OXFORD Bus Company has announced a new package of fares that will see prices drop for hundreds of its passengers.

The firm has cut an average 15 per cent off two of its pre-paid smart cards – which cover the city centre and Kidlington.

It has also frozen single fares for all its journeys – including tickets for coach services to Heathrow and Gatwick airports and London, but people buying tickets for return journeys will see a 10p price increase on routes from Blackbird Leys, Barton and Rose Hill into the city centre.

Last night Hugh Jaeger, an Oxford representative for Bus Users UK, said: “I’m absolutely delighted, particularly because we are in a recession and it is even more welcome the company is able to extend this kind of help to passengers.

“You can see the point in encouraging people away from single tickets and paper returns so it shortens bus load times and speeds up the journeys.

“A freeze on the single tickets is also very welcome.

“Because competition between the bus companies is so strong on Oxford’s main routes many passengers only buy singles so on their return journey they can get on the first bus that comes by.

“Let’s look forward to the next great leap forward in ticketing when we can get a bus quality partnership with joint ticketing so passengers can get on any bus.”

The move comes more than a year after the firm increased fares by 6.5 per cent when the price of Brent crude oil tripled to $146 a barrel.

However, passengers were expecting further fare rises as three months ago Stagecoach put up its prices by an average of three per cent At the time, Oxford Bus Company complained it was having to cope with an increase in fuel costs of 1.84p per litre after the Government stopped reimbursing fuel duty to operators for the first time this year.

Prices for the firm’s two other smart cards – known as ‘the key’ offering travel to Abingdon, Didcot and Wheatley – have also been frozen.

Operations director Louisa Weeks said: “We generally review our fares annually in the autumn.

“Despite having to shoulder increased taxation on fuel, we have absorbed that by reducing costs behind the scenes so we can offer our customers better value for money products on the key.

“Fewer cash transactions mean buses don’t dwell at stops for as long, which speeds up overall journey times and improves the environment.

“At the moment, just over 50 per cent of our customers do not pay cash to the driver for their journey.

“This is a very high rate for a city of the size and nature of Oxford, but we want to encourage this further.”

The new fares will be introduced next Saturday.

Stagecoach spokesman Chris Child said: “We have no immediate plans to change any of our fares.”

l Stagecoach has announced its Oxford Tube services will be disrupted today because of a march in central London. Coaches will be unable to serve Grosvenor Gardens, Marble Arch or Notting Hill Gate between 11.30am and 5pm.