TIMETABLE changes to bus services across Reading and Wokingham have been announced.
Operator Reading Buses confirmed the amendments will come into place from Monday, September 5.
Earlier this month, Wokingham Borough Council committed to subsidising Tiger 7 and Leopard 3, 8 and 9 services until March 31, 2023, at a cost of £241,466.
Tiger 7 will be replaced by a more frequent and direct extension of the Mereoak park and ride 600 to Three Mile Cross, Spencer’s Wood, Swallowfield and Riseley.
The service will run every hour throughout the day and an evening service will be reintroduced.
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 8 will be replaced by an extension of Mereoak park and 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, Royal Berkshire Hospital, Cressingham Road and Whitley Wood only, with the extension to Three Mile Cross and Spencers Wood replaced by the extended park and ride 600 service.
The changes made by Reading Buses extend beyond the four services subsidised by Wokingham Borough Council.
Reading Buses has seen passenger numbers reduce by 23% since the pandemic, with local authority and government funding replacing lost revenue whilst demand has gone down.
Initial service changes were confirmed in April but with the government’s Bus Recovery Grant coming to an end, further cuts are being made.
Robert Williams, chief executive officer at Reading Buses said “fundamental changes” linked to home working and online shopping mean a significant rise in usage is “unlikely”.
As a result, Leopard X3 has minor timetable changes to the afternoon journeys from Shinfield Park.
Emerald 5 and 6 see the Monday to Saturday frequency reduced to every 12 minutes.
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 to 15, with no changes to the timetable.
Royal Blue 33 will reduce to every 30 minutes between 6am and 7am from Reading Station and between 7am and 8am from Stratford Way.
Pink 22, Berry 23/24 and Pink 25 will see a 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.
Mereoak park and 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 Spencers Wood, utilising the A33 bus corridor.
