BUS users in Barton, Risinghurst and Headington say services have deteriorated since much a heralded joint ticketing scheme started.

Passengers using the No.8 and No.9 services from Barton to Oxford say they can wait up to 40 minutes for a bus when one should arrive every six minutes.

They said the problem started in July, when the £10m scheme to co-ordinate Stagecoach and Oxford Bus Company services with joint-ticketing, smartcards and new time-tables began.

Passenger Becca Chaplin, who gets the bus from Waynflete Road in Barton each day, said: “It’s just so frustrating. I was at the bus stop for 40 minutes the other day.”

The 40-year-old said: “On average we’ll be there nearly half an hour and at least once or twice a week, the bus won’t turn up at all.

“It’s not uncommon to have queues of about 30 people waiting at each stop.

“If it’s just a single decker, it fills up much faster and then all the buses are full.”

Roadworks in Headington and the St Clements area had added to delays, but she said the problems pre-dated that.

She said: “We’ve got buses cutting out big parts of the route because they’re running late and people are forced to wait for another bus because they’re too full, with no idea when the next one will be.”

Barton Lane, Headington resident Michael Kelly said: “The buses are absolutely awful.

“We were waiting in town on Monday and the board said it was three minutes away. Then that disappeared and it said 23 minutes. The bus never turned up.

“And they are so overcrowded. You quite often get dozens of people standing up and four or five buggies on there.”

Oxford Bus Company operations director Louisa Weeks said: “We are working together to resolve the reliability issues.

“The current roadworks on the approach to The Plain have exacerbated the situation.

“Whilst we appreciate these are essential works they are causing major problems even though we have been running many extra buses to ease the delays.”

Stagecoach spokesman Chris Child said: “Getting out of Barton has been considerably harder in recent months and we are in discussions with Oxfordshire County Council about the phasing of traffic lights and considering adjustments to improve the situation.

“Unfortunately the recent St Clements roadworks have also severely impacted routes and we will be doing our best to try and keep disruption to a minimum.

“We apologise for any inconvenience caused to passengers.”