Reading buses announces fare increase
There'll also be timetable changes
Reading Buses say they are continuing to adjust to new travel patterns following the Covid-19 pandemic and the final withdrawal of government funding that has been replacing passenger revenues whilst demand has been suppressed.
Robert Williams, Reading Buses Chief Executive Officer, said:
“There has been a significant change in the way some people work and shop, which means that overall demand for bus services has changed. We need to adjust service levels accordingly.
"We will be introducing a combination of service and fare changes to close the financial gap to allow us to continue providing efficient and reliable services.”
The fares increase is partly to help close the revenue shortfall left by the government funding coming to an end, and partly to reflect inflationary pressures on items such as vehicle components and fuel, and to fund a proposed pay increase for its employees.
Single fares will generally increase by 10-20p and return/day tickets by 30-40p. The flat single fare within Reading will be £2.30 on bus or £2.20 on the Reading Buses app. The day ticket within Reading will be £4.50 on bus or £4.30 on the app.
The simplyReading 7 day, easysaver10 and daysaver5 will increase by £1.
The services that will see a change from September 5 are as follows:
Leopard 3 will continue to run every 20 minutes to Arborfield and hourly to Wokingham with minor timetable changes, but without leopard 8 providing additional capacity along Shinfield Road. One journey an hour will be diverted to additionally serve Thames Valley Science Park.
Leopard X3 has minor timetable changes to the afternoon journeys from Shinfield Park.
Emerald 5 and 6 see the Monday-Saturday frequency reduced to every 12 minutes.
Tiger 7 will be replaced by a new more frequent and direct extension of the Mereoak park & ride 600 to Three Mile Cross, Spencer’s Wood, Swallowfield and Riseley. The service will provide an improved frequency every hour throughout the day and an evening service is also reintroduced.
Leopard 8 will be replaced by an extension of Mereoak park&ride 600 to provide a more direct service to Three Mile Cross every 30 minutes, and to Spencer’s Wood, Shinfield and Thames Valley Science Park every hour.
Leopard 9 will run between Reading, RBH, Cressingham Road and Whitley Wood only, with the extension to Three Mile Cross and Spencer’s Wood replaced by the extended park&ride 600 service.
Sky blue 15 will be extended from Calcot IKEA to Arlington Business Park and/or Theale to create new shopping and work links. The Theale Green School bus route 88 is re-numbered 15, with no changes to the timetable.
Royal Blue 33 will have minor changes to journeys between 6am and 7am from Reading Station and between 7am and 8am from Stratford Way, with the frequency at these times reducing to every 30 minutes.
Pink 22, Berry 23/24 & Pink 25 will see a small number of early morning and evening journeys no longer run due to low usage.
Yellow 26 will be increased to run every 12 minutes at peak periods after being reduced for the summer period, with amended times to improve reliability.
Mereoak park&ride 600 will be increased to run every 15 minutes throughout the day after being reduced earlier in the year. One journey an hour will be extended to Riseley and one journey an hour extended to Shinfield and Thames Valley Science Park. These will form a 30 minute ‘fast’ service to Three Mile Cross and the northern parts of Spencer’s Wood utilising the A33 bus rapid transit corridor.