Horse trams and horse buses The
City of Oxford and District Tramway Company served Oxford with
horse-drawn trams from 1881. By 1898 its network served
Abingdon Road,
Banbury Road,
Cowley Road,
Walton Street and both and railway stations.
Horse bus services developed to complement the tramway network. By the early 20th century both
Iffley Road and
Woodstock Road were horse bus routes. On Saturdays only there were horse buses from
Headington to the city centre and from
Cowley village to the tram terminus in Cowley Road. In 1906 the City of Oxford Electric Tramways Company took over from the City of Oxford and District Tramway Company. In 1921, the company was renamed City of Oxford Motor Services Limited (COMS). It continued to expand its operations into the surrounding countryside. From the 1930s, COMS was controlled by
British Electric Traction, with the
Great Western Railway having a minority shareholding. The fleet livery was red with maroon and pale green relief. Most of its buses were built on
AEC chassis and running gear. Numerous former COMS buses have been preserved, including a large and notable collection at the
Oxford Bus Museum in
Long Hanborough in Oxfordshire. In 1969 COMS became a subsidiary of the
National Bus Company, commencing greater integration of city and country services. In 1971, the Oxford – London coach operator South Midland, which had been controlled by the neighbouring
Thames Valley Traction company, was transferred to COMS and the fleet name for the entire operation became Oxford South Midland. An acute problem for the operator was the competition for staff with
Morris Motors, whose Cowley factory was near the Oxford garage. One response was to move to one person operation of buses in the 1970s. In 1983, COMS was split into separate Oxford and South Midland units. Oxford Bus Company was allocated the Oxford city services and the London routes, and South Midland was allocated the remainder of the network. Both companies were subject to
management buyouts. The South Midland company was soon resold to
Thames Transit (later
Stagecoach South Midlands), which introduced
minibus competition. Oxford Bus Company tried to counter this with minibuses under the Oxford City Nipper brand name. In 1990, Oxford Bus Company acquired the High Wycombe operations of the
Bee Line, and ran them under the Wycombe Bus brand name. In March 1994, Oxford Bus Company was purchased by the
Go-Ahead Group, with the company formally rebranded to
The Oxford Bus Company and its city services being given
Cityline branding a few months afterwards. In 2000, Go-Ahead sold the High Wycombe operation to
Arriva. The company's long-established main depot in
Cowley Road, Oxford was closed in 2004, replaced by a new depot opened in Watlington Road. Go-Ahead bought
Thames Travel in June 2011 and
Carousel Buses in February 2012. These companies act as subsidiaries of the Oxford Bus Company, sharing management but retaining their separate identities. In October 2019, it was announced that the
X90 service between Oxford and London would be withdrawn from 4 January 2020, due to a 35% fall in passenger numbers since 2015 causing the route to be unprofitable. In June 2023, Go-Ahead announced it had acquired the
Gloucestershire independent Pulhams Coaches. The Pulhams operation, consisting of 90 buses, operates 22 bus services and 126 employees, will remain a separate brand under the management of the Oxford Bus Company. ==Brands==