Leave the car at home to explore the Cotswolds (From The Oxford Times)

Leave the car at home to explore the Cotswolds

7:20am Monday 30th April 2012 in Witney By William Crossley

A new bus and rail rover ticket designed to encourage people to explore the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty without a car has been launched.

The Cotswold Discoverer ticket is available in one-day and three-day versions and is valid on trains between Oxford and Moreton-in-Marsh on the Cotswold Line and between Swindon, Stroud, Gloucester, Cheltenham and Ashchurch, and on bus services across the Cotswolds, including the No 853 Oxford to Cheltenham route.

The ticket will be on sale until October on a trial basis.

It was developed by the Cotswolds Conservation Board in conjunction with train operator First Great Western, Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire county councils and bus operators.

If the idea proves a success this summer, the conservation board hopes that the transport firms will take over its operation in future years.

The Discoverer is available seven days a week, throughout the day (but is not valid on trains on weekdays until 8.50am), and can be bought at any railway station and on board participating buses, which also include RH Transport’s X9 Witney-Charlbury-Chipping Norton route and the firm’s C1 Charlbury railbus and X8 Kingham railbus services.

Bus connections from Moreton-in-Marsh railway station, just over the Gloucestershire boundary, allow passengers from Oxfordshire to travel as far as Cheltenham, Cirencester and Stratford-upon-Avon using the ticket.

A one-day adult ticket costs £10 and a three-day adult ticket £25. Reductions are available with railcards and fares are half-price for children under 16.

For more details and bus and rail timetables, click on the link.