Coronavirus - service levels

update - timetable changes Monday 1 June

We are increasing our service levels in the wake of the Government easing some lockdown restrictions. Buses will be running up to 50% more service than current to help you maintain social distancing when on board.

Click here for full details.

action taken

After the Government issued their guidance for people to stay indoors unless for essential journeys, most people are understandably limiting their travel. Due to this, we have seen around an 85-90% drop in people travelling on our services and so we have been working to reduce our costs.

With no funding immediately available from Government or local authorities to support services, we have to reduce the number of buses on the road, whilst still focussing on providing a core service for key workers and essential shopping journeys where possible.

We started by reducing our services to a Saturday service, however it quickly became apparent that this didn’t go far enough. The same applied to the reduced service introduced on 30 March as the situation and guidance continued to evolve. We put further reductions in place on Monday 6 April.

We do want to provide a service wherever we can, but we have to reiterate that there is only so much we can achieve with limited resources. If there are specific journeys that are needed, please contact our customer service team - however, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to fulfil any requests due to the limited nature of our resources.

Newbury & District and Kennections

Newbury & District service 1a/1c are running a special, reduced, timetable due to low usage. Click here for the times.

Currently, all Kennections services and route 103, are running to their normal timetables.

new Reading Buses timetables from Monday 11 May

route	summary of changes	times
jet black	Buses will run roughly every 80 / 90 minutes Monday to Saturday, with four return journeys on Sundays. On Monday to Friday, jet black 1 will continue to serve Arlington Business Park.	Click here for times.
lime 2/2a	Buses will run every 80 minutes Mondays to Saturdays including one morning and one afternoon journey to AWE. On Sundays, buses will run every 1-2 hours.	Click here for times.
leopard 3	Buses will run hourly between Reading, Shinfield, Arborfield and Wokingham, Monday to Saturday. The service to Orwell Drive will be suspended. Sundays will have an hourly service between Reading and Sheerlands Road at Arborfield Green. The Nine Mlie Ride shuttle will continue to run to an amended timetable to connect to the leopard.	Click here for times.
lion 4/X4	Buses will only run an hourly service on the lion X4 Monday to Sunday. The lion 4 is suspended. For the Southern Estates, please use lion X4 and Courtney Buses routes 171/2 and 194.	Click here for times.
emerald 5	The daytime frequency will be reduced to every 30 minutes every day.	Click here for times.
emerald 6/6a	The daytime frequency will be reduced to every 30 minutes every day. Emerald 6a journeys to / from Tