Reading Buses and Thames Valley

[Goldfish62]

I didn't realise a staircase was an optional extra.

Hahaha!

 

[MasterSpenny]

1208 is now in a pride livery

https://twitter.com/RTL_Robert/status/1697768603821502600?s=20

You won't miss our new “pride in Reading” bus hitting the roads in celebration of our commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion!

 

[heathrowrail]

1208 is now in a pride livery

https://twitter.com/RTL_Robert/status/1697768603821502600?s=20

Oh for god sake! Anyone else remember the old days when a bus was just a bus, the bus company only cared about their staff, running the routes on time and making money? Can we go back to those days please.

 

[SeveerYeliab]

Oh for god sake! Anyone else remember the old days when a bus was just a bus, the bus company only cared about their staff, running the routes on time and making money? Can we go back to those days please.

Not quite sure how a bus in a new type of livery could annoy you? Would you be saying the same thing if a bus company were to paint a bus into a livery promoting The Royal British Legion or NHS for example?

 

[cactustwirly]

1208 is now in a pride livery

https://twitter.com/RTL_Robert/status/1697768603821502600?s=20

That looks hideous, I don't mind pride liveries but it needs to be tasteful

 

[heathrowrail]

Not quite sure how a bus in a new type of livery could annoy you? Would you be saying the same thing if a bus company were to paint a bus into a livery promoting The Royal British Legion or NHS for example?

Yes! Unless it's an all over advert wrap paid for by the customer then yes I would be annoyed. Bus companies frequently tell us they can't make money, put fares up more and more yet happily repaint buses into "Pride, NHS" etc liveries. PCB being the worst offender, even GWR(Trains) are just as bad.

 

[Goldfish62]

Yes! Unless it's an all over advert wrap paid for by the customer then yes I would be annoyed. Bus companies frequently tell us they can't make money, put fares up more and more yet happily repaint buses into "Pride, NHS" etc liveries. PCB being the worst offender, even GWR(Trains) are just as bad.

But if the bus selected is due for repaint anyway it makes little difference.

The livery is pretty hideous though. There are some quite striking Pride liveries out there.

 

[GusB]

Let's not turn this thread into another debate about pride buses. Back to the main topic, please!

 

[MasterSpenny]

Reading Buses have won the Passenger Transport Award at the CILT Awards for Excellence.

https://x.com/reading_buses/status/1707772405542707555?s=20

We’re thrilled to announce that we have won the Passenger Transport Award at the CILT Awards for Excellence! We would like to thank all our employees who work tirelessly every day to help make this win possible. https://bit.ly/3ZCR7jj #CILTawards23

 

[GusB]

Tap on, tap off is to be introduced in Reading.

Reading Buses to launch tap on, tap off - routeone

Tap on, tap off payments are to be introduced by Reading Buses on 1 November, allowing for automatic fare calculation and price capping.

www.route-one.net

Tap on, tap off payments are to be introduced by Reading Buses on 1 November, allowing for automatic fare calculation and price capping.

Passengers paying with contactless back cards, phones and watches will be charged £2 for their first journey – due to Bus Fare Cap Grant scheme capping – on trips within the “simplyReading” zone. For their next journey, their fare will be capped at the day ticket rate.

As part of the launch, the Reading All-Bus ticket will be discounted to £3 from £3.40 within the simplyReading zone until 31 December. The multi-operator scheme is run in conjunction with Thames Travel, Arriva and Reading Borough Council.

...

The tap on, tap off system will be available on all Reading Buses services, excluding football and school services. It will also be usable on Thames Valley Buses services that run into Reading, but will not be applicable on Newbury and District.

 

[Edvid]

TOTO has been around for a little while now, but its adoption (within England) outside combined authority territory and by an operator separate from the big five is still notable.

Furthermore, whilst TOTO is already possible for journeys within Greater London (Heathrow - Uxbridge on the Carousel 102 is the best example of this), this latest development will bring it to Central London courtesy of the 702. So the option/novelty of a non-TfL PAYG trip between Victoria and Hammersmith for £2 will be there if anyone is interested; just remember to tap off when you do!

 

[Edvid]

As of 13 November the 730/731 routes were included in the Bus Fare Cap Grant.

