Sir – It seems strange to set up a Quality Bus Contract with the sole aim of making the service worse — reducing frequency, pushing the bus stops to unsuitable locations with narrow pavements.

Instead of joint-ticketing — which will take years to set up — the two bus companies should split the four main routes between them, and introduce double deckers — as they would do if they were the sole operator.

I could imagine Stagecoach doing the routes to Kidlington and Barton, with Oxford Bus Company doing the routes to Blackbird Leys and Rose Hill, for instance.

I think there could even be a sensible agreement to accept each other’s day passes off-peak on these routes.

This would give most of the benefits of joint ticketing, but with a lot less fuss.

With double-deckers and a single operator, the impact on Queen Street and the High would be substantially reduced.

I would still remove the bus stops from Queen Street (including the ones outside the Co-op Bank), but leave routes 4 & 5 running through Queen Street, rather than diverting them the long way round.

I think the improvement to Queen Street will be quite significant just by removing the stops — removing the buses altogether needs to wait on a better solution for new stops than just packing them all into St Aldates.

Richard Mann, Oxford