Sampling Oxford bus services with Smartzone

Oxford’s bus network is extensive and is operated by Stagecoach in Oxfordshire and Oxford Bus Company, along with subsidiary Thames Travel. One ticket option that makes it easy to around the city is the multi-operator Smartzone product. Richard Sharman visited Oxford to see just how flexible Smartzone is

Oxford is a huge tourist attraction in the UK, but it is also my home county and where I have gained the vast majority of my bus industry experience over 16 years – the other 10 years being spent in Warwickshire and Worcester.

Oxfordshire is excellent bus operating territory, although bus subsidy here is all but a thing of the past, so the county’s bus operators are mainly operating commercial services.

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Due to high bus usage, this has proved to be sustainable. That is not to say that competition doesn’t still exist, but it is nowhere near the level of the deregulation era.

Value for money in the Smartzone

The Oxford Smartzone range of tickets allow passengers to use Oxford Bus Company, Stagecoach in Oxfordshire and Thames Travel services for periods of between 24 hours and one year, with many options in between.

The boundary of the Smartzone is quite generous and encompasses all of the city’s main suburbs, including Yarnton, Kidlington and Oxford Airport to the North, Barton, and Wheatley to the East, Kennington and Greater Leys to the South and Botley and Cumnor to the West.

Many customers who live on the main roads into Oxford, such as Banbury Road, Botley Road and Woodstock Road, can enjoy multiple service options which make commuting extremely easy and their journey times flexible.

The only exception to this arrangement is that the Smartzone ticket is not valid on Stagecoach in Oxfordshire’s N-prefixed night services. However, Oxford Bus Company City-branded services generally have a last departure time of around 0000hrs, whilst many of Stagecoach in Oxfordshire’s long-running services either operate until the early hours of the morning or operate 24 hours a day.

Swapping the car for the bus

Park & Ride in Oxford will have been operating for 46 years this December, the first site at Redbridge at the end of Abingdon Road having opened in 1973.

Today, five sites are operating around the city; I opted to use the second-oldest and the most northerly site, Pear Tree.

Located next to Pear Tree Services and the A34 dual carriageway, this is one of the busiest sites and for those coming from other tourist attractions such as Stratford-upon-Avon, it is the first they come to.

Arriving mid-morning, the car park was pretty full, but there were still spaces.

Pear Tree and Seacourt have no terminal buildings, whilst Thornhill, Water Eaton and Redbridge have waiting areas and toilet facilities. In all honesty, in 2019, all sites should have some facilities as many tourists have travelled long distances before arriving in Oxford.

Walking to the bus departure area, you’re greeted by what can only be explained as a confusing mass of ticket machines. Joining me on arrival at these machines were two carloads of tourists, one group from Italy and the other from Germany, who looked at the machines and had no idea what to do. I can see their point.

The idea of a Park & Ride system it to make it an easier option than the car; being confronted by a mass of machines is not an ideal greeting to this fine city!

As the bus was getting ready to board I inspected the machines and found that the green ones were for the car park tickets and the blue ones for buying a joint car park and family bus ticket… oh, and there is also a black one for paying by card!

I paid for my £2 car park ticket then assisted the visitors so they could also board the waiting bus.

I was greeted aboard Wrightbus Streetdeck 669 by the friendly driver and purchased my 24hr Smartzone ticket for a very reasonable £4.30.

If I was just buying a normal return to the city and back it would have cost me £2.80, so including the parking it is only £4.80 for all-day parking, compared to the Westgate Shopping Centre which is £18 for six to 12 hours.

Experiencing the Streetdeck

This was to be my first trip on a Daimler-powered Wrightbus Streetdeck as a passenger, having previously driven many hundreds of miles in them whilst taking them around the country for bus rallies for my previous employer.

The interior matches the exterior livery and is quite dark, although under-seat mood lighting does help matters.

Heading for the upper deck, I found that the vehicle had two tables and a lounge-shaped seat behind the staircase.

I opted for the front seat to experience the ‘see-thru’ corner windows that had been specified. The seats on this vehicle were quite firm, and not what I would call comfortable from a passenger perspective.

The driver prepared to depart as the next bus arrived; on engine idle these vehicles do seem to like to shake quite a bit, with the side windows flexing. As we departed the site and headed for the Woodstock Road I was quite disappointed with the ride quality. It is what can only be described as ‘firm,’ at least from an upper-deck passenger’s point of view.

The Streetdeck has an integral chassis, and a low-revving Daimler engine which wants to go into top gear as soon as possible. Luckily the Woodstock Road roundabout is traffic light-controlled these days so drivers don’t have to worry about finding a space to pull away in.

The 2.9-mile trip down the Woodstock Road took just 11 minutes to complete, thanks in main to the limited-stop aspect of the service.

Overall it is a good service – it is only the confusion of the various ticket machines for visitors and the ‘firm’ ride quality of the vehicles that are the niggly points.

