Stagecoach is offering a Yuletide boost to bus passengers by trebling the number of city services it runs in Oxford on Christmas Day.

The Cowley-based firm will this year run hourly Buses from Barton and Kidlington to Oxford as well as providing the No 1 service from Blackbird Leys to the city centre along Cowley Road for a second year.

The operator decided to increase services after more than 100 people boarded the buses on its first Christmas Day service last year.

Stagecoach’s Oxford Tube service to London will also run tomorrow via Heathrow airport as it has done on Christmas Day for the past decade.

Operations manager Matt Cranwell said he expected demand for the city centre services to be boosted by drivers who wanted to leave their cars at home during Oxfordshire’s extreme cold snap.

He said: “We have regularly run the Oxford Tube on Christmas Day with a special diversion via Heathrow Airport. And after running route 1 last year we know there is demand to travel.

“These links will be invaluable to many people and allow them to visit loved ones. We are always looking at what we can do to improve services for our passengers and these additional routes are an extension of this.

“With snow and ice still in certain places, these services will prove even more popular.

“They can even enjoy a drink without worry about whether they are over the drink limit.”

The firm will offer drivers double pay for working Christmas Day and will run all its services with a skeleton crew of 11, all of whom have volunteered to work.

Travel on the buses will be free for pensioners and disabled passengers who hold national concessionary bus passes.

However, city centre fares will cost slightly more for fee paying passengers with the cost of a single rising from £2 to £2.50 and a return fare increasing from £3.20 to £3.70.

Oxfordshire spokesman for Bus Users UK Hugh Jaeger said: “The bus is a vital asset in Oxford. Not everybody in the city has a car and families want to get together.

“This helps people do what they want to do on Christmas Day and essential services also have to keep running so providing buses up to Headington and Barton puts people in walking distance of the John Radcliffe.”

Buses will run between 9.50am and 6.30pm. Oxford Bus Company is not running any services in the city on Christmas Day.