READING BUSES is promising improvements to its services from next month, with more buses and better connections for late-night trains.
The changes come into effect from Monday, April 15, and affect the jet black 1, orange 13/14, purple 17 and yellow 26. A few other routes see minor changes.
The purple 17, dubbed the backbone of Reading, will see buses run every eight minutes at peak times, nine minutes the rest of the day, apart from Sundays when it will run every 10 minutes.
The company says this reflects the route’s popularity.
The firm will also run more buses on the jet black 1, which runs between Reading and Newbury.
They will now run every 30 minutes, and Reading Buses says there will be additional resources allocated to add more resilience to the timetable.
This includes the Newbury & District 1a/1c departure times are changing by five minutes to maintain an even service with jet black 1 between Thatcham and Newbury.
For Woodley residents, the changes to the Orange 13/14 will see a slew of changes in a bid to improve reliability.
There will be more buses during peak times, and in the evenings an extra orange 14 journey will run at 5.10 pm from Reading Station.
To help connect with late night trains from London, overnight buses on yellow 26 will leave Reading Station five minutes later.
An afternoon journey on sky blue 16 will see a small change in departure times and school day afternoon journeys on routes 89 and 91 are being re-timed to remove the current need to wait for the timetable mid-route.
Robert Williams, Reading Buses Chief Executive Officer said: ”It is with great pleasure that we introduce more buses onto the network following continued growth in patronage. Most of these routes will see improved bus lanes in the coming months too.
“We are committed to providing a best in class service that includes identifying routes that need more buses for capacity, but also those that require more resources to help with the resilience of the timetable in the face of traffic congestion.
“It is particularly gratifying to see purple 17 increase to run up to every eight minutes – it is, of course, our flagship route and by far the most popular in the town. We hope that by adding more buses it encourages even more people to leave their car at home.
“The route sees plenty of traffic on sections without bus lanes and yet a full bus can take over 2km of cars off the road.”
He said other timetable and route changes came out of feedback from what was happening across the network.
“They are all as a result of responding to the situation on the ground, no matter how small,” he said.
“Where there are difficulties with congestion, or even heavy loadings, we are looking at ways that we can invest back into the services to make them even more attractive to encourage more people to use them.”
Reading Buses single fares are capped at £2 per journey, and a day ticket is £3.40. This offers unlimited travel across the Reading area, regardless of bus company.
For more details, log on to Reading Buses’s website, https://www.reading-buses.co.uk/april-15-timetable-improvements
