A LONG-RUNNING campaign to allow taxi drivers to get access to a bus lane heading out of Reading is moving a step closer.
The outbound bus lane in King’s Road is currently used by buses, minicabs, motorbikes and cyclists to get from the town centre to Cemetery Junction faster.
Private hire taxi drivers – whose services need to be booked in advance- are not allowed to use the bus lane, even though they have been allowed to use the inbound King’s Road bus lane for years.
Now, drivers’ dreams of getting access to the outbound bus lanes are coming closer to reality.
At a recent meeting, councillors discussed an informal consultation into changing the outbound bus lane to let private hire drivers use it.
Of the 1,221 who participated, 1,150 responded in support of the move, with 71 people objecting.
The Reading Private Hire Association (RPHA) was set up in 2022 in part to push for access.
Speaking at the meeting, Kamran Saddiq, the chairman of the RPHA said: “The bus lane is flowing freely.
“The inbound bus lane was given to us over 11 years ago. It’s been going absolutely fine.
“Great credit to the buses, they are doing absolutely fantastic, we’ve never stepped in their way, we don’t intend to, we want that flow to continue.”
Mr Saddiq expressed frustration that ‘out-of-town’ drivers are incorrectly using the bus lane, while Reading licensed private hire drivers are ‘stuck’ in regular traffic by sticking to the existing rules.
He clarified that ‘out-of-town’ drivers include both minicab drivers and private hire drivers who are registered with other local authorities, such as the New Forest and Fareham.
However, there were concerns about how the bus lane would be enforced.
Asif Rahid, the chairman of the Reading Taxi Association, who represents ‘hackney carriage’ drivers, said: “All the out-of-borough hackney carriages that use the bus lanes are easily identifiable.
“But one of the issues is that not all of the private hire cars licenced by the council have plates or have roof signs. They are executive vehicles, and they look no different from a normal car.
“Joe-blogs sitting in that traffic will see that Mercedes and think ‘I have that car, I can use it’, the potential is there.
“From day one there needs to be enforcement.”
The inbound King’s Road bus lane had ‘authorised vehicles only’ signs installed in July 2019 to discourage out-of-town drivers from using them incorrectly.
Mr Rashid added that out-of-town drivers should have all access to bus lanes removed.
Meanwhile, Peter Seymour of the Reading Motorcycle Action Group expressed concerns that King’s Road was a “known blackspot” with a “rising tide of accidents” particularly at the entrance and exit of Reading College.
While councillors agreed that crashes in Kings Road are a serious issue, there was no evidence linking private hire taxis with these incidents.
Councillors on the traffic management sub-committee unanimously agreed to launch a statutory consultation into the change at a meeting on Thursday, January 11.
Subject to that consultation, the council’s highways team will need to identify funding and make changes to signage to reflect the change.
