Oxford Uber-style bus service will end in June

An Uber-style bus service will end in June with its operator blaming a lack of public sector and business support.

PickMeUp was launched by the Oxford Bus Company in June 2018 as part of a two-year pilot and has been used for about 300,000 journeys.

It said it had "exhausted all external funding" trying to make it work.

Oxfordshire County Council said the service was a "great idea" but there was "no obvious way of making it more financially viable".

Passengers using the service request a mini-bus pick-up from virtual bus stops around East Oxford using a mobile phone app which has been downloaded 38,000 times.

Phil Southall, Oxford Bus Company's managing director, said: "Unfortunately, local authority support was not made available and passenger numbers could not reach required targets as congestion slowed buses down to 9mph just at the time demand was at its greatest.

"Whilst some businesses have been very supportive of the service, others decided not to support it as they did not see it as their responsibility to do so for the greater good of Oxford."

Its parent company, the Go-Ahead Group, is looking at whether similar services could be rolled out across the country.

An Oxfordshire County Council spokesman said: "Pick Me Up was a great idea and we wanted it to succeed.

"The required funding needed to keep it operational was very large with no obvious way of making it more financially viable. The impact of coronavirus adds to the challenge."

The service will end on 20 June.