West Oxfordshire competition

I mentioned earlier that competition still exists in Oxford. Of course, the rivalry of the London express services has been going on since March 1987 when the Oxford Tube was introduced in competition with Oxford Bus Company’s 190, or as it is known now, the X90. That rivalry will end in January 2020 when the X90 ceases operation, due to competition and quicker journey times being offered by the train.

The other significant area of competition in the last few years has been services to the West Oxfordshire town of Woodstock, home of Blenheim Palace.

This area had been a Stagecoach in Oxfordshire stronghold for well over two decades, but in December 2016, Oxford Bus Company extended its Water Eaton Park & Ride service to serve Kidlington and Woodstock.

The reason for this extension was due to the opening of the Oxford Parkway rail station next to the Water Eaton Park & Ride site.

Stagecoach in Oxfordshire swiftly responded and registered a route along the same corridor but with the omission of the Water Eaton Park & Ride site, instead stopping on the main road, leaving a short walk to the Parkway station.

This service also saw the return of the original 7 Kidlington service number, introduced when Thames Transit began operations back in 1988.

Kidlington is one of England’s largest villages, with some 14,000 residents, and has a frequent bus service jointly operated by both of the main operators.

The two series of services operate along the main Banbury Road towards the village but then take different routes around it, with Oxford Bus Company’s City 2 operating a mix of vehicles in a dedicated light blue livery and Stagecoach in Oxfordshire operating ‘beach ball’-liveried ADL Enviro400s.

Each departure is scheduled to alternate between Stagecoach in Oxfordshire and Oxford Bus Company from stop C1 on Magdalen Street; service 7 departs further up from stop C3. My observations of the service are that it generally departs fairly lightly loaded in comparison to the 2; it seems there is some disconnect for customers on this corridor realising that they also have the option of using the 7 as it travels along the same route into Kidlington.

However, it would seem that the opposite can be said for its return journey, where most arrivals appear in the city with a good seated load.

Changes that came into effect on 20 October now see all buses heading towards Woodstock departing from the same C3 stop, although the S3 takes a different route through Yarnton and Begbroke to get to Woodstock. The movement of the S3 stop from George Street to the same stop as the 7 should see increased loadings on the 7 as Blenheim Palace-bound passengers can use both routes to get there.

The Gold standard 7

I decided to have a ride out on the 7 service using my all-operator Smartzone ticket. The vehicle awaiting the next departure was a Stagecoach Gold specification 2016-registered ADL Enviro400.

I was welcomed aboard by the driver and showed my ticket. At this point the vehicle was empty in the lower saloon, which gave me a chance to have a quick look at the interior. This specification is technically the Stagecoach Gold mark two, and sees some changes which include wood-effect flooring, a lighter interior and different seating.

From a passenger point of view, the interior was warm, clean, light and welcoming. Before departure, another 10 passengers joined the bus, each greeted nicely by the driver.

Departing towards Woodstock, I was aware that I would not be able to travel the full length of the route as the Smartzone ends at Kidlington Airport, 2.8 miles from Woodstock.

Banbury Road has a large number of bus stops in each direction, and the bus made various stops before reaching the halfway point of Summertown.

I was impressed with the ride quality of the ADL Enviro400, which also had a smooth Cummins engine that was quiet and composed. The driver also braked smoothly when approaching bus stops. This alone makes a huge difference to the passenger experience.

Passes and contactless payments were most definitely the preferred methods of payment throughout this journey… will we ever live in a cashless society? It may be possible, but for now, operators are seeing the benefits of customers preferring just to tap their debit card. It reduces boarding time, and also benefits the drivers at the end of their shift when they have less cash to pay in. It also benefits them from a safety perspective, on the bus, and whilst out on the streets when on break.

This vehicle appeared to be rattle-free; of course, the purpose of the ADL MMC programme was to reduce any rattles, make window changes easier and so on.

This example is now just over three years old, so it is fair to say that it has had a good shakedown in that time!

We were soon heading towards Kidlington, but just before we reached there, we passed the Oxford Parkway Station. No passengers boarded or alighted there but the stop is just a few minutes walk from the station.

Arriving in Kidlington, it was time to leave service 7. I opted to get off at the first stop on the Oxford Road, which is called Garden City and is opposite a large Sainsbury’s.

Coming back towards the city centre I could have used either operator’s 2 service, but a Stagecoach in Oxfordshire ADL Enviro400 was the first to arrive on the 2B service. This 16-plate example featured the updated blue and orange semi-high-back seating.

The bus was already busy with passengers who had boarded in Kidlington. I found a seat in the lower deck and was surprised how comfortable the seats are on these 16-plate examples.

The inbound trip back towards the city was much busier than the outbound one, stopping at nearly every stop on the way to the halfway point of Summertown, where several passengers alighted. Again, the driver showed excellent customer service and spoke to each passenger.

