Bus passengers from Risinghurst say they have to endure long waits to get homes from Oxford city centre because students take up all the seats on their service.

Some residents are even risking their safety crossing the busy A40 dual carriageway after being forced to take alternative services home.

Passengers on the Oxford Bus Company No. 22 service say students from Oxford Brookes University using the Risinghurst-bound service to get to Headington from the Harcourt Hill campus in Botley fill the buses at busy times.

The service, subsidised by the university, runs every 30 minutes and is the only bus serving Risinghurst. Other buses to Headington run every seven minutes, but students still pack the No. 22.

David Lincoln, of Risinghurst, said many residents felt cut off from Oxford because of poor public transport links. The area does not have an evening or Sunday service.

He said: "It's horrendous. By the time the bus turns up it's full of students."

Delia Sinclair, Quarry and Risinghurst city councillor, conducted a survey and discovered some residents were getting the bus to Barton, then crossing the A40 to get home to Risinghurst.

She said: "People don't use the underpass because of reports of muggings there."

Oxford Bus Company commercial manager Phil Clark said he had received few complaints from Risinghurst, but a petition had been handed to him by Mrs Sinclair.

A double-decker bus has been introduced to try to ease the overcrowding, but Mr Clark said it was not financially viable to provide evening and Sunday services to Risinghurst.

He said: "That decision would need to be made by Oxfordshire County Council on social grounds."

A spokesman for Oxford Brookes said: "We realise the additional bus we have been subsidising has proven insufficient. We will be reviewing the inter-site service we offer."