HUNDREDS of passengers have signed a petition to save their bus service, fearing that cutting it would leave elderly people stranded and students with no way to get to school.

Anita Steptoe, who lives in Didcot, began the petition to protect the No.67 bus which travels between Wantage and Faringdon.

The 27-year-old’s petition to Didcot and Wantage MP Ed Vaizey generated 430 signatures in just one week.

She uses the bus, which is set to have its subsidy axed by Oxfordshire County Council, every week to visit her mum in Stanford in the Vale.

She said: “The bus service is my only means of seeing her and my 10-year-old sister.

“If they cut it, I won’t be able to see her.”

Mrs Steptoe gets a different bus from Didcot to Wantage, then changes for the No.67 which is run by Thames Travel.

She said the £16 taxi journey from her house to her mum’s house is too expensive.

She added: “Elderly people won’t be able to get out to go to hospital, school kids won’t be able to go to school.

“The bus on Monday was packed and the council is saying that it’s not financially viable.”

Mrs Steptoe said that, like her, many people served by the route don’t drive.

Older students use the bus to get to King Alfred’s Academy in Wantage and Faringdon Community College.

Holly Hancox commented on the petition: “I’m signing because I value the 67 bus as I rely on it to get to Faringdon Community College.

“As a sixth-former, I cannot get on the normal school bus and the sixth form bus is full.”

Helen Dick, 75, was among residents from Stanford in the Vale who signed.

She said: “The only other community bus goes to Faringdon twice a week.

“We have volunteer drivers in the village but they’re not always available.

“The service is becoming extremely erratic now. It is often late. But it’s better than nothing.”

The county council is planning to scrap bus subsidies, which cost it £3.7m every year, as part of wider austerity measures. About 90 per cent of Oxfordshire buses are commercially run and will not be affected.

Council spokesman Paul Smith said: “No final decisions will be taken until February and there was a very full consultation to which thousands of responses were received.

“There are no easy decisions. This affects all of our services, not just bus subsidies.”

* To sign the petition, visit change.org/p/ed-vaizey-keep-the-67-67a-town-service