Summertown has many shops and it is possible to change onto the 700 hospital service from here.

The universal issue of passengers moving towards the platform before the bus is anywhere near the terminal is still apparent, but over the years I have driven or been a passenger on Oxford’s buses it has always been customary for passengers to make their way towards the platform as soon as they see the Oxford war memorial, which is still some distance from the terminus at the end of Magdalen Street East.

Arriving back in the city it was then a quick change onto a Stagecoach ADL Enviro200 just around the corner in George Street. This 14A service originates at the John Radcliffe Hospital then uses Marston Ferry Road to cut onto the Banbury Road just before Summertown, then carrying on into the city and up to the railway station, which was my next destination.

There is something odd about showing a Stagecoach driver an Oxford Bus Company-branded ticket, but it is so common in this city that they are used to it and simply check it is the correct product and that it is in-date.

Ticket checked and welcomed on board, we headed for the railway station. This Enviro200 was a 63-plate example, so just over six years old, and was rattle-free and had comfortable fabric seating. Although, after the first seat on the nearside there is a distinct lack of legroom for anyone over 4ft tall! So I ended up taking up the two seats with my legs twisted towards the gangway.

This is an issue many operators face, the weigh up between capacity and comfort.

If you are trying to attract people out of their car then comfort has to be high on the priority list, and I think operators have realised that over the last few years.

Oxford, like many other cities, faces huge traffic issues. For services that serve the Botley Road, that traffic has been caused in the main by the opening of the huge Westgate shopping centre project in October 2017. This shopping area attracts visitors from all over the county and beyond, which means that the visiting cars then queue to get into the centre’s underground car park. This can also affect services arriving from Woodstock Road. Saturdays are particularly bad.

However, the cause of the delay to the service which I was on was three-way traffic lights further down the Botley Road, causing traffic to back up from Park End Street and on all surrounding roads. These roadworks have been in place since 29 July and are scheduled to run until late 23 December, as Southern Gas Networks replaces old metal gas pipes with new plastic ones. Roadworks such as these cause massive disruption to the bus network and can increase journey times by at least 20 minutes. In this case, the lights are manually controlled between 0730hrs and 1930hrs, but this seems to have little effect due to the mass of vehicles using this road.

Once we had finally arrived at the station I alighted the bus and decided not to take a route heading down the Botley Road due to the delays, instead opting to head back to the city centre.
After two traffic light changes and 10 minutes passing, an Oxford Bus Company 4C service towards Wood Farm arrived. Boarding the ADL Enviro400H, I showed my ticket and took a seat on the nearly empty lower saloon. 314 is one of the former Park & Ride vehicles that joined the fleet in 2011 and then got ousted onto the city network in 2016.

Funnily enough this was the oldest vehicle I travelled on that day, but the most pleasant. The saloon was just the right temperature, the ride and braking were smooth and the suspension took care of any potholes.

The 4C navigates the city centre, passing the Westgate Shopping Centre and then stopping at St.Aldates, which is where I alighted after the short ride.

Back in the city, it was time to head back to the Park & Ride stop, only a short walk through Cornmarket Street back to Magdalen Street.

The return trip back to Pear Tree was busy, with a large queue already forming, and it was only 1500hrs. I suspect that many people who have been shopping try to leave the city before the rush hour commences, which in Oxford is anything from 1600hrs onwards.

I was hoping to sample the lower deck on Streetdeck 680 to see if the ride quality was any better, but downstairs was already full so it was the upper deck again. I managed to find a seat at one of the two tables, which is fitted with an Aircharge wireless charging unit to charge your mobile phone. I tried it and it worked, as did the free WiFi on all the vehicles that I had travelled on during the day.

The ride quality was unfortunately no different on this example, but I guess if you are using the service regularly you will be used to the harshness of it.

Arriving back at the Park & Ride site I felt that I had got more than my money’s worth of travel from the £4.30 ticket, and the fact it was still valid until 1100hrs the following day was a bonus.

Keeping it real

Overall the Smartzone product is hugely beneficial to the travelling public of Oxford within that zone, offering flexibility and choice at a very reasonable price.

Additionally, the main lesson that can be learned from these sorts of days out for bus company management is that you are seeing what your customers are seeing day in, day out – it is all about keeping it real.

That is worth way more than any customer survey; my experience of that day has shown me that all the driving staff were well trained in customer service, showing good interaction with everyone.

If you are at the management level in a bus company, this shows that your driver training is working and that your staff are committed to delivering a quality service.

On the other hand, riding on these vehicles can often show up things that you may think you could improve upon on with the next vehicle order or indeed feed back to the vehicle manufacturer.

So, if you have the time, just spend a few hours now and then on your bus network and see what your customers see. You may be surprised at just how dedicated your driving staff are, and you may also find easy ways to improve the network based on how that experience went.

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