Public transport officer Dick Helling's report to the Transport Select Committee tells us only what we have known for a while, that bus use in Oxfordshire has peaked and something needs to change if it is to rise any further.

Some will argue that bus use has reached saturation point and that you have to accept that people want to use the alternative, the private car. That may be true, but if our need to get about continues to rise as it has done for centuries in line with economic growth then that means more cars in Oxford and more congestion.

You cannot build new roads in Oxford in a way that is environmentally acceptable, or in a way that protects the city's heritage.

In other words, more people have to travel by bus or by some other alternative mode of public transport such as light rail.

With no prospect of any investment in light rail, the only conclusion you can reach is that Oxfordshire needs to encourage greater bus use.

So, how does it do that? There are plans for new park-and-ride car parks on the outskirts of market towns. In theory, these should increase the custom for the bus companies. It is not quite so simple, however, because, as Mr Helling tells the select committee, the county council has run out of ways of getting the buses around quicker and journey times are actually getting longer. Why then would anyone bother to catch a bus at the new park-and-rides if it is no quicker than sitting in the car?

It brings us back to a point we made a few weeks ago. Without some form of congestion charging in Oxford, it seems hard to see how the authorities will make these new park-and-rides work, or get more people on to the buses and make bus travel easier and quicker.