End of a bus link

[whole diary]

[Richard Fairhurst]

Following the demise of the Charlbury service, West Oxfordshire's other Railbus, the Chipping Norton-Kingham X8 service, is also on the way out.

From the Pulhams Coaches website:

It is with regret that we wish to inform our valued customers of our intention to cease operating the X8 service from Friday 21st July 2017. Oxfordshire County Council removed the bus subsidy from this route last summer, 2016 and we agreed to operate the service on a commercial basis with a review after one year. Unfortunately, the low patronage on the X8 service means the service is not commercially viable without subsidy from the local authority. We have informed Oxfordshire County Council of our intentions. We understand this will be disappointing news for passengers but hope they appreciate our position. We were pleased to be able to provide an additional year of operation after the local authority cuts for the X8 passengers.

I wonder if this is the first time Chipping Norton's connection to the Cotswold Line has been severed. Did a bus replace the Chipping Norton rail service as soon as the station closed in 1962?

(This will also mean some changes to the surviving Chippy-Charlbury-Witney X9 service, I guess, as the buses interwork to some extent.)

[grahame]

I wonder if this is the first time Chipping Norton's connection to the Cotswold Line has been severed. Did a bus replace the Chipping Norton rail service as soon as the station closed in 1962?

(This will also mean some changes to the surviving Chippy-Charlbury-Witney X9 service, I guess, as the buses interwork to some extent.)

There's a timetable up for the X9 which (I note) serves Finstock Station.  I do appreciate the slight problem in that!

[Richard Fairhurst]

A little bit of good news: Stagecoach are reworking the S3 and 7 service timings to provide a late-night service direct from Oxford Parkway to Charlbury and Chippy. So it should be possible to catch the 23.10 from Marylebone and still get a bus connection home. More S3 buses are going to "Oxford General", too, so Chippy retains a rail link of sorts...

https://www.stagecoachbus.com/service-updates/serviceupdatesarticle?SituationId=ID-29/06/2017-11:46:40:119

[ChrisB]

Can anyone access the S3 timetable from the link in the article above? It seems to be password protected, doh!

[JayMac]

http://www.letmegooglethat.com/?q=Stagecoach+S3+Chipping+Norton

[bobm]

If you are interested in such things, it is always worth keeping an eye on this page - https://www.gov.uk/guidance/notices-and-proceedings-for-the-west-of-england.  It is updated every Thursday and lists forthcoming changes and cancellations.   Although some can be made at short notice, in the main 56 days is required and this document gives you early warning of that.

[ChrisB]

http://www.letmegooglethat.com/?q=Stagecoach+S3+Chipping+Norton

Not so clever - only produces old/current timetable, not the new one from 13 August :-)

[rogerw]

The original link works fine for me.  The new timetables are at the bottom of the article

[ChrisB]

It does for me now too - fixed the problem. Thanks.