PROPOSALS to cut buses in Oxford city centre by a quarter and pedestrianise Queen Street earlier than expected are being put forward by Oxford’s two main bus companies.

The companies are also looking to introduce joint ticketing and joint timetabling to reduce the number of buses clogging up Oxford’s historic streets, without hitting the regularity of services.

Oxford Bus Company and Stagecoach say all buses could be taken out of Queen Street as early as next year — two years ahead of Oxfordshire County Council’s own schedule for pedestrianisation.

And they have warned that the County Hall’s “piecemeal” plans to remove bus stops this summer, long before full pedestrianisation, would only clog up surrounding streets.

The managers of the rival bus companies signalled their readiness to enter a new era of cooperation, by offering to form a ‘quality bus partnership’ with the county council, allowed under new legislation.

But with the county council still consulting on its Transform Oxford pedestrianisation proposals, the bus companies have decided to grab the initiative with their own transport agenda for the city centre.

It holds out the promise of significantly expanding the city centre’s pedestrianised area without affecting bus access. And crucially they say it could be achieved in less than 18 months.

Philip Kirk, managing director of the Oxford Bus Company, said: “Our vision for Queen Street is only part of a wide-reaching series of changes to bus services that we are recommending. We’ve said all along we share many of the objectives of Transform Oxford.

“But Oxford has such a complex network of roads that a piecemeal approach could make the situation far worse without achieving the original objectives.”

Martin Sutton, the managing director of Stagecoach, said it was essential that County Hall’s plans were modified.

He added: “The council wants to remove bus stops from Queen Street this year but leave the buses running through. We do not believe this will achieve anything other than overloading adjacent stre-ets, particularly St Aldate’s.

“For example, an average of 1,000 passengers per hour use the two stops for the Cowley Road and Headington services. There isn’t space to accommodate those people on St Aldate’s without spilling on to the road.

“The county’s plans will mean a 120 per cent increase in passengers boarding buses in St Aldate’s — and the infrastructure cannot cope. “ He said he feared shoppers in Queen Street would end up with the “worst of all worlds” — having to share the street with buses, but not being able to get on any of them.

The new Local Transport Act gives powers to bus operators and councils to coordinate timetables and ticketing. All sides now see these so-called quality partnerships — legally-binding agreements — as the key to cutting bus numbers.

Coordinating services on the main corridors into Oxford would allow a 25 per cent reduction of bus numbers in the High Street and fewer buses and bus stops on Magdalen Street, say the bus firms.

Keith Mitchell, leader of the county council, said: “I believe the recession adds to the pressure to increase the footfall in the city quickly by every means possible. The key to much of this is for the two main bus companies to implement joint ticketing. Our current proposals give them every reason for implementing this as quickly as possible.”

The county council earlier responded to widespread opposition to its idea of operating large shuttle buses on the High Street, with a bus interchange at The Plain, by promising to listen to alternatives. But it said nothing had been ruled out.

The public consultation on proposals for Queen Street ends on March 23.

The council is planning to switch bus stops to the northern end of St Aldate’s; New Road, outside the Co-op bank, just west of Bonn Square; and the northern end of Castle Street.