Passengers fear they could be left “stranded” after five West Oxfordshire bus services were scrapped five months after council subsidies ended.

Go Ride has announced it will stop running the W1, W1A, W2 and W3 Witney services and the X10 bus between Witney and Chipping Norton after Sunday, November 30.

Travellers have been told they could be left without full services until Oxfordshire County Council, which withdrew funding at the request of Go Ride as part of £300,000 travel cuts in June, find a replacement.

Abingdon-based not-for-profit company Go Ride was previously criticised because of overcrowding.

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Buses had only 16 seats and Go Ride had to call taxis because there was not enough room on some services.

There have since been complaints about its lateness, broken doors and some bus drivers being unfriendly.

Passengers said the services needed improving rather than scrapping.

Diane Haley, 67, of Wadards Meadow in Witney, said: “It’s diabolical and we need a better service. There are elderly people who won’t get out at all, which is a shame because they will be isolated.

“They will either have to stay indoors or get a taxi, which isn’t cheap.”

Jess Neill, 75, who lives in Witney’s Madley Park estate with her husband Alex, said she preferred to use Stagecoach’s 11 service to reach the town centre because the Go Ride services were unreliable.

She said: “It wasn’t a good service and I don’t think one person had a good thing to say about it.

“I hope someone takes it over or it goes back to Stagecoach because a lot of people will be stranded.”

Her son Steven Neill, 42, who campaigned against the service, said: “It just goes to show that they didn’t do their research properly or consult the public about it. The council stopped subsidising buses to save £300,000 but they’ve spent millions on roadworks in Oxford.”

The June changes were among eight routes taken over by a mixture of Stagecoach, Go Ride and the Villager community bus service to save the council £300,000. Stagecoach’s 213, 214 and 215 services were transferred to Go Ride, which renumbered them as W1, W1A, W2 and W3.

The county council’s deputy leader Rodney Rose said it may ask operators to extend services or use extra buses to cover the gap left by the service temporarily from December.

He said: “There’s a chance we will get some sort of services running straight away but I don’t know how comprehensive it will be.’’ Go Ride director Dave Harrison said: “The services are being withdrawn because they are not commercially sustainable – passenger numbers and hence revenue were significantly lower than expected.”

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