Campaigning for better bus services in Redlands

The Evening Post has an article today about Reading Buses' plan for cheaper bus travel on Sundays.

This is good news, but Reading Buses needs to go further: Kirsten and I have had lots of complaints from residents about the cost of bus travel in Reading and there is no doubt that this is putting a lot of people off from leaving their cars at home.

Despite moves last year to introduce free bus travel for teenagers, I think more needs to be done to make bus travel cheaper. Last time I checked the Facebook group against fare rises on Reading buses had over 600 members.

The trouble is, some parts of Reading are not served by a bus service on Sundays. My constituents who use the 19 Bus service from Erleigh Road into town being one group. One Redlands resident contacted me about this a few weeks ago and I share her frustration. Buses on 'Premier Routes' may be excellent but more needs to be done to improve bus services outside or on the edge of town.

I have written to Reading Buses Chairman Cllr Tony Jones twice about this and am currently waiting a response from him. I am also investigating the impact of recent changes to bus timetables that Reading Buses brought in recently to see if we can get more buses later in the evening on Route 19, so people can get home from town to Redlands after 6.45pm - a reasonable enough request I would have thought.

This issue came up in the consultation as part of the changes. This is what Reading Buses said in response:

"A number of respondents requested improvements to frequencies at rush hours and during the evenings on Services 20 and 21 and also on Services 18 and 19, together with links to Winnersh Triangle,

Royal

Berkshire

Hospital

and a Sunday service on the Loddon Bridge Fasttrack service.  Whilst we currently do not have the resources to improve service levels further, these suggestions will be reviewed when the opportunity arises to further improve services in the Earley and

Lower Earley

areas."

A predictable response I suppose. I will post any updates on this issue here.