Reading Buses and Thames Valley

CharredCobalt · 15 Jul 2026

Pink 22 has been saved from withdrawal:

https://www.reading-buses.co.uk/pink-22-saved

Great news for Caversham Heights residents and customers of pink 22 as the service will no longer be cancelled thanks to an agreement with Reading Borough Council.

Reading Borough Council will provide us with a one-off capital grant to allow us to buy a new electric bus which, alongside existing Zero Emission Bus Regional Area (ZEBRA) funding grant from Government, will allow the valuable service between Caversham Heights and Reading Town Centre to continue to operate.

Whilst we await the new, electric, bus, the service will continue to be run on sustainably sourced, biomethane gas.

same route, new timetable
The service has been saved from the planned withdrawal and will run along the same route, but from Monday 20 July, there will be a new timetable.

The new timetable can be found here.

It is important to emphasise though, that residents still need to make good use of the service for it to be able to continue to run in the future.

As explained previously, pink 22 has been run at a significant loss since the pandemic, followed by the closure of Kidmore Road by Thames Water which had an additional impact on customer numbers. We urge those who have been vocal about retaining the service now use it and encourage others to do the same.

the council's help
We have been working with Reading Borough Council since we let them know of our intention to withdraw the service to see if there were any funding streams that could help us to continue to run it.

A fall in the price of purchasing electric buses means funding already secured by the Council through a successful ZEBRA bid to Government can be stretched further to enable the purchase of an additional vehicle. The use of an electric bus will also benefit air quality along the route and provide a quieter journey for passengers.

With the new electric bus not available until spring 2027, the Council has reached agreement with us to operate an interim service from Monday 20 July to ensure continuation of service for passengers.

The provision of a new electric bus on the pink 22 to Caversham Heights, combined with timetable changes, will reduce our operating costs and help to continue to afford to run the service.

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buslad1988 · 15 Jul 2026

CharredCobalt said:
Pink 22 has been saved from withdrawal:

https://www.reading-buses.co.uk/pink-22-saved

Well that’s an interesting turn of events! It’s a very odd way of saving a service - the residents really do need to make sure they use it or it will disappear. Any idea what electric vehicle they’ve ordered?

Also, with 23-25 being repainted into emerald; does this mean the ‘summer’ reductions to the 21 and 26 are actually permanent? Seems very fast to be repainting brand new vehicles when the emerald is due to upgrade to electric next year anyway, and usually the 21 and 26 return to normal frequency in September.

JonathanH · 15 Jul 2026

CharredCobalt said:
Pink 22 has been saved from withdrawal:

https://www.reading-buses.co.uk/pink-22-saved

I see that the 25 timetable is changing from 20 July with an extra late journey and some frequency changes. Is it no longer interworking with the 22?

AlastairFraser · 15 Jul 2026

buslad1988 said:
Well that’s an interesting turn of events! It’s a very odd way of saving a service - the residents really do need to make sure they use it or it will disappear. Any idea what electric vehicle they’ve ordered?

Also, with 23-25 being repainted into emerald; does this mean the ‘summer’ reductions to the 21 and 26 are actually permanent? Seems very fast to be repainting brand new vehicles when the emerald is due to upgrade to electric next year anyway, and usually the 21 and 26 return to normal frequency in September.

Chatter in a Reading Buses enthusiast group seems to think it will be an Alexander Dennis Enviro100EV, but we will see if it's true.
I think the Caversham Heights brigade put too much pressure on Matt Rodda and the Council to reinstate it, it would have gone down badly if RBC continued to subsidise routes in other areas of Reading and not here.

Fletcj10 · 16 Jul 2026

AlastairFraser said:
Chatter in a Reading Buses enthusiast group seems to think it will be an Alexander Dennis Enviro100EV, but we will see if it's true.
I think the Caversham Heights brigade put too much pressure on Matt Rodda and the Council to reinstate it, it would have gone down badly if RBC continued to subsidise routes in other areas of Reading and not here.

