BUS passengers in Littlemore have expressed fears the area will have even worse public transport if a subsidised service is withdrawn.

The Thames Travel T2 service runs between Oxford and Abingdon from Monday to Saturday and links Littlemore with both, as well as providing a connection from the area to Cowley Road and Berinsfield. But it is one of 118 routes which are set to lose their subsidies from Oxfordshire County Council in a bid to save £3.7m.

More than 350 people have already signed a petition launched last year to campaign for better buses in Littlemore.

Littlemore parish councillor Dorian Hancock, who uses the T2, said if the service stopped running after its subsidy was cut it would make the problem even worse.

He said: “It is used by a very wide range of people, such as people from Littlemore getting to the train station in Oxford or getting to the coaches to London.

“Loss of the provision will affect the elderly and children who go to school on the bus.

“It is not only Littlemore being affected, people in Berinsfield use the bus as well. Some people may go to work in Abingdon and most of the direction of travel is towards Cowley for shopping. That connection is vital.”

The T2’s timetable was extended to serve Littlemore in the evenings from last June, shortly after Stagecoach started running its 12C service, which ran in a loop from the city centre through to Littlemore and Sandford-on-Thames.

Only the late evening services and diversions via Culham are subsidised.

Mr Hancock said: “My stance is we always need more buses, although, of course, we have to to be realistic because we need people to use buses if we add more services.

I would like to either see the T2 retained or the T2 or T3 changed to start from Berinsfield, or at least have a link to Berinsfield.”

Bus campaigner Hilda Beesley, from Bodley Road in Littlemore, said she was concerned by the prospect of the T2 being stopped.

The 87-year-old said: “We do not get enough buses as it is, it will be a real shame if the T2 goes. It gives people a link to Cowley Road, which is important.”

Senior county councillors agreed to cut subsidies on all bus routes at a meeting last November.

The proposal will now be put forward for final approval in the local authority’s budget on February 16.

No announcement has yet been made about whether or not the T2 would be permanently withdrawn if its subsidy is removed.