IT WAS a glimpse of the future … and it didn’t look good.
For much of the past week, the London Road entrance to Reading has been snarled up with traffic jams as vehicles attempted to squeeze into a single lane.
The cause was a temporary lane closure to allow energy company SSE to conduct some urgent repair works, close to the railway bridge that divides Reading with Wokingham borough.
It might have been a small stretch of road, but it caused chaos for cars coming off the A3290, as they attempted to merge with traffic coming from Shepherd’s Hill roundabout and then condense from three lanes of traffic into one.
And given the works took place where the new bus lane into Reading is due to be installed, residents have been concerned that the roads will be like this all the time once the new route is in place.
Under the plan, Reading Borough Council is to convert one of the two inbound lanes between Suttons Seeds and Cemetery Junction into a bus lane. This will be used by services such as the Orange 13/14 route, RailAir, park and ride services, and shuttle buses to Thames Valley Park.
But Newtown residents have concerns that the new setup will cause problems for turning into Liverpool Road and make air quality worse as traffic snarls up around the Suttons Seeds roundabout.
Park ward Green party councillor – and leader of the opposition – Rob White said: “Green councillors support public transport in general. But schemes have to be well-designed. The SSE roadworks on London Road created a similar pinch point to Labour-run Reading Council’s proposed bus lane scheme.
“These roadworks are doubling queues at rush-hour similar to what the council’s modelling showed would happen with the bus lane scheme.
“Ironically, I have seen buses stuck in these traffic jams negating any benefit they would get from the bus lane when it goes live. This is also worsening air quality at the pinch point. We raised these concerns earlier in the year, but Labour ploughed on regardless.”
He added: “Originally the council said the scheme would go ahead in May, but they are now saying it will go ahead later in the year. I hope that they have seen the error of their ways and will take this scheme back to the drawing board.”
And Cllr Stephen Goss, transport spokesperson for the Conservatives, said: “Reading Conservatives made it clear in our feedback on the draft ‘Reading Transport Strategy 2040’ that while we support improving the bus network, the Council must demonstrate that new bus lanes and bus priority measures will alleviate congestion rather than exacerbate it.
“We emphasised the need for genuine local consultation on contentious plans, but unfortunately, the London Road lane was pushed through by the Labour Party despite local opposition.
“In the committee vote, Reading Conservatives opposed the bus lane and warned about its potential impact on congestion.
“The Government has allocated over £26 million to enhance bus services in our town. It’s imperative that this funding is used to make bus travel faster and more appealing rather than causing delays and sparking frustration among drivers.”
However, Lib Dem prospective parliamentary candidate for Reading Central, Henry Wright, said: “I support the new bus lane – when I talk to local residents, they tell me traffic and air quality is a nightmare and improving bus services will only lead to improvements in that.
“It is for Reading Council and partners to work together ensure it is correctly linked to the rest of the road network and that any temporary disruption is minimised.”
And a spokesperson for Reading Borough Council said: “The works carried out by SSE on London Road were urgent and did not allow for any advance notice of a temporary lane closure which inevitably caused disruption to traffic.
“The new bus lanes agreed at the Council’s Traffic Management Sub-Committee in January have all been carefully designed with consideration of their potential impact, and measures will be put in place to mitigate these where possible.
“We acknowledge that some of the changes to road layouts will lead to longer queues for general traffic but will help to make public transport faster, more reliable and more frequent, and in the longer term, reduce traffic coming into Reading.
“Without making significant changes to the transport infrastructure and providing credible sustainable travel alternatives, car usage is likely to continue to grow, creating ever more congestion and air pollution, damaging the health of Reading residents.”
