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Reading Buses want to consult with local people about the services operating in the Silverdale Road and Beech Lane
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Earley bus service up for discussion

By David Millward
February 05, 2013

Bus users are being urged to attend a meeting to discuss the future of services in their area.

Maiden Erlegh Residents’ Association (MERA) has organised the meeting in which Reading Buses boss James Freeman will reveal his ideas for the claret routes which serve Reading University and Earley and customers will be invited to have their say.

They hope to tackle cuts to services which happen when the university students are on holiday and the number of passengers plummets.

Peter Soul, of MERA, said: “The student traffic between the university and Reading town keeps the claret routes going and the 21 also picks up a lot of customers around Lower Earley and is in good shape.

“But the No 20 would not be in a good condition if it wasn’t for the students and the 20a which comes down Silverdale Road would just die.

“They are three different routes with different situations and when the students go in the summer the company is forced to reduce the frequency of the routes.”

Mr Soul said some services were reduced to being hourly which deterred more people from using the buses.

Mr Freeman said the meeting at Maiden Erlegh School in Silverdale Road tomorrow is a good opportunity to put forward his ideas and to hear what customers think.

He said: “It’s an opportunity to consult with local people about the bus services we are operating in the Silverdale Road and Beech Lane areas.

“We have been running the current claret service for 18 months and are considering how it needs to develop for the following year.

“I will be floating some ideas about how things might progress and seeking people’s feedback on that.

“It will be an opportunity for people to say what they think about the buses running now and what they think is missing.”

Officers from Wokingham Borough Council will also be at the meeting to discuss the 19 and 19a services, which serve Lower Earley, Woodley and Reading and are partly subsidised by the authority.

The meeting is at 7.30pm.

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Most recent user comments 14 of 14

@ Humpty - ah yes. My mistake. Pretty poor work by the Council ,and I am surprised no-one is addressing the matter.

Nowtas, West Berkshire
05/03/2013 at 13:31

Sorry Royal Blue

Turns out the one I was thinking of was the 29 – long gone!

It followed the old tram route and only went as far as Earleigh Rd

A Concerned Local, Reading
11/02/2013 at 13:57

i say sell of reading buses and let some other company come in and run a decent service that will be profitable and give our town a better service all freeman wants to do is buy any pretty bus and damn the people that need and rely on a descent service.i was in town last week and the whole of saint marys butts was at a stand still because of 3 17 s waiting at market place bus stop with 10 passengers between them.you need to start getting rid of buses mr freeman not cutting routes you will never listen to anybody but yourself.

hippy, reading
07/02/2013 at 10:19

@Nowtas The Bus Stops and electronic flags are provided by the council, not Reading Buses.

Humpty Dumpty
06/02/2013 at 13:48

Thank you Royal Blue – that may be what I mean, although I thought there used to be one that came down from the campus area and through Erleigh Rd (pre the 19) – it used to follow the old tram route that terminated in Erleigh Rd

A Concerned Local, Reading
06/02/2013 at 13:35

If you take the word "students" out of most of the complaints below, you can see how upset some people are that so few people use the local bus service, and how unfair it apparently is to reduce the service during periods the numbers using them are even lower.

Mind, if the bus company genuinely gave a toss and truly valued the student customers, they might try to provide a timely service and fix the electronic timetable at the University bus stop that has been broken for around 6 months thus far.

Nowtas, West Berkshire
06/02/2013 at 11:33

It seems the 'Claret' routes would terminate at the University if some would have their way.

I can only apologise for not buying a house within the path of your largest revenue stream.

People like me deserve to walk.

The Janitor,
06/02/2013 at 04:38

As I understand it, WBC subsidises some routes in Earley. Maybe this is a negotiating ploy, pay us more or we cut.

Alf Tupper
05/02/2013 at 15:22

This makes my blood boil. So the main reason we have a "regular" service (if you can call it that) is due to revenue from students? That makes us all feel really important.

Whenever I get the 21 it only ever picks up or drops off a handfull of students at the uni. If they are going to decrease our ever failing bus service further then maybe they might consider the hourly bus to be on time and (tense music)... stop hiking the bl**dy prices up? While you are at it, hire some drivers who speak english!

Cheeky b*ggers.

Hugh J, Reading
05/02/2013 at 15:04

If you mean the 20 route Concerned Local its terminus forty years ago was Chelwood Road. This was before Rushey Way and Lower Earley was built. It went into Reading via Beech Lane, Wilderness Road, Elm Road and Shinfield Road, returning via Duke Street, Queen's Road, Sidmouth Street, London Road and Kendrick Road. It avoided the shorter route via Pepper Lane because at the time Pepper Lane was quite narrow with a difficult bend for buses to negotiate. Buses started using it only after it was realigned. The 20 route was extended to Caversham Heights some years ago but this affected time keeping and the Caversham part of the service was dropped from the schedule. Forty years ago the 20 route was the only bus service covering the area. I do not think it coincidental that a reduction in the frequency of the 20 service has followed on from the introduction of the 20a service.

Royal Blue, Reading, Earley
05/02/2013 at 14:46

Problem is there are a lot of people who use, and rely on; this bus service and they are not all students but people who live in those areas

They suffer because of the reduced service at times – perhaps revising the rotes to cover ‘non’ student areas as well may make it more viable – it used to go another way and worked well before (can’t remember the number for the route though)

A Concerned Local, Reading
05/02/2013 at 13:19

PoneRana, Wokingham, but if students took two years instead of three, there would be a large increase in unemployment.

Third level education in this country keeps young people out of the overcrowded jobs market, often living in conditions which would have the penal reform league up in arms, costing the country less than benefits, and, the final stroke of genius is that the parents pay!

That's not to say that many don't benefit from it.

Alf Tupper
05/02/2013 at 12:16

A better solution would be to increase the number of weeks that the students attend university and reduce the number of years it takes them to get a degree. This would solve a number of other problems as well as this one with the buses.

PoneRana, Wokingham
05/02/2013 at 11:59

The service should obviously be cut during university holiday times when there is a massive drop in fare payers or raise the fares during that period. I wonder how many will attend the meeting to air thier views instead of moaning about changes to the service afterwards like they normally do.