I personally stated that if it was buying a dealer stock one might not be a half bad idea, the YX63 enviro's was dealer but had Reading trim, so that would save time & also mean the bus gets into service much quicker then a single new build.

AlastairFraser · 16 Jul 2026

Fletcj10 said:
I personally stated that if it was buying a dealer stock one might not be a half bad idea, the YX63 enviro's was dealer but had Reading trim, so that would save time & also mean the bus gets into service much quicker then a single new build.

Yeah that would make sense, and they can always sell it on if they don't need it for any reason.

Mark L · 16 Jul 2026

AlastairFraser said:
Chatter in a Reading Buses enthusiast group seems to think it will be an Alexander Dennis Enviro100EV, but we will see if it's true.
I think the Caversham Heights brigade put too much pressure on Matt Rodda and the Council to reinstate it, it would have gone down badly if RBC continued to subsidise routes in other areas of Reading and not here.

I think that’s just speculation for now - after all the funding package has only just been announced and the EV is not expected until next year. That said the options probably come down to the E100EV and Yutong E9 (although a Fiat 500e might be more appropriate for the passenger numbers).

Thames99 · 16 Jul 2026

Mark L said:
I think that’s just speculation for now - after all the funding package has only just been announced and the EV is not expected until next year. That said the options probably come down to the E100EV and Yutong E9 (although a Fiat 500e might be more appropriate for the passenger numbers).

I hope they don't get anything too small, even if they avoid the Fiat! I think Zebra funded electric buses have to have two wheelchair spaces. Smaller electric buses are not going to be left with many seats with quite a proportion of these up steps beyond the flat floor section. Although numbers of passengers in Caversham Heights is low, which is of course the problem with the economics of running the 22, buses can often have a fair number of passengers between Friar Street and central Caversham. It will not encourage new passengers to forgo their car if they find themselves standing in an insufficiently sized bus.

I noted the comment in RB's article linked above, that one of the aspects making it possible to buy this new bus is that prices of electric buses are coming down. Is that really so?

cactustwirly · 16 Jul 2026

buslad1988 said:
Well that’s an interesting turn of events! It’s a very odd way of saving a service - the residents really do need to make sure they use it or it will disappear. Any idea what electric vehicle they’ve ordered?

Also, with 23-25 being repainted into emerald; does this mean the ‘summer’ reductions to the 21 and 26 are actually permanent? Seems very fast to be repainting brand new vehicles when the emerald is due to upgrade to electric next year anyway, and usually the 21 and 26 return to normal frequency in September.

26 hasn't been reduced yet? Still has a PVR of 7 vehicles

Mark L · 16 Jul 2026

Thames99 said:
I hope they don't get anything too small, even if they avoid the Fiat! I think Zebra funded electric buses have to have two wheelchair spaces. Smaller electric buses are not going to be left with many seats with quite a proportion of these up steps beyond the flat floor section. Although numbers of passengers in Caversham Heights is low, which is of course the problem with the economics of running the 22, buses can often have a fair number of passengers between Friar Street and central Caversham. It will not encourage new passengers to forgo their car if they find themselves standing in an insufficiently sized bus.

I noted the comment in RB's article linked above, that one of the aspects making it possible to buy this new bus is that prices of electric buses are coming down. Is that really so?

Battery prices (expressed in terms of £ per kWh) have been falling for some time and this makes up a significant chunk of the cost of any battery-electric vehicle. Additionally, the Chinese manufacturers are benefitting from government subsidies which are resulting in lower prices for complete vehicles. Domestic manufacturers are almost certainly cutting their margins to try and match what the likes of Yutong and BYD are charging.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 16 Jul 2026 ==

cactustwirly said:
26 hasn't been reduced yet? Still has a PVR of 7 vehicles

There were originally enough branded buses to meet the PVR on the 21 and 26. I guess the plan is now to plan on the basis of using one of the generic buses on each route (there are four - 1,2,3 and 32 plus 4 which will revert to purple at some stage).

