Reading Buses taking on the commercial Dedworth-Windsor-Slough route 2 from 29 January, after First Berkshire’s withdrawal from it and four other services. It leaves First with eight Slough routes.
The council is organising replacements for the other withdrawn routes, 10/11 and 15.
It comes as Reading Buses starts tendered operations in Slough on route 5 to Cippenham (daytimes), evenings on route 4 to Maidenhead and Sunday/public holidays on route 6 to Wexham Park, all under a six-month emergency contract to replace First.
Reading Buses is setting up a low-cost outstation in Slough.
Route 2 will run hourly with Reading’s new Thames Valley branding; buses will have leather seats and wi-fi. Between Windsor and Slough it combines with Green Line 702, which Reading took over from First last month, to provide two buses an hour (routeone, News, 22 November).
It will be extended to provide a link to Legoland Windsor from Slough and Windsor in school holidays.
Says Reading Buses CEO Martijn Gilbert: “It adds further journey opportunities under our new Thames Valley operation serving the east of Berkshire.
“We'll be bringing our award-winning operating approach with a high-quality fleet of modern buses and working hard on marketing and publicity to grow the route and make a long term success of it.
“This is a good fit with our strategy of looking at good quality integrated local transport on a pan-Berkshire basis aligned to economic activity across the region and adding further value to our company and its operations.”
