Congestion charge 'so far, so good', says bus chief

More than 10,000 people have taken up the offer of free park and ride bus travel during the first week of the charge

The head of a bus company has said the first week of a city's congestion charge has been "so far, so good" in terms of cutting traffic.

Luke Marion, managing director of Oxford Bus Company, had been calling for measures to tackle congestion in the city after he previously said it was at "emergency levels".

He added that the city's new £5 congestion charge scheme, which began on 29 October, was still in its "early days", but that the "initial signs are encouraging".

The new charge sees car drivers face a daily fee for passing any one of six points on key routes around the city.

"It's still a bit early to say and there are a couple of areas that we're monitoring closely that we are a bit worried about," Mr Marion said of the scheme's impact.

"But so far, it's generally been so far, so good."

For the first three months of the scheme, bus travel from the city's five park and ride sites has been made free for up to two adults and three children with a valid parking ticket.

In the first week, Mr Marion said more than 10,000 people had taken up the offer on its routes.

But it has also lead to congestion around the sites, with one of the park and rides running out of parking space all together on the first day of the scheme.

Mr Marion explained that it had been "a bit of a nightmare on the first day", but after that there had been "some good encouraging improvements in the traffic levels".

He said the company had also been "a bit worried potentially" about extra traffic on the ring-road due to the new charge, but that "at the moment that doesn't look as concerning as we thought it might do"

Changes to services in Oxford are being introduced on Sunday, which Mr Marion said would see timetables "tightened up", meaning the company can "run lots more journeys and do lots of extra things in the city".