Bus passengers in Oxfordshire are facing price rises on some routes.

From Sunday, fares for Stagecoach Oxford and the Oxford Tube are rising by an average 3.5 per cent. The Oxford Bus Company is also revising many fares.

Stagecoach bosses said they had avoided changing fares in the first few weeks of the year to limit the effect on customers recovering from Christmas spending.

David Whitley, marketing manager for Stagecoach Oxford and the Oxford Tube, said: "When you are reinvesting over 60 per cent of your annual turnover, it is essential to make a profit.

"If we can reduce or at least freeze some fares at the same time, as we have done this year, it is even better."

To balance the 3.5 per cent price rise on a number of key routes, Stagecoach's new Any-5-Day, three-week and 26-week tickets will offer extra savings to regular customers.

Some fares are also being reduced, in Abingdon and along the Abingdon Road into Oxford.

The price of a one-day Family Explorer ticket also falls by 50p to £9. But single and return fares from Oxford to London are rising for the first time since 1997. Many other fares are being frozen including one and two-week Zone One Transitpasses, some annual season tickets and many fares on the services 39 and X39 between Oxford, Abingdon, Henley and Heathrow Airport.

Single and return ticket prices also remain unchanged between Oxford to Bicester and Oxford to Woodstock/Chipping Norton.

This year's fares come at the end of a year that saw Stagecoach Oxford invest £10m on over 100 new vehicles for the area, including the country's first state-of-the-art easy access buses.

For Oxford Bus Company passengers, most fares which currently end in 5p units are being rounded up to the nearest 10p.

Most but not all adult single and return fares under £1 will increase by 5p (except 30p fares and 65p fares in Oxford).

Most adult fares over £1 will rise by 10p and child fares will change in accordance with adult revisions.

Certain fares for journeys along Abingdon Road in Oxford and on Oxford Road, Abingdon, are being reduced.

Fares on Citylink X90, the Oxford to London Express are being revised, while fares on the Citylink X70 to Heathrow Airport and on Citylink X80 to Gatwick Airport remain unchanged.

Story date: Friday 12 February

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.