By Cllr Jason Brock
I really like buses. It’s not a passion – I don’t have any interest in models or vintage vehicles, for example – but I am impressed by efficient, accessible, and affordable public transport.
I grew up in a rural area, so the bus provided a means of ‘escape’ to town and helped form a habit of being a passenger that I’ve never left behind.
I’ve written before that we are very genuinely blessed with incredible bus provision here in Reading. There are very few urban areas that offer anything to rival Reading Buses in terms of convenience, reliability, quality, and cost.
And even fewer places can boast a network as comprehensive as ours.
It’s great news, then, that we’ve been provided an opportunity to push this success even further.
Reading Borough Council is one of just 31 councils across the country to successfully attract funding – £26 million in total – to develop and deliver our bus service improvement plan over the next three years.
Reading Buses, our Council-owned bus company, is one of the few in the UK which remain under local authority ownership and the benefits for the travelling public are plain to see.
So much so that passenger numbers place Reading second in the country outside of London for bus trips per head of population.
As we now recover from the pandemic, this funding will allow us to entice more people to travel by public transport, with all the benefits for the environment and lower congestion that brings.
£16 million of the funding is capital funding and earmarked for bus infrastructure improvements – bus lanes and priority corridors, for example – to help make bus services even more reliable than they already are.
It will also help to further the decarbonisation of Reading’s bus fleet, which is already one of the cleanest fleets in the UK.
The other £10 million is set aside for direct service improvements.
I’m especially keen that we establish integrated ticketing between different bus operators and, hopefully, the train operators in Reading – creating a truly multi-mode urban transport system.
I look forward to catching the 15 from Dee Park and changing onto a train from Reading West to Green Park on the same ticket.
On that point too, it can be easy to forget that there are several bus operators with services in Reading.
Integrated local ticketing between operators and simpler fares, for example, require a high level of co-operation across all bus companies. I want to get to the point where you can simply hop on the next bus to Caversham without worrying whether it’s a Reading Buses, Arriva or Thames Travel service.
Investment in our already excellent bus services is an essential component of the Council’s wider strategy to create realistic and affordable travel alternatives for people, encouraging them out of the private car – particularly for shorter journeys – and improving local air quality and building towards our net zero ambitions by 2030.
We know we can only do that by making our buses even more attractive option for people.
Cllr Jason Brock is the leader of Reading Borough Council, and Labour party candidate for Southcote ward
