Councillors have been briefed on a potential change to bus routes to provide services between Woodley and Twyford.
Since the Elizabeth Line train service began in May 2022, Twyford train station has seen increased use, with passenger levels surpassing pre-pandemic levels to 1.564 million in 2023/24.
While the closest train station to Woodley is Earley station, which provides nationalised South Western Railway trains between Reading and London Waterloo, the Elizabeth Line provides trains to London Paddington.
Woodley is connected to Twyford train station by bus services such as the Reading Buses 12 route and the Thames Valley Buses 128 route.
However, the route 12 bus only stops at Shepherds Hill, with the 128 missing out most of Woodley to carry on to Twyford and Wokingham.
At a recent Woodley Town Council meeting, possible changes to bus routes were discussed.
Rebecca Brooks, a community transport manager from Wokingham Borough Council, said: “We’re looking at every half an hour running between Reading, Woodley, Sonning, and Twyford, providing an evening service for people who are commuting from rail station back into Woodley and providing the weekend service.
“We do believe that this should be largely commercial but may require a small amount of support, and then that will help support the evenings and the weekends.
“What’s most notable here is that it doesn’t connect down into Wokingham, which is what the current service does because we’d look to split it at Twyford.
“So anybody who wants to use that particular service to get to Wokingham would have to change at Twyford.”
She also stated that Woodley is well served by buses as they are run on a commercial basis.
But that suggestion was disputed by councillor David Bragg (Conservative, Coronation Central), who currently serves as the town mayor.
He said “Earley is well provided with buses. You take the number 26, they run every 10 minutes into Lower Earley.
“Then you got the number 17 that comes out of Reading all the way down the Wokingham Road.
“So Earley is very well covered by buses. With Woodley we’re not. We’ve got the 13 and 14 but they go in a circular fashion.
“So it means that some people, particularly those that around the South Lake Crescent area, if they want to get to the precinct in Woodley to do their shopping, they cannot get a bus.
“They’ve got a queue on the wrong side of the road and go all the way around the back of Woodley, eventually turning up at The Chequers by the precinct, and those services run every half an hour.
“Ideally, it should be every 15 minutes unless we can get the two routes independent of one another, covering the whole of Woodley.”
While he praised the route 19 bus for providing services to the Royal Berkshire Hospital, he complained that these are infrequent.
Cllr Bragg made his comments at the Woodley Town Council planning and community committee meeting on October 21.
