Go-Ahead Group’s PickMeUp app-based minibus service (Buses last month) was launched in Oxford on 25 June following six months of working with local communities and businesses to help determine what the service should be.
Go-Ahead chief executive David Brown says: ‘It’s all about how to get people to difficult-to-access places like business parks and get people out of cars.’
Oxford Bus Company managing director Phil Southall says the company frequently receives requests for suburban journeys, especially around the city’s ring road.
PickMeUp is an on-demand service trying to meet some of that need, in a zone that stretches eastwards from the city centre to encompass an area where 30,000 work in major hospitals and academic institutions as well as a variety of other activities.
Pricing has been designed to discourage people from using PickMeUp for journeys that could be undertaken on an existing Oxford Bus Company bus. There is a £2.50 premium on top of the introductory £2.50 flat fare. But if a journey requires two buses – typically by interchanging in the city centre – there is no extra to pay and for most people there also is a significant time saving.
The launch event took place at the Oxford Science P…
