Oxford A40 dual carriageway and bus lane plan unveiled
- Published
The stretch of the A40 is notorious for hold-ups and traffic jams
A £54m plan to upgrade a congested section of the A40 in Oxfordshire to a dual carriageway and add a bus lane into Oxford has been unveiled.
The options were the most popular in a consultation on how travel between Witney and Oxford could be improved.
The plan to upgrade the Witney to Eynsham stretch and add bus lanes from there into Oxford will be considered by councillors next week.
A new park and ride at Eynsham is already in the pipeline.
Other options included in the public consultation included using the disused railway line between Witney and Oxford for a tram or guided bus or reopening it for trains.
County council leader Ian Hudspeth said: "What's been put forward is a very good pragmatic solution. I know some people will say we should be looking at having a rail solution but the funding of that is just not realistic in the present climate."
However, Hugh Jaegar, chairman of Bus Users Oxford action group, said widening roads was not the solution.
"We know that encouraging more cars and more HGVs leads to more emissions and eventually you just end up with a bigger traffic jam with twice as many lanes," he said.
"We've got to break that spiral now and get everybody onto public transport."