Sir – Why the surprise about the new park-and-ride to Bicester Village lying unused by local commuters to Oxford?
Which car owner would drop their car off on this side of the M40 in order to sit on a packed bus, crawling first towards the motorway junction, then down the Oxfordshire Bottleneck (A34) towards Oxford?
Now that the A34 is feeding trucks from both the M40 and the M1 towards Southampton docks, it no longer functions as a local commuter route. Bicester drivers long ago reverted to village roads.
They have effectively lost rush-hour use of the A34 and, with an exorbitant parking fee at our old Bicester Town railway station, have been priced out of the train service. The failure by planners to tie in an obligation by the eco-town to build safe cycle routes to the station is a laughable failure. All safe cycle routes circle the town.
The only way I can imagine the park-and-ride being used is if a direct bus to London terminates there. It may help to provide a fast shuttle bus to the railway station for Oxford commuters.
Come on planners, stop focusing solely on tourism.
Kathleen Greco
Woodcote Road, Caversfield
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