Coronavirus - service levels

As we are now in a phase of the Coronavirus outbreak where most people are advised to stay home by the Government, understandably, demand for our services has fallen dramatically. As of Thursday 26 March, we were seeing a drop of around 80% of our normal customer numbers. This is obviously unsustainable day-by-day let alone over a matter of weeks or months.

From the week commencing 23 March, all Reading Buses routes were running to a Saturday service, but it quickly became clear that even this was unsustainable. We have been working hard behind the scenes to produce new timetables that will give enough journeys for key workers to get to and from work and for other essential journeys to get food and medicine to happen, but to reduce our service to a more sustainable level.

special timetables from Monday 30 March

Most routes will be on a reduced service which will still maintain journeys for essential workers. Whilst we hope that this level of service will be adequate for both our purposes and our customers, further changes may be needed if demand continues to fall.

Overnight services will not run, but there will still be late buses until around midnight with early services starting around 4 or 5am on emerald 5 & 6, purple 17, claret 21 and yellow 26.

Some routes will benefit from additional morning journeys on Monday to Friday to resolve some gaps that have been identified.

Normal Sunday timetables will continue to operate on Sundays, except on purple 17, claret 21 and yellow 26 which will see a reduced frequency during the daytime.

For a route by route check of service level, please see the table below. Full PDF timetables will be added as soon as they are available - the online, electronic timetables have been updated, so you can use the timetables and journey planner functions on the website and app as normal.

Any key worker that may struggle to get to and from work with these new timetables (once published) please contact us via customer services email ([email protected]) with your problems. We cannot guarantee to be able to run buses perfectly for everyone, but if there are tweaks we can make, we will try.

route	summary	times
jet black	Hourly through most of the day. No evening service between Newbury and Thatcham. On Monday to Friday, buses will continue to serve Arlington Business Park.	click here for times
lime 2/2a	A modified Monday to Friday service will operate on weekdays reinstating buses to AWE. Weekends normal service.	click here for times
leopard 3	Journeys between Reading and Wokingham will continue to run at existing Saturday times. Short journeys between Reading and Arborfield Green will run every hour during the daytime. The evening service will only run to Arborfield Green, not Wokingham.	click here for times
lion 4/X4	The 5.05am journey from Reading an the 6.00am from Bracknell will be re-introduced on Monday to Friday. A reduced Saturday service will operate Monday - Saturday, with each service running hourly.	click here for times
emerald 5	Daytime frequency will be reduced to every 20 minute. The all-night service will be withdrawn.	click here for times
emerald 6	Daytime frequency will be reduced to every 20 minute. The all-night service will be withdrawn. Route 6a journeys to / from Tesco Distribution Centre are being maintained. A duplicate bus will run Sunday mornings from Reading Station to Tesco with the 5.13am departure from St Mary’s Butts to Tesco Depot to address capacity issues.	click here for times
tiger 7	The Saturday timetable will continue to run Monday to Friday, but the 9.40pm and 10.50pm Reading to Riseley journeys will revert to running on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings only.	click here for times
leopard 8 & 9	A special timetable will operate Monday to Saturday, with both routes running hourly during the day.	click here for times
bronze 11	A special timetable will operate hourly all day. Most buses will start from Friar Street - please note that you will not be able to board buses at St Mary’s Butts or West Street.	click here for times
orange 13 & 14	Both routes will run hourly all day.	click here for times
sky blue 15	Sky blue 15a will be suspended and sky blue 15 will run to Saturday times every 30 minutes during the day and hourly in the evening. As IKEA is closed until further notice, all buses will terminate at Calcot Sainsburys.	click here for times
sky blue 16	A special timetable will operate with buses running every 30 minutes during the daytime.	click here for times
purple 17	Daytime frequency will be reduced to every 15 minutes on all days of the week, with the Monday to Saturday evening service reduced to every 20 minutes. The all-night service will be withdrawn.	click here for times
little oranges	The daytime service will continue to run to Saturday timetables. The evening service on little oranges 19b will be suspended.	click here for times
claret 21	Buses will run every 30 minutes during the day on all days of the week. Due to operational needs, most claret 21 buses will not use St Mary’s Butts or West Street. Claret 21a remains suspended. The all-night service will be withdrawn.	click here for times
pink 22	Saturday timetable will continue to operate	click here for times
berry 23/24	Both routes will run hourly during the day	click here for times
pink 25	Saturday timetable will continue to operate	click here for times
yellow 26	Buses will run every 30 minutes during the day on all days of the week. As IKEA is closed until further notice, all buses will terminate at Calcot Sainsburys. The all-night service will be withdrawn.	click here for times
little berry 27/29	An hourly service will run on Monday to Saturday daytimes as little berry 29 only. The evening and Sunday service will continue as normal.	click here for times
royal blue 33	Buses will run every 30 minutes during the day.	click here for times
Buzz 42	Continues to operate Saturday timetable.	click here for times
greenwave	Greenwave will continue to operate Saturday service, with supplementary service 61r operating on Monday to Friday.	click here for times
Henley Connect	Continues to operate Saturday timetable.	click here for times
Winnersh Triangle park & ride	This service is suspended from Saturday 28 March
Greenline 702	The service will be curtailed to run between Slough and London (Victoria) apart from journeys from / to Reading. The same timetable will operate Monday to Sunday.	click here for times

Newbury & District and Kennections

For the time being, Newbury & District and Kennections services will still run to their normal timetables. We will send out updates should this change.