of the Oxford scene. We are actively involved in a number of local initiatives, including:

Online ticket sales

Tickets ordered online are sent by 1st class post within the UK. If you need tickets delivered outside the UK select International Post when completing your order.

It takes up to 3 days for your order to be processed, so allow sufficient time for delivery of your tickets.

Since you need a valid ticket for all journeys, your email order confirmation cannot be used for travel. Tickets ordered on this site cannot be collected personally.

For Conditions of Carriage, write to :
Oxford Bus Company
Cowley House
Watlington Road
Oxford OX4 6GA
or phone 01865 785400

Times

This shows the departure times from Oxford Gloucester Green and from London Victoria Coach Station. Journey time is about 100mins but allow extra time during rush hours. You can get on and off at several other handy points on the way out of Oxford, including Thornhill park & ride, and at Baker Street and Marble Arch in London.

Departure times will vary by a few minutes

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