Buses
Help employees find and catch a bus
Make it easy! Inform staff what buses run to your workplace and where they run from (i.e. include it in onboarding packages, post it on your company’s intranet site and on physical displays at work). It can also be helpful to include easy-to-read timetables that highlight when buses arrive at your workplace shortly before shift start times, leave key stops (such as the train station or city centre), and leave from your workplace shortly after shift end times. Build an expectation that work will be finished in time for employees to catch the bus at the end of the day (which is great for overall morale). Finally, offer a guaranteed ride home on the rare occasions that someone misses the last bus.
Offer discounted tickets
Contact bus companies to see if you can negotiate a discount on tickets for your employees. Discounts can be on single fares, daily fares, or on monthly/annual passes. The advantage of discounted passes is that your employees can use them outside of work too, making the bus even more financially attractive. You can also offer zero-interest loans that cover the cost of annual bus passes and can be paid back over the year through a salary deduction. Here’s information from Stagecoach on corporate bus tickets. You can contact Oxford Bus Company or Thames Travel.
Examples
Oxford Brookes University partnered with Oxford Bus Company to offer discounted bus fares and passes.
University of Oxford offers discounted bus passes on Oxford Bus Company and Stagecoach buses, as well as a zero-interest loan to cover the cost of a season ticket.
Oxford City Council employees get a 20% discount on bus passes.
Oxford Health partnered with Oxford Bus company to offer £2 CityZone day passes.
NHS offers a 10% discount on Stagecoach flexi tickets.
Anyone working at Milton Park can apply for an annual £20 bus pass and benefit from unlimited bus travel on any journey starting or finishing at Milton Park for about a three-mile radius around the site, including the villages of Steventon, Drayton and Sutton Courtney.
Negotiate with bus companies to ensure your site is serviced
Feeling cut off? Any travel surveys and postcode mapping you do can help highlight where improvements in bus service would be helpful. You can then approach the relevant bus companies to propose things like schedule changes, additional or relocated stops, or route extensions. If your business requires a totally new bus service, you can pursue a commercial solution or partner with local bus companies. These could be staff-only buses or buses that are also open to the public. Negotiations on either front may prove more successful if banding together with other nearby businesses. Ensure that the walk from any new bus stops is as direct and attractive as possible.
Examples
Oxford Brookes University partnered with Oxford Bus Company to offer the BROOKESbus service, which is also open to the public. It offers its staff half off season tickets for the BROOKESbus, with annual tickets only costing £122.50. A significant deal when you consider that an annual SmartZone bus pass costs £770 and it would cost £732 to subscribe to a year’s worth of monthly CityZone passes!
There is an express bus line that runs from the city centre to the BMW Mini plant, which is also open to the public.
Oxford Bus Company operates the 46 bus line in partnership with Belmond Hotels (Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons).
13 Milton Park-branded buses connect the park to the wider Oxfordshire area. They also ran a competition to name the buses to help spread the word about the bus lines.
Updated September 2024