BlainRhys · 16 Jul 2026

Changes to some services in Bracknell and Wokingham from 2 August

We will be making some changes to times of some bus routes in Bracknell and Wokingham from 2nd August.

www.thamesvalleybuses.com

151/151A is set to be withdrawn from Bracknell according to Thames Valley updates but they will Operate between Keepatch Gardens and Wokingham

Mark L · 16 Jul 2026

BlainRhys said:
Changes to some services in Bracknell and Wokingham from 2 August

We will be making some changes to times of some bus routes in Bracknell and Wokingham from 2nd August.

www.thamesvalleybuses.com

151/151A is set to be withdrawn from Bracknell according to Thames Valley updates but they will Operate between Keepatch Gardens and Wokingham

It’s operated under contract to Bracknell Forest Council and they have decided not to continue funding the service.

Fletcj10 · 16 Jul 2026

Mark L said:
It’s operated under contract to Bracknell Forest Council and they have decided not to continue funding the service.

On the point of service withdrawals - Thames Valley 688-9 (EX Plain White 704 branded)were withdrawn on 23 June and 3 July respectively for return to Mistral (Dealer) off lease, following service changes from 21 June. Windsor & Maidenhead branded buses released from route 20 will operate route 704 instead.

AlastairFraser · 18 Jul 2026

Mark L said:
I think that’s just speculation for now - after all the funding package has only just been announced and the EV is not expected until next year. That said the options probably come down to the E100EV and Yutong E9 (although a Fiat 500e might be more appropriate for the passenger numbers).

True. We will have to wait and see.

Thames99 said:
I hope they don't get anything too small, even if they avoid the Fiat! I think Zebra funded electric buses have to have two wheelchair spaces. Smaller electric buses are not going to be left with many seats with quite a proportion of these up steps beyond the flat floor section. Although numbers of passengers in Caversham Heights is low, which is of course the problem with the economics of running the 22, buses can often have a fair number of passengers between Friar Street and central Caversham. It will not encourage new passengers to forgo their car if they find themselves standing in an insufficiently sized bus.

I wonder if one long term solution would be an express section on the 22 with the only stops between Friar St and Priest Hill being Station North interchange and Bridge St Caversham, then the usual stops.

You'd still hit congestion on Caversham Bridge, but marketing it as a commuter express might increase passenger numbers sufficiently to justify investment in a larger electric bus to be used in the peaks, and perhaps the decreased journey times could make a higher frequency possible with one bus.

Stops in the Caversham Road/Bell Tower area wouldn't really suffer as they'd still have high frequency services on the 23/24/28/29a, Bridge St Caversham is close enough to all the Caversham shops, and this sped up 22 could use Priory Avenue to dodge the congestion past the traffic lights and precinct on Church St.

Mark L · 18 Jul 2026

AlastairFraser said:
True. We will have to wait and see.

I wonder if one long term solution would be an express section on the 22 with the only stops between Friar St and Priest Hill being Station North interchange and Bridge St Caversham, then the usual stops.

You'd still hit congestion on Caversham Bridge, but marketing it as a commuter express might increase passenger numbers sufficiently to justify investment in a larger electric bus to be used in the peaks, and perhaps the decreased journey times could make a higher frequency possible with one bus.

Stops in the Caversham Road/Bell Tower area wouldn't really suffer as they'd still have high frequency services on the 23/24/28/29a, Bridge St Caversham is close enough to all the Caversham shops, and this sped up 22 could use Priory Avenue to dodge the congestion past the traffic lights and precinct on Church St.

I doubt it would generate much additional traffic from the northern end of the route. Additionally any intermediate riders would be lost.

Given that the end to end journey time is only 20-25 minutes the potential to save time by missing stops is limited.

Mollman · 18 Jul 2026

BlainRhys said:
Changes to some services in Bracknell and Wokingham from 2 August

We will be making some changes to times of some bus routes in Bracknell and Wokingham from 2nd August.

www.thamesvalleybuses.com

151/151A is set to be withdrawn from Bracknell according to Thames Valley updates but they will Operate between Keepatch Gardens and Wokingham

Interesting to see the 194 improved, didn't it run every 20 minutes in the past?

