S4 (Oxford - Banbury)

Route S4 is a bus route in England that links Banbury, Adderbury, Deddington, Steeple Aston, Tackley, Kidlington and Oxford. The service is run by Stagecoach in Oxfordshire.

History
Route S4 was formed in 2011 when routes 59/59A/59B were combined into one, which also saw brand new buses being delivered for the new route.

The service was upgraded to Stagecoach Gold status in September 2015, with brand new Gold vehicles being delivered in August and the upgraded service having an official launch event in Banbury at the start of September. Route S4 was also the first Stagecoach Gold route to feature USB charging facilities on-board.

The service was previously heavily subsidised by Oxfordshire County Council, even after the service was upgraded to Gold status, with only a few journeys being operated on a commercial basis. In 2015, Oxfordshire County Council announced that they would be cutting all bus subsidies across the county with the changes coming into effect in July 2016. Route S4 has been run on a full commercial basis since the cuts.

Route
The route runs between Banbury and Oxford. The service starts at Banbury bus station, adjacent to Castle Quay Shopping Centre, before heading towards the town centre and then leaving the town via Oxford Road, passing the Horton General Hospital.

The service continues down the A4260 Oxford road, passing Bodicote before turning off the road in to Adderbury village. The service continues round the village's main road before re-joining the A4260 towards Deddington.

In Deddington, the service turns off the main road to serve Deddington Market Place. The route rejoins the A4260 continuing down to South Side junction whereby the service leaves the A4260 to serve Steeple Aston and Tackley.

The service then re-joins the A4260 Oxford road before heading into Kidlington. As the service enters Kidlington, it passes, but does not serve, Oxford Airport.

The service continues down the A4260 through Kidlington until the Cuttslowe roundabout in Oxford. The route then joins Banbury Road, heading directly down the road to the service's terminus on Magdalen Street in the city centre.

The total off-peak journey time is approximately 75 minutes.

Service
Route S4 runs up to every 30 minutes Monday to Saturday between Banbury and Deddington with services to/from Oxford running up to every 60 minutes. There is no late evening service to Oxford with the last service departing Banbury at 17:50. There are however two further journeys to Deddington at 18:20 and 19:20. The last service from Oxford to Banbury departs Oxford at 19:20.

There is a Sunday service with four journeys running between Banbury and Oxford in each direction.

Route S4 does not have a night service and is one of two Stagecoach Gold routes operated by Stagecoach in Oxfordshire not to have a night service, the other being route S2.