Should Oxford have a tramway?

[mangyiscute]

I've lived in Oxford for a couple of years now, and I was intially shocked at the high bus usage - it is not uncommon to see say 40+ people waiting for the number 2 along Banbury Road, and buses are usually very well loaded. I just took an x40 from Reading to Oxford that ended up having to skip passengers on Iffley road because it was full. It does make you wonder how much time would be saved if something like oyster was put in place, as it does take the buses quite a long time to board everyone - I know they currently have something similar in place but it isn't marketing very well imo so most passengers would probably have no idea how to use it (I think you tap off when you alight but I'm not 100% sure). I personally think that the solution to the current issues are just more anti-car schemes to persuade more people to switch to buses - the buses should be perfectly adequate and if more people start using them, hopefully frequencies can be increased making them even more attractive.

 

[Haywain]

(I think you tap off when you alight but I'm not 100% sure)

I saw something about tapping off but didn't really get what that was about.

 

[JamesT]

I saw something about tapping off but didn't really get what that was about.

The tapping will be OBC’s Freeflow - https://www.oxfordbus.co.uk/freeflow
Tap on and off and it’s supposed to only charge single fares and then cap to the day rate. But only works on that bus company.

 

[Mikey C]

Having used a (sister company) Thames Travel bus from Reading, my impression was that a number of people were tapping in and tapping out, and that the system was well used. I tried to do it, but got it wrong and had to phone up for a refund

Dual door buses would make such a system much easier to use though.

 

[didcotdean]

Within Oxford daily capping arrangements are somewhat deficient as they are not cross-operator, although daily tickets that are can be bought. It could be done as it is in some other cities.

 

[mangyiscute]

Having used a (sister company) Thames Travel bus from Reading, my impression was that a number of people were tapping in and tapping out, and that the system was well used. I tried to do it, but got it wrong and had to phone up for a refund

Dual door buses would make such a system much easier to use though.

I think when I tried it the tap off machine wasn't switched on so the driver had to take time to get it on, removing the benefits of a speedy boarding and exit. Nowadays, I just use a 12 trip

 

[Mag_seven]

I think when I tried it the tap off machine wasn't switched on so the driver had to take time to get it on, removing the benefits of a speedy boarding and exit. Nowadays, I just use a 12 trip

Thread reopened

 

[djox]

Thread reopened

On the the tap on tap off methods, the sooner Stagecoach is forced to offer it the better and ideally combine it with Oxford bus company. In others city different operators have been forced to work together such as Leicester, no idea why Oxford hasn't yet. Maybe when there's a single council and Thames Valley mayor will it happen.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 13 Nov 2025 ==

On the theme of the original post title what about VLR being done in Oxford like Coventry? There should be no proposal to do traditional trams which would dig deep into Oxford roads and shouldn't be considered after the Botley Road Bridge for the railway.

 

[Haywain]

On the theme of the original post title what about VLR being done in Oxford like Coventry?

Coventry's VLR was a brief experiment/demonstration that achieved little. It was little more than a bus with added infrastructure, added safety requirements and, presumably, added costs.

 

[Zomboid]

The VLR demonstration isn't what they'd roll out. If it does work as a low cost tramway then it might suit Oxford well. I don't think it's a big enough place to justify a full "heavy light rail" system.

 

[The Pelican]

Oxford's general transport issue is that the centre is so old and attractive that almost any transport intervention, including trams, would be both helpful and possibly destructive. I'd go for a tram subway taking a line from Cowley and a line from Headington from Magdalen Bridge, several stops under the High Street, an interchange under Carfax, and then surfacing near the Westgate to run to the station. At the station, a delta junction would feed tram-trains north to Yarnton and Oxford Parkway, and South to the new Cowley branch and Didcot.

I like to imagine such a subway being what the German call an Unterpflasterbahn, an under pavement railway, with short flights of steps up the surface. Unfortunately, even a very shallow tunnel would destroy lots of old college cellars beneath the High Street, so it would be fairly hard to build- the alternative, very deep stations, would also be destrutive. Anyway, if Rome and Athens can gradually plug away at excavated metro systems, Oxford should be able to find a balance with regards to heritage locations.

(Broadly Oxford's problem is that it's population mostly lives east of the old historic center, while it's main shopping centre, the Westgate, is to the west- but at least the 1930s plan, which involved building a bypass through Christchuch Meadows, never came to pass!)

 

[JamesT]

Oxford's general transport issue is that the centre is so old and attractive that almost any transport intervention, including trams, would be both helpful and possibly destructive. I'd go for a tram subway taking a line from Cowley and a line from Headington from Magdalen Bridge, several stops under the High Street, an interchange under Carfax, and then surfacing near the Westgate to run to the station. At the station, a delta junction would feed tram-trains north to Yarnton and Oxford Parkway, and South to the new Cowley branch and Didcot.

I like to imagine such a subway being what the German call an Unterpflasterbahn, an under pavement railway, with short flights of steps up the surface. Unfortunately, even a very shallow tunnel would destroy lots of old college cellars beneath the High Street, so it would be fairly hard to build- the alternative, very deep stations, would also be destrutive. Anyway, if Rome and Athens can gradually plug away at excavated metro systems, Oxford should be able to find a balance with regards to heritage locations.

(Broadly Oxford's problem is that it's population mostly lives east of the old historic center, while it's main shopping centre, the Westgate, is to the west- but at least the 1930s plan, which involved building a bypass through Christchuch Meadows, never came to pass!)

Rome and Athens are very large cities with populations in the millions, comparable with London. Oxford is comparably tiny. Are there other cities with populations under 200k that justify an underground? As well as the cellars, you would also have to deal with the water table.
Of course, Oxford did have trams back in the day, they were horse-drawn. But they didn't get further out of the centre than halfway up Cowley Road and certainly didn't attempt the Headington hill. I note they also used a narrow 4ft track gauge, which is probably a large hint to how hard it is to fit them into Oxford's streets.
If Oxford had parallel streets where you could run buses and trams separately then it could work, but then that's Oxford's problem at heart that it's all squashed together.

 

[The Pelican]

I meant Rome and Athens in the context of cities with even more historic buildings and archaeology than Oxford. The two cities which have a tram system most similar to what I would suggest for Oxford- based around a single tunnel- are Rouen (420,000) and Bielefeld (310,000), so both quite a bit bigger than Oxford is.

 

[Zomboid]

Personally I think modern technology wouldn't need to be to destructive - no need for OLE in the centre, for example. Broadly speaking I'd imagine a North - South line from Oxford Parkway to Cowley/ Blackbird Leys and an East - West route from Thornhill P&R to Botley. Though perhaps the Cowley branch will do a lot of what the North - South route would, if a Smartzone + Rail ticket becomes a thing and bus services are concentrated on the stations.

It'll be interesting to see how effective the Congestion charge is, and how things change when the traffic filters come in, because the issue is traffic as much as anything. The bus service in the city seems to be really good, and with most buses now being electric maybe that's actually the optimal solution.

 

[Falcon1200]

On the the tap on tap off methods, the sooner Stagecoach is forced to offer it the better and ideally combine it with Oxford bus company.

That would be good, although when in Oxford I just by a Smartzone Day ticket, which at £5 is the same price as two singles, while giving the flexibility on both Operators.

 

[JamesT]

That would be good, although when in Oxford I just by a Smartzone Day ticket, which at £5 is the same price as two singles, while giving the flexibility on both Operators.

Presumably a tap-on/tap-off system covering both companies would cap to the Smartzone price, whereas currently both companies have single-operator day passes which undercut the inter-available ticket.