Service 194
We have made some significant improvements to this service.
There will be earlier journeys in both directions every day, later journeys running on Sundays and more frequent journeys, up to every 20 minutes on weekdays and Saturdays, and every 30 minutes on Sundays.
There will also be some timing improvements to the journeys used by students to/from Farnborough, though these journeys will operate only in term time
Evening journeys will be extending to/from The Meadows

Flange Squeal · 18 Jul 2026

Mollman said:
Interesting to see the 194 improved, didn't it run every 20 minutes in the past?

It had various changes when under First’s stewardship during the Courtney Buses competition era.

For a time you had the half-hourly First 194 supplemented by an hourly faster X94 offering three buses per hour end to end, alongside an hourly competitive 194 operated by the then still independent (well, pre-Reading Buses acquisition of it) Courtney Buses.

In August 2014, First replaced their 194 and X94 with route 94, which ran every 20 minutes. This was basically the 194 route north of Sandhurst and X94 south of there, leaving Owlsmoor to the hourly competitive Courtney service.

When First pulled out of Bracknell in August 2015, Stagecoach took the 94 on, still at its 20 min frequency and omitting Owlsmoor. Courtney upped their 194 from hourly to half-hourly, meaning five buses per hour ran between Bracknell and Camberley (3x Stagecoach 94 & 2x Courtney 194). Despite making the effort to stick Stagecoach logos on bus stops and unveil a batch of route branded vehicles in the December, that only lasted until March 2016 when Stagecoach pulled the 94, leaving the corridor in the hands of Courtney’s 194 which retained its half-hourly frequency.

So while the 194 itself wasn’t every 20 minutes, there was a period where it ran alongside an hourly faster X94 variant offering a combined three per hour, followed by a time First then Stagecoach ran a 20 minute interval 94 (which omitted some of the 194’s current/traditional route).

Mollman · 19 Jul 2026

Flange Squeal said:
It had various changes when under First’s stewardship during the Courtney Buses competition era.

For a time you had the half-hourly First 194 supplemented by an hourly faster X94 offering three buses per hour end to end, alongside an hourly competitive 194 operated by the then still independent (well, pre-Reading Buses acquisition of it) Courtney Buses.

In August 2014, First replaced their 194 and X94 with route 94, which ran every 20 minutes. This was basically the 194 route north of Sandhurst and X94 south of there, leaving Owlsmoor to the hourly competitive Courtney service.

When First pulled out of Bracknell in August 2015, Stagecoach took the 94 on, still at its 20 min frequency and omitting Owlsmoor. Courtney upped their 194 from hourly to half-hourly, meaning five buses per hour ran between Bracknell and Camberley (3x Stagecoach 94 & 2x Courtney 194). Despite making the effort to stick Stagecoach logos on bus stops and unveil a batch of route branded vehicles in the December, that only lasted until March 2016 when Stagecoach pulled the 94, leaving the corridor in the hands of Courtney’s 194 which retained its half-hourly frequency.

So while the 194 itself wasn’t every 20 minutes, there was a period where it ran alongside an hourly faster X94 variant offering a combined three per hour, followed by a time First then Stagecoach ran a 20 minute interval 94 (which omitted some of the 194’s current/traditional route).

Thanks for the history, I had forgotten about Stagecoach running the 94

Goldfish62 · 19 Jul 2026

Mollman said:
Thanks for the history, I had forgotten about Stagecoach running the 94

It was quite extraordinary how Courtney managed to see off not only First but also Stagecoach!

Skoda99E · 25 Jul 2026

Has anyone noticed large gaps in service, or poorly served places around your part of town? (Including N&D and TV served areas)

One near me is the 15 between Tilehurst and the Savacentre. Personally I think the hourly frequency a bit bizarre, considering it fares towards a large retail park. I normally go there once a week from Tilehurst and the bus always has a fair number of people on it, which begs the question of why can't frequency be doubled?

I imagine the low frequency discourages a large number of people from taking the bus to the Savacentre who drive instead because of the frequency or because they will have to carry their shopping up Langley Hill if they miss their bus.

