Buses have always been a source of pride in Reading, and rightly so.
Pre-pandemic, national bus usage had been falling for some years, but an opposite story was true in Reading.
We were third highest in the country for bus trips per head of population (outside of London, beaten by only Brighton and Nottingham). Since then, the pandemic lowered passenger numbers, with people understandably changing their working patterns. It’s difficult to know how permanent this shift is, but I do know we are well-positioned in Reading to lead a local resurgence in bus travel.
Our town’s vast range of routes and priority corridors already serve existing bus passengers fantastically well, and at competitive prices too, well before the recent £2 flat fare national scheme was introduced.
I know I’m a bit of a broken record on this, but the Council’s incredible track record in bidding for external funding to the benefit local residents came true once more with a successful £26 million bid for funding as part of our Bus Service Improvement Plan (or BSIP, as it’s known).
In fact, Reading received the third highest BSIP funding award per capita in the whole country even while the majority of other areas were unsuccessful in their bids.
Over the coming years, we plan to put this money to good use – pumping further investment into Reading’s bus services through a range of local initiatives to benefit Reading’s residents and passengers.
When you think of buses in Reading, you would naturally think of Reading Buses.
The company remains in Council ownership, much to the envy of other towns and cities across the UK that have seen their bus services sold off to private operators and with a raft of service cuts following that privatisation.
Although Reading Buses is the dominant operator in our town by a long distance, there are other services too and a key feature of our improvement plan is that the benefits will span bus services delivered by companies from right across the Greater Reading catchment area.
We know our buses do not come to an abrupt halt at the Borough’s boundary line, apart from the Purple 17, anyway.
The first big advantage of this collective approach is that we are able to launch our BSIP scheme with a new ‘multi-operator’ day ticket.
As of Monday this week, you can buy a ‘Reading All-Bus’ ticket for an initially reduced rate of £3.50 on bus (or £3.40 from any of the bus companies’ apps). The adult day ticket will allow travel on all bus services in the Greater Reading Area for the rest of the day.
This will be a particular benefit in places like Caversham – served by three separate bus companies – where the new multi-operator ticket will mean anyone catching the bus can hop on the first one to arrive.
There will also be a range of discounted day tickets for young people and groups, which will again benefit passengers who use services extending beyond the Borough boundary.
Cheaper fares for residents during a cost of living crisis is just one of a range of benefits under this Council initiative, however.
Others include developing the Park & Ride service to the Royal Berkshire Hospital and University (as well as enhancing Mereoak Park & Ride itself); better bus shelters and real-time passenger information displays; extensions to the Buzz 42 service and South Reading services; new bus priority corridors across the borough to further speed up journey times and improve reliability; and giving passengers more of a say through the creation of a ‘Passenger Charter’.
Reading remains a major economic player in the south east, and the opportunities on offer for people means our population will no doubt continue to increase in future years, with more homes and more businesses both inside and just outside Reading.
This growth comes with more pressure on the town’s limited road network, which struggles to accommodate current traffic levels, let alone any future increase.
It means we have to use existing road space in the most effective and sustainable way possible, which will also help the town work towards its ambitious net zero carbon targets by 2030.
We know Reading’s extensive and already excellent bus network is hugely popular with a great many of our residents. By investing heavily in further improvements for passengers, we hope even more people in our town will come to realise there’s never been a better time to be on the buses.
Cllr Jason Brock is the leader of Reading Borough Council and Labour ward member for Southcote
