S3 (Oxford - Charlbury/Chipping Norton)

Route S3 is a bus route in England that links Chipping Norton, Spelsbury, Chadlington, Charlbury, Fawler, Stonesfield, Combe, Old Woodstock, Woodstock, Begbroke, Yarnton and Oxford. The service is run by Stagecoach in Oxfordshire.

History
During 2009, Stagecoach in Oxfordshire upgraded and merged routes 20 and 20A into route S3. Route 20 went between Oxford and Chipping Norton, and 20A went between Oxford and Charlbury. The merge happened when Stagecoach launched the 'S' Series routes across the county.

Route 'S3' was granted an upgrade to Stagecoach Gold status in September 2012.

In 2017, route S3 was engaged in a bus route war in Woodstock following the expansion of the Oxford Bus Company Park & Ride route '500' and the establishment of Stagecoach's route '7'. Consequently, route S3's daytime frequency was decreased to two buses per-hour rather than three and would work beside route 7 to bring four services per-hour between Woodstock and Oxford.

Route
Route S3 operates between Chipping Norton, Woodstock & Oxford and Charlbury, Woodstock & Oxford. The Chipping Norton branch of the route starts in the South of the town before making its way towards the town centre. From there, the service joins the A44 and leaves the town towards the East. The service continues down the A44 London Road passing through Enstone before arriving in Woodstock.

The Charlbury branch of the route starts on Church Street, Charlbury before heading South and leaving the village via the B4022 before turning off and joining Main Street towards Stonesfield. The route travels through the village on the main road before leaving South-East via Combe Road towards Combe. In Combe, the service runs along the outer road, then heading North to join the A44 and heading towards Woodstock.

From Woodstock, all services continue down the A44, passing Blenheim Palace and then turning in to Yarnton. The service travels through Yarnton via the main road and then re-joins the A44 heading towards Oxford. At Wolvercote roundabout, the route joins Woodstock Road heading towards the city centre. From the city centre, the service heads to its terminus at Oxford station via George Street and Park End Street.

Some early morning and evening services serve both Chipping Norton and Charlbury. These services go via Chadlington and Spelsbury.

The total off-peak journey time between Chipping Norton and Oxford is approximately 67 minutes and approximately 64 minutes for journeys between Charlbury and Oxford.

Service
Services run during the day Monday to Saturday with services up to every thirty minutes with one service per-hour terminating in Chipping Norton and the other terminating in Charlbury. There are late evening services that run between Chipping Norton and Oxford with one-night service (NS3) Monday to Saturday at 00:35 to Chipping Norton. There is no late evening service on the Charlbury branch. The NS3 only runs in one direction from Oxford to Chipping Norton.

There's a Sunday service on the Chipping Norton branch of the route with the service running up to every thirty minutes between Woodstock and Oxford and every sixty minutes between Chipping Norton and Oxford. Late evening services run every sixty minutes Monday to Sunday with an earlier terminus on Sunday evenings.