A London-based transportation company will soon be providing a new inter-community bus service connecting Oxford County to London.

Voyago will begin offering four routes between Oxford County and other Southwestern Ontario destinations on April 1, 2020, a few months after the originally planned Jan. 1 rollout. The decision to push back the debut will allow the Tillsonburg-administered bus service to match other inter-community services that will be launching in the new year, helping find “efficiencies.”

“The start date was pushed back to help achieve some of the cost reductions,” Kevin Deleebeeck, Tillsonburg’s director of operations, said. “The fare schedule’s in progress and will be part of the marketing campaign at the beginning of the new year.”

Deleebeeck said Tillsonburg staff and Voyago worked together to reduce operating costs for the service.

The first route from Tillsonburg to Woodstock and Ingersoll – expected to be the busiest – will run five times a week instead of the originally planned six. That initial route will also have stops in Springford, Otterville, Norwich, Burgessville, Beachville, Centreville and Ingersoll.

The second route will connect to Norfolk County, with connections two days a week three times a day to Langton, Courtland and Delhi. The third route will connect to Straffordville, Vienna and Port Burwell and run twice a week, with three trips per day.

The final route will connect Woodstock Hospital to Ingersoll’s Alexandra Hospital and London’s Victoria Hospital. That route will run twice a week, with two trips per day but, depending on demand, could expand.

Deleebeeck said the next stage will be a marketing campaign to inform the public about the service, finalize a fare structure and install bus signs. The extra three months will

The bus service initially came with an estimated price of $1.47 million but, through the costs reductions, officials expect to save $397,000 for a final cost of about $1.07 million. The pilot project is funded by the province’s Ontario Community Transportation Grant until March 31, 2023.

Voyago was also selected for an intercity bus service between Sarnia, Strathroy-Caradoc and London last week. That service will also start in April and be funded until 2023 with a $1.45-million grant. The Sarnia-to-London service will also have stops in Komoka and Mount Brydges and run five days a week with an end-to-end runtime of about two-and-a-half hours.

All fares for the inter-community services should be between $5 and $15, depending on the distance.