Fletcj10 · 26 Jul 2026

Skoda99E said:
Has anyone noticed large gaps in service, or poorly served places around your part of town? (Including N&D and TV served areas)

One near me is the 15 between Tilehurst and the Savacentre. Personally I think the hourly frequency a bit bizarre, considering it fares towards a large retail park. I normally go there once a week from Tilehurst and the bus always has a fair number of people on it, which begs the question of why can't frequency be doubled?

I imagine the low frequency discourages a large number of people from taking the bus to the Savacentre who drive instead because of the frequency or because they will have to carry their shopping up Langley Hill if they miss their bus.

The issue i see of that being a SkyBlue customer also! Is not to long ago they did away with the 15A and just had the 15 to Calcot/Theale however after Tilehurst the passenger's numbers dropped and it also had issues with traffic at Calcot so was redone to the today 15/15A route, the hourly route their is now to Calcot only goes to Theale also to use time instead of sitting at Sainsbury's plus this gave more resilience to the 15A with does have high passenger number's compared to the section to Calcot.

Jimini · 13 Aug 2026

Just going back to the air con situation on route 17 -- I was chatting to a friend of a friend yesterday who's a driver for Reading Buses. He said on the 17s, the air con is only turned on on the upper deck, and the downstairs kit is switched off across the fleet. I'm heading over to Tilehurst tomorrow afternoon to meet a couple of chums, so will report back!

Trainman40083 · 13 Aug 2026

Another two former Reading Enviro 400s are now with Notts and Derby as 1420/1421..(BAU/BCO)

Mollman · 14 Aug 2026

Reading have announced refreshed buses for the 13&14, the graphic on the homepage is of an Enviro 400mmc but it is not clear how many are arriving.

We are happy to announce that we have some refurbished buses coming to orange 13 and 14 from Monday 17 August!

These buses have been repurposed from elsewhere on the network and are set to bring a new, more comfortable, experience to customers of the orange routes.

https://www.reading-buses.co.uk/refreshed-buses-coming-orange-routes

aswilliamsuk · 14 Aug 2026

Mollman said:
Reading have announced refreshed buses for the 13&14, the graphic on the homepage is of an Enviro 400mmc but it is not clear how many are arriving.

https://www.reading-buses.co.uk/refreshed-buses-coming-orange-routes

There are five done - 752-54 and 757/58.

cactustwirly · 14 Aug 2026

Mollman said:
Reading have announced refreshed buses for the 13&14, the graphic on the homepage is of an Enviro 400mmc but it is not clear how many are arriving.

https://www.reading-buses.co.uk/refreshed-buses-coming-orange-routes

Essentially it is a downgrade 66 plate Streetdecks replaced by 64 plate E400s from the 21

The Streetdecks could have been repowered like what First are doing and a refurbishment

Thames99 · 14 Aug 2026

cactustwirly said:
Essentially it is a downgrade 66 plate Streetdecks replaced by 64 plate E400s from the 21

The Streetdecks could have been repowered like what First are doing and a refurbishment

It would be interesting to get a driver's opinion of the Streetdecks. As a passenger they often seem to jolt as they turn as though the power steering is too strong and drivers move the wheel more than they intend and have to compensate half way through a corner. The braking often seems very abrupt as well.

Is the technique for driving them smoothly different from other buses in the fleet?

Andyh82 · 14 Aug 2026

cactustwirly said:
Essentially it is a downgrade 66 plate Streetdecks replaced by 64 plate E400s from the 21

The Streetdecks could have been repowered like what First are doing and a refurbishment

They were non standard in the Reading fleet, so opportunity was taken to remove them with refurbished vehicles that were a similar age

Thames99 · 14 Aug 2026

This is a photo of the five buses from an article in the Reading Chronicle. They seem to have acquired RGxxBUS registrations.

cactustwirly · 14 Aug 2026

Thames99 said:
This is a photo of the five buses from an article in the Reading Chronicle. They seem to have acquired RGxxBUS registrations.

Presumably to hide the fact they're older than the buses they're replacing

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