Our Bus Bartons, Middlebarton

Story of Self

Richard: What led to Our Bus Bartons starting up was austerity.  In 2016, amidst rumours of cuts, I published a letter in the local paper- warning of possible cuts to local transport. The Parish Council asked me to go to meetings with Oxfordshire County Council. I reported back that “the buses are going and we need a plan B”. As I didn’t know many people in the village at that time, The Parish Council called a public meeting. I had just retired due to medical reasons and was already a trustee for the charity of people with my condition, so I knew a bit about charities and how they work. So, we decided at this meeting to set up a bus company of our own!

Ken: I had recently retired at this point too. I used to use the bus every so often to get to work in Oxford when my car was broken, but I knew others used it frequently. It seemed like a good thing to do - a good opportunity. Others who came along were in a similar position to me, recently retired. We didn’t know anything about how to run a bus company though! The closest we had was Martin who had previous experience in the vehicle industry. 

Taking on the project gave us something we didn’t have before– in that sense it gave us wealth, pride. I've met very special people doing this, it gives you a sense of value for life beyond money. 

Richard: We convinced someone in our village to agree to give us a loan to buy our first (second hand) bus, which we paid back over the course of one year. Martin started driving the routes to time how long they would take and created timetables which we printed off and stuck up at the bus stops. We got some training from the County Council in minibus driving. 

At the beginning we surveyed people about where they needed bus routes to go. We found out key destinations this way. Some people said “I don’t really care where the bus goes, I just want to get on the bus, feel safe that I can come back on the bus and have a chat or some banter with my friends on the bus”. Then we realised: people get the bus because they know their friends are going to be getting it- its a social connection thing. 

It took us 6 months to get OurBus Bartons Limited Company and Charity set up. We’ve been running for 8 years now. We have 25 shifts of voluntary bus drivers on 8 different routes. Most routes only run once per week, except the commuter route which operates daily. It means you can get to Kidlington, Begbroke, Bicester, Banbury etc. on different days of the week. The payment from fares covers our petrol and most of our repair costs. Some passengers also give a donation. All the drivers give their time for free. About 80% of users are pensioners and for them we can claim the money from their Pensioners Bus Passes back from Oxfordshire County Council. When we want to buy a new bus, we need to raise money from trusts and foundations- that’s where the charity side comes in! We were supported by the National Lottery Community Fund for example recently to buy 2 new electric buses. We were one of the first community bus companies in the area, and now we’re the first in the country using electric buses. 

For our passengers the main benefit is that you don’t have to always rely on asking friends or relatives for help. It's also really important for companionship. We help our passengers too.  There is one lady who is 94 and she can barely get up the steps to the bus,  but when she manages it and gets on she gets a good cheer. The bus driver will drop her right to her front door. She is so grateful. One of the main advantages for the elderly or people with access needs is that they know we will pick them up again and they’ll be able to get home. 

We don’t want rural people to be taken for granted. We set up our bus company because no one else was doing it, but that doesn’t mean its necessarily right in the long term for volunteers to run their own bus service. 

Story of Us

We’ve worked with lots of local organisations that supported us-mostly in and around the village.  For example, the Windrush garage prioritise us in their services so that we can keep the bus service running. We similarly use a local tyre fitter and support local businesses. 

The school partnered with us too. Recently they helped us with our campaign to raise the money from the National Lottery to fund the 2 new electric buses. The pupils even did a presentation and lobbied local politicians.  Knowing about going electric is  important for the school children’s education as well. The school also hires us when they go on outings so that supports our running costs. 

Our relationship with the county council is now very good. For the first 4 years after we set up the relationship was slow, while  we established ourselves and showed we could run a consistent and reliable service. There was very much that mentality of us having to “prove ourselves”. Ultimately the knowledge for how to run this organisation and community bus company was self-generated. Recently we were awarded a grant from OCC to support and promote our services (£20,000). 

Our Bus Bartons is a big success; we won a National Bus and Coach award (alongside the likes of Arriva and Stagecoach).  Our parish and county councils are proud of us. Lots of people and organisations have been interested in us and like to talk about us. 

Story of Now: Calls to action

Paying attention to social value

Richard: Personally I’d call for a more social approach, not a purely capitalist commercial approach from the Government. Having bus companies purely interested in profit making has destroyed lots of rural communities. I’m amazed we’ve been doing this now for 8 years, and we haven't really had others to copy. 

Carefully designed bus routes in rural areas

We do think that really the county council should be running the bus routes - but they can do so using local expertise, listening to the community. You don’t need to run a bus through our village every 10 minutes. One return bus a day is sufficient in lots of cases. Or one service a week would be good too- like how we’re doing it. Once a week to Chipping Norton, once a week to Banbury, Bicester etc. 

Make licensing more accessible

Ken: Another thing that would make community transport easier is a change to driving license requirements. At the moment everyone who has a drivers licence after 1997 has to do a test to gain an additional D1 license qualification to drive a bus. So that is a big barrier as many people can’t drive for us unless they do an extra, quite expensive qualification. Our group of drivers is aging, so that might become a problem in the future especially.