THAMES Valley Buses have announced that the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead will have a new bus network from April.
It follows the retendering of the most lightly used services in the area by the council– Thames Valley buses have introduced a numberof improvements to the most popular services in the area that they run without public funding.
The company says that the changes encompass some new services as well as some improvements to timetables, the creation of new links between areas that currently have no direct service, and the introduction of brand-new buses.
Route 16 will run hourly between Maidenhead, Dedworth and Windsor, reducing the end-to-end journey time to as little as 28 minutes.
Routes 2 and 16 will combine to provide a half hour frequency between Dedworth and Windsor via Dedworth Road, significantly improving the offering for customers in this area.
New route 227 will replace route 234/5 to Waltham St Lawrence and will be extended to Twyford Station for commuters and leisure travellers alike.
New route 228 will replace routes 238/239 to Hurley and provide a consistent service from Maidenhead to Henley six days a week with most journeys calling at Stubbings Garden Centre.
Following a review, they are also introducing a new timetable for route 53 to improve punctuality.
The Saturday service through to Wexham Park Hospital will be doubled in frequency to hourly.
Simon Fisher, General Manager of Thames Valley Buses, said: “We are delighted to have been awarded the contract to operate historic route 1 between Ascot & Windsor, via Sunninghill, Sunningdale, Cheapside and Windsor Great Park – a service with one of the more quirky routes through Windsor Great Park.
We have simplified the route within the Great Park to start the service, but during the summer, we will be serving Savill Garden Visitor Centre on Saturdays and Bank Holidays as a route 1A variant.
On weekdays, route 1 will be extended to Dedworth via St Andrews Crescent and Wolf Lane, replacing service W1 which is being discontinued.”
He explained: “Our Route 2 will be changed give Dedworth residents a much faster service direct to Slough, reducing the journey time to around 15 minutes from the current 35-40 minutes.
“Most journeys will also extend to Wexham Park Hospital via Farnham Road, providing new direct links to the hospital from Windsor, Dedworth & Farnham Road”.
“Our route 7 from Woodlands Park to Maidenhead town centre will see an improved timetable. Buses will run later in the evening until 10.20pm, and 7.20pm on Sundays. One bus per hour will now extend to St Marks Hospital via Boyn Hill.
The other bus per hour will now connect seamlessly with route 16 to provide easy connections to Windsor.”
Simon explained that there are brand new buses on order for most of these routes, which will feature a new design for buses in Windsor & Maidenhead.
“We have ordered a suite of new high specification buses for the network and we expect them to be here in the summer.
“An updated colour scheme, bespoke for Windsor & Maidenhead, will make our buses look amazing, with the aim of attracting residents and tourists alike.
“They will also have significant on-board improvements taking the services to the next level – as customers on our most recent buses on Bracknell routes 171/172, can attest.”
“We regret that we will no longer be operating town routes 3, 8 or 9 in Maidenhead, or a service to Fifield, which will be provided by another operator.”
Information on all of the changes can be found at www.thamesvalleybuses.com
