An unmarked, 'invisible' bus stop in Oxford city centre has been criticized by a national group representing bus passengers.
The C5 bus stop, included on transport maps of the city and located outside the Taylorian Institute on St Giles, opposite St John’s College, is a lamp post with no sign indicating what stop it is. Three route 853 buses stop there each day, providing Oxford’s only link to Burford, Northleach and Cheltenham.
Hugh Jaeger, the Oxford spokesperson for Bus Users UK, said: “Oxford cannot aspire to be a world class city at the same time as denying essential basic facilities to passengers at bus stops. Any organisation that opposes provision of essential basic facilities for passengers at bus stops should be ashamed of themselves.
“Anyone who misses an 853 because they couldn’t find the stop will be stranded for several hours before the next departure. Anyone who misses it on Sunday will be stranded until Monday.”
Passenger Penri Morgan, 52, a freelance writer who had been staying at Magdalen College over the summer, had difficulty figuring out where the C5 bus stop was when trying to catch the 853 in September. He said: “The bus stop C5 is not labelled. I got a leaflet from the transport board about where to get your buses from Oxford. It lists all the buses. I wanted to go out of Oxford to Cheltenham. In the leaflet it said the bus went from stop C5 near the Ashmolean but there is no C5.
“There is a lay-by but there is no bus stop, no sign at all, there is absolutely nothing there at all. It’s difficult to work out what’s happening.
“I ended up walking up the Woodstock Road to the bus stop outside Somerville college and found this bus stop. There was a map of Oxford and it gave a telephone number of the bus company. I rang them and asked ‘did this bus exist?’ and they told me it goes from near the Ashmolean. I was determined to go to Cheltenham but kept wondering, ‘does this bus exist’. It took me some time to find out. They mark stop C5 on the leaflet but there is no C5. It may sound a bit trivial but it’s very frustrating.”
Bus stops C1 to C4, on Magdalen Street are clearly labelled with grey discs. The county council admitted that the absence of a C5 sign at the stop is causing confusion for the public and told the Oxford Journal that steps will now be taken to rectify the situation.
Owen Morton, a spokesman for Oxfordshire County Council said: "The signage associated with this bus stop is intentionally low-key so as not to detract from the aesthetic of the immediate architectural surroundings. However, we accept that the absence of a C5 marker may be causing some confusion and we will make arrangements to put this right in the near future."
