A TRIAL run of a new road layout at a major junction in Oxford has been welcomed by the city’s bus company.

An experiment layout at the junction of New Road, Worcester Street and Park End Street in Oxford started after the rush hour yesterday morning and will continue until Friday.

The traffic lights at the junctions were disabled and drivers travelling out of Worcester Street had to give away to traffic coming down New Road and Park End Street.

The changes come after Oxfordshire County Council unveiled its latest plans to cope with the proposed ‘experimental’ closure of Queen Street to buses and taxis for 18 months from October.

Oxford Bus Company managing director Phil Southall told the Oxford Mail the company was working closely with other bus operators in the city and Oxfordshire County Council ‘until an agreeable solution can be reached’.

The trial run comes after the bus company boss said last month the city was ‘on course for traffic chaos’ when the Westgate Shopping Centre reopens.

Mr Southall said a series of changes to roads and junctions proposed across in city centre did not go far enough.

But last night he added the company were ‘supportive of these types of trials generally’.

Mr Southall said: “They allow us to gather real data on how it affects the quality and reliability of our services.”

Oxfordshire County Council unveiled its latest proposals for the four-way junction of Worcester Street with Hythe Bridge Street and George Street in May.

The county council also wants to add turning restrictions and traffic islands, claiming the measures will help ease congestion in the city when the revamped Westgate opens.

Hackney cab driver Mohammad Choudry said if taxi drivers were allowed to use bus lanes in the new layouts ‘it would be helpful'.

He added: “People will have to pay more money to get anywhere [if restrictions are in place]. Sometimes there is very heavy traffic.”

The changes are also designed to cope with the proposed ‘experimental’ closure of Queen Street to buses and taxis from October.

Hugh Jaeger, transport expert and chairman of Bus Users Oxford, said he was open to ‘seeing what happens’ in respect of the trial.

He added: “It has not been working in the current arrangement. Let’s see if the junction changes help.

“To be honest, whatever the junction arrangements the county council choose, the basic problem is the amount of traffic. They need to reduce the amount of traffic in Oxford.”

Mr Jaeger said one way to reduce the number of vehicles was to introduce a congestion charge. He also suggested opening up Cornmarket Street to buses.

It is the second time in three years that significant changes have been made at the Worcester Street junction after it was redesigned in late 2014 at a cost of £300,000.

The overall plans include a redesign of the junction in which vehicles, apart from buses and bicycles, would be banned from turning left from Worcester Street south by the car park into Hythe Bridge Street and turning left from Worcester Street north into George Street.

Going straight over from one side of Worcester Street to the other would also be forbidden.