Single journeys between Frimley and anywhere else are now just £2 each; cross-Frimley journeys are £4 each. When you consider the previous fares for, say, Heathrow T5 - Frimley (£16 single, £20 return) or Heathrow T5 - Basingstoke (£20 single, £25 return), those are huge savings.

In addition, the new Plaxton-bodied Volvos should (as I've interpreted the presser below) start to enter service on 20 November.

Lower priced single tickets for Flightline 730 and 731

Travelling on Flightline 730 and 731 is now even better value!

www.reading-buses.co.uk

Lower priced single tickets for Flightline 730 and 731​

Yesterday Wed 15th Nov 2023

We are pleased to announce that following the extension of the UK Governments Help For Households £2 single fares, we are now able to offer £2 single tickets on our Flightline 731 services between Basingstoke and Frimley and on Flightline 730 between Frimley and Heathrow Airport starting Monday 13 November.
This means if you want to travel from Basingstoke to Frimley for example, or from Camberley to Heathrow on either a Flightline 730 or 731 service, a single journey will cost just £2.
If you want to travel on both the Flightline 730 & 731 services, for example between Heathrow and Basingstoke, or from Camberley to Old Basing a single ticket will cost just £4.
Single tickets will also now be available to purchase on our app from Monday, helping you plan your journey better. Tickets will remain available to purchase onboard with cash or contactless from the driver if you prefer.

Fares​

Please see the table below for a comparison of our current fares and our new fares

Journey	Current single fare	Fare from 13 November
Basingstoke & Old Basing to Frimley	£7	£2
Basingstoke & Old Basing to Camberley	£8	£4
Basingstoke & Old Basing to Bagshot	£12	£4
Basingstoke & Old Basing to Heathrow T5 ✈	£20	£4
Frimley to Camberley	£3	£2
Frimley & Camberley to Bagshot	£4	£2
Frimley, Camberley & Bagshot to Heathrow T5 ✈	£16	£2

new comfortable coaches​

Alongside the £2 and £4 single fares will shortly be the arrival of our brand new coaches for this route – they should start appearing on the road from Monday 20 November. Featuring air conditioning, free wifi, comfortable seats and a toilet, as well as dedicated space for luggage, these brand new coaches will improve your journey on our Flightline 730 and 731 routes. Keep an eye out for our full announcement about these vehicles very shortly.

 

[Edvid]

A week on and still no sign of the new coaches in service; they were originally meant to be ready for 1 September. Post #2198 on the Bus Manufacturer thread says why that is:

These are B8R and not even entering service yet. They have had some issues and some have already had to go back to Volvo for work. I'm unsure if they were already stock before the B8R new electrical version. I don’t know but they're not very good at the moment.

-----[29 hours later]-----

Ah, they've now started tracking on BusTimes. Finally!

Looks like they have some older Volvos in the fleet as well so the Flightline 730/731 is presumably fully operated by coaches even before the Irizar i6s arrive.

 

[Parebunks]

Registration for a new route 701 (Reading to Legoland) from January - anyone have any idea what this is? Could see it simply being a rework of the current early morning/late evening 702s rather than anything new, but interested to find out!

Monday to Sunday.


From: Reading
To: Legoland
Via:
Name or No.: 701
Service type: Normal Stopping
Effective date: 02 January 2024
Other details: Monday to Sunday.

 

[Flange Squeal]

Registration for a new route 701 (Reading to Legoland) from January - anyone have any idea what this is? Could see it simply being a rework of the current early morning/late evening 702s rather than anything new, but interested to find out!

The London Service Permit variation available on TFL’s website seems to show the Reading to Legoland extensions of 702 journeys as being renumbered to 701. This can be found by clicking here and a quote reads:

Reading Transport Ltd has applied to Transport for London to amend the timetable on LSP1143 to operate route 702 in order to improve reliability where some journeys are re-numbered as 701 between Reading and Legoland/Slough.

I note that on the current timetable those through journeys to/from Reading are highlighted by a border around the Slough to London section that reads:

These 3 journeys run in two sections. The same bus travels through, so there’s no need to change.

I can only therefore presume that is for driver hours regulations to avoid EU rules, so to more formerly separate the two legs they are instead opting for the ‘split’ to be at Legoland - west of there with the new number 701, and east of there a consistent 702.

 

[WibbleWobble]

I can only therefore presume that is for driver hours regulations to avoid EU rules, so to more formerly separate the two legs they are instead opting for the ‘split’ to be at Legoland - west of there with the new number 701, and east of there a consistent 702.

Correct - the timetable is still available on the London Service Permit consultations website (under closed consultations) (link in quote below)

Reading Transport Ltd - LSP1143 Variation - Routes 701 and 702 / Closes 4 December 2023

Some journeys will change at Slough, as they are "out of hours" to allow a change at Legoland to take place.

 

[Roger1973]

Some journeys will change at Slough, as they are "out of hours" to allow a change at Legoland to take place.

My understanding is that the 702 has been split for drivers' hours rules reasons since when First operated it from Bracknell. At one time, the rules round 'split registration' services were a bit vague, and the application of those rules wasn't always consistent between the different Traffic Area Offices. There was some guidance issued nationally some time ago (must be at least 10 years ago) which led to operators showing the mythical 'connection' in timetables and on destination displays.

I may have misunderstood something here, but I'm fairly sure that whether a service can be on domestic hours rules is based on whether the 'service' (or each separately registered chunk is within a certain mileage limit (from memory 50 Km or about 35 miles) rather than anything time based. What the driver can do is then time based depending on which set of rules the service is run on.

I think most, if not all, driver change-overs on the 702 (other than start / end of day at Reading depot) are (or certainly were a year or two ago) at Slough (I don't know whether all drivers are based at Reading or if any Slough based drivers do what are effectively the 'meal break cover' duties), but the registration is (or was) split at Legoland.

The Reading end of the route currently includes journeys via Bracknell and Legoland and journeys that run direct along the M4 - wonder if these are being split in to two route numbers?

I don't quite get how reliability will be affected by re-numbering one end of the route, or what the point of all this is. I'm sure it must make sense to someone, and it's possible there's bits that are not yet clear.

 

[KX03HZY]

My understanding is that the 702 has been split for drivers' hours rules reasons since when First operated it from Bracknell. At one time, the rules round 'split registration' services were a bit vague, and the application of those rules wasn't always consistent between the different Traffic Area Offices. There was some guidance issued nationally some time ago (must be at least 10 years ago) which led to operators showing the mythical 'connection' in timetables and on destination displays.

I may have misunderstood something here, but I'm fairly sure that whether a service can be on domestic hours rules is based on whether the 'service' (or each separately registered chunk is within a certain mileage limit (from memory 50 Km or about 35 miles) rather than anything time based. What the driver can do is then time based depending on which set of rules the service is run on.

I think most, if not all, driver change-overs on the 702 (other than start / end of day at Reading depot) are (or certainly were a year or two ago) at Slough (I don't know whether all drivers are based at Reading or if any Slough based drivers do what are effectively the 'meal break cover' duties), but the registration is (or was) split at Legoland.

The Reading end of the route currently includes journeys via Bracknell and Legoland and journeys that run direct along the M4 - wonder if these are being split in to two route numbers?

I don't quite get how reliability will be affected by re-numbering one end of the route, or what the point of all this is. I'm sure it must make sense to someone, and it's possible there's bits that are not yet clear.

Reading drivers, certainly on some duties, travel to Slough from Great Knollys Street depot via the Elizabeth Line. The company buys suitable rail tickets for this.

 

[duncombec]

Thames Valley Buses provided/are providing some journeys on service 724, usually operated by Arriva, on Boxing Day and New Years Day. The colouring & font of the timetable suggests it was funded by Heathrow Airport, but that isn't confirmed anywhere.

724 Special Service on Boxing Day and New Year's Day

On Boxing Day and New Years Day, Thames Valley Buses will be operating some journeys on route 724 between Heathrow & Watford Junction.

www.thamesvalleybuses.com

Normally, this service is provided by Arriva, but on Boxing Day and New Year's Day we are helping out with some journeys operating between Heathrow and Watford Junction.

All Arriva and normal tickets are accepted, and the fare for any journey will be £2.

The full timetable for these two days is here.724 Service Boxing Day & New Years Day Web.pdf

 

[Thames99]

Eleven new E400Citys have arrived at Great Knollys Street in their base colours to be fully branded for their routes. Three are for Flightline 703 and the other eight for Lion 4 and X4 to Bracknell.

 

[cactustwirly]

Eleven new E400Citys have arrived at Great Knollys Street in their base colours to be fully branded for their routes. Three are for Flightline 703 and the other eight for Lion 4 and X4 to Bracknell.

At last the 4 gets decent buses and not the dregs of the fleet

 

[MasterSpenny]

Eleven new E400Citys have arrived at Great Knollys Street in their base colours to be fully branded for their routes. Three are for Flightline 703 and the other eight for Lion 4 and X4 to Bracknell.

Would I be right in thinking that they are 241-248, and 738-741 (see the below quote)?
In addition to the Enviro 400 Cities, there are also 2 more Plaxton Panthers awaited, alongside the 4 others delivered earlier this year, and two Irizar i6 coaches, as below.

The Reading Buses thread | The Bus Forum

This is a new thread for discussing developments at Reading Buses. There is also an ongoing thread for Reading Buses on LVF (London Vehicle Finder) so please continue to post about LVF-related

tangytango.proboards.com

Vehicle News, December 2023


NEW VEHICLES

The new ADL Enviro400 City for lion 4/X4 were all delivered to Reading for Reading Buses on 22nd December, in base lion livery. They are to numbered in a new sequence 241-248 to avoid running out of 7xx-series numbers should the lion or London Line/Flightline fleets be expanded in future. They are to the same internal specification as 731-735 (two wheelchair spaces) apart from having white rather than green accent lighting.

Also delivered to Reading for Thames Valley Buses on 20th December were three more ADL Enviro400 City in Flightline base colours (738-740), these are to the same interior specification as 736/737 (extra luggage racks). Flightline-liveried ADL Enviros 781/782 (MMCs) and 795 (City) will go away for a retrim in time for the Summer season. A further ADL Enviro400 City in Reading Buses generic livery, to be numbered 741, is still to be delivered.

241 - YX73 PHA
242 - YX73 PHF
243 - YX73 PHK
244 - YX73 PHN
245 - YX73 PHO
246 - YX73 PHU
247 - YX73 PHV
248 - YX73 PHY

738 - FL73 LHR
739 - FL73 WND
740 - FL73 LGO

741 - RG73 BUS


Also new for Thames Valley Buses are four ADL Enviro200 MMC 11.8m (684-687), delivered to Reading on 11th December. These are to a higher specification than has been customary for TVB vehicles, featuring Reading Buses-style wood effect floor,s sky lights, USB charging and wireless seat back charging pods. 684-686 are in two-tone blue for Bracknell routes 171/172 whilst 687 is in TVB generic livery.

684 - YX73 PGZ
685 - YX73 PHZ
686 - YX73 OYN

687 - TV73 BUS

Two additional Volvo B8R/Plaxton Leopard coaches for Newbury & District have also been delivered to Reading in plain white, these are 72-seaters for additional school contract work and are numbered 1426/1427. The Irizar i6s coaches are due in January and will be numbered 1428/1429.

1426 - YX73 MVG
1427 - YX73 MVH

1428 - ND73 NBY
1429 - ND73 DST


OTHER VEHICLE NEWS

Following the entry into service of Flightline coaches 1422-1425, ADL Enviro400 MMCs 760-762 transferred from loan at Newbury & District to Reading during December. 760/761 went for repaint into Reading Buses generic livery on 28th December and 762 will follow in due course.

Of the ex-Stagecoach North East gas-powered Scania/Enviro300s, refurbished 438 and 439 have arrived back in Reading in a new Buzz green livery, which has been devised for routes funded by Reading Borough Council and HM Government (through BSIP). Once fitted with Reading Buses systems they will enter service on route 9 which is being extended to Green Park on 2nd January.

436 and 437 are still at Bus & Coach World in Blackburn and will also return to Reading in Buzz livery. Also in Blackburn is 310 which is being converted into a driver trainer along with 311, which was previously Reading Buses 411 and now carries the registration RG53 BUS from a withdrawn Optare Solo.

Ex-Stagecoach North East 28032-4 (YR14 CFM/CFN/CFO) have now been withdrawn from service. They are now in Reading Transport Ltd. ownership and are currently being stored at Bus & Coach World. They will be numbered 440-442.

Demonstrators: 1005 returned to ADL on 22nd November, 1002 on 20th December. An ADL Enviro400 demonstrator with ZF gearbox has not appeared due to production delays at the factory.

ADL Enviro400 214 (lion livery) has been withdrawn after its fire on 21st December.

 

[Thames99]

Yes, Robert Williams provided the information in the quote above - so 241-248 are the Lion (4, X4) buses and 738-740 for Flightline with 741 in generic livery. As you say there is also information on the new coaches there.

Quite a flurry of new buses to come with some new vehicles for Thames Valley and the 'new' gas buses from Stagecoach.

 

[cactustwirly]

Hopefully those new E200s won't replace the 2 or 3 Volvos. Those are the nicest buses in the entire fleet

 

[fgwrich]

Took a while to find a photo of one of the ex Stagecoach Scania's. It looks ok, though the 'buzz' somewhat brings back memories of the awful JaZz Network Stagecoach once operated around here (until the head honcho saw it and pretty immediately told them to get rid of it).

Photos courtesy of Chris Hinds and Mike Cattell one Flickr.

Reading Buses 439

Reading Buses ADL Enviro 300NG bodied Scania N270UB, 439 YP14 TGK

www.flickr.com

Stagecoach Jazz 5 in the snow

Explore Mike Cattell's 1334 photos on Flickr!

www.flickr.com

 

[Roger1973]

Took a while to find a photo of one of the ex Stagecoach Scania's. It looks ok, though the 'buzz' somewhat brings back memories of the awful JaZz Network Stagecoach once operated around here (until the head honcho saw it and pretty immediately told them to get rid of it).

Photos courtesy of Chris Hinds and Mike Cattell one Flickr.

I wonder if the 'Buzz' identity is Reading Buses, or Reading Council? As far as I'm aware, the only other bus/es that carry / carried it are the mini-buses that work on Council tendered route 42.

 

[fgwrich]

I wonder if the 'Buzz' identity is Reading Buses, or Reading Council? As far as I'm aware, the only other bus/es that carry / carried it are the mini-buses that work on Council tendered route 42.

Would I be right in thinking that they are 241-248, and 738-741 (see the below quote)?
In addition to the Enviro 400 Cities, there are also 2 more Plaxton Panthers awaited, alongside the 4 others delivered earlier this year, and two Irizar i6 coaches, as below.

The Reading Buses thread | The Bus Forum

This is a new thread for discussing developments at Reading Buses. There is also an ongoing thread for Reading Buses on LVF (London Vehicle Finder) so please continue to post about LVF-related

tangytango.proboards.com

Of the ex-Stagecoach North East gas-powered Scania/Enviro300s, refurbished 438 and 439 have arrived back in Reading in a new Buzz green livery, which has been devised for routes funded by Reading Borough Council and HM Government (through BSIP). Once fitted with Reading Buses systems they will enter service on route 9 which is being extended to Green Park on 2nd January.

436 and 437 are still at Bus & Coach World in Blackburn and will also return to Reading in Buzz livery. Also in Blackburn is 310 which is being converted into a driver trainer along with 311, which was previously Reading Buses 411 and now carries the registration RG53 BUS from a withdrawn Optare Solo.

Ex-Stagecoach North East 28032-4 (YR14 CFM/CFN/CFO) have now been withdrawn from service. They are now in Reading Transport Ltd. ownership and are currently being stored at Bus & Coach World. They will be numbered 440-442.

Quite possibly, in the post above from MasterSpenny it does mention these are routes funded by Reading Borough Council so they may well have dictated the name.

 

[Roger1973]

Quite possibly, in the post above from MasterSpenny it does mention these are routes funded by Reading Borough Council so they may well have dictated the name.

Thanks - I must have missed that post.

 

[nctd2306]

Hopefully those new E200s won't replace the 2 or 3 Volvos. Those are the nicest buses in the entire fleet

Unfortunately I believe this will be the case, if you're referring to 453/455 then these are only leased and the lease probably expired on 31st December given that neither are in service today and their usual routes, 171/2 and 194 both have one shorter bus allocated in their place. I can't confirm the details of the lease but I do know the volvos will be replaced shortly, a shame as I've been using them almost daily for a about 7 years now

EDIT: I'm currently onboard 453 on the 172 so it's still around for the time being

 

[Wirewiper]

Four ADL Enviro200 MMCs have been delivered for routes 171/172 (three in dedicated two-tone blue route livery and one generic spare) so the days of the Volvos are numbered.

684 - YX73 PGZ 171/172
685 - YX73 PHZ "
686 - YX73 OYN "
687 - TV73 BUS generic