OXFORD Bus Company passengers made 12 million journeys across the city in 2017, with several thousand more people using the buses each week than last year.

The millions of bus rides were made on the company's colour co-ordinated City network via 11 different routes.

On average 30,000 passengers have used the services per day this year to travel into Oxford, marking an increase of one per cent compared to the previous year, about 2,000 extra passenger journeys a week.

A team of more than 250 dedicated City drivers and a fleet of 76 specially designed buses cover more than 60,000 miles per week.

The company has invested more than £4m since 2015 to steadily transform the fleet, making Oxford one of the few cities in the UK to have a fully colour co-ordinated bus service.

Eight of its 11 City service routes are colour coded and all of the buses have free wi-fi and contactless payment systems.

Oxford Bus Company managing director Phil Southall said: "Over the last two years we have invested significantly in our City services, to make our buses as appealing as possible to passengers.

"This has included adding new liveries when vehicles were due for refurbishment, or replacement, to make them more distinctive and easy to identify.

"Alongside this we have added the latest contactless payment and audio-visual technology.

"We have also invested in Euro 6 micro-hybrid engines with the cleanest vehicle emissions standards.

"We are delighted to hit this milestone in our City operation for 2017 and look forward to continuing to provide a first-class service for residents and visitors to our city."

Many buses have low emission hybrid technology plus audio-visual technology to support visually impaired passengers.

In January a new £4.5m fleet of purple park-and-ride buses was roll out to prepare for the reopening of the £440m Westgate Centre in October.

The company invested in the new fleet of 20 buses to encourage more people to use park-and-ride in the run-up to the shopping centre reopening.

It is estimated that the number of shopping trips will increase from five million to 16 million a year following the reopening of the centre.

Manufactured by Wrightbus in Northern Ireland, the buses have some seating featuring tables, on-screen information including next-stop announcements, USB charging points, and Euro 6 micro-hybrid engines with the cleanest vehicle emissions standards.

At the same time Thames Travel, a sister company of the Oxford Bus Company, reported its growing network of Didcot-focused Connector services have carried 1.25 million passengers in 2017.

Hugh Jaeger, spokesman for the Oxford branch of Bus Users UK, said earlier that the bus company introduced the colour-coded liveries to help passengers 'identify buses quickly'.

His favourite are the purple park-and-ride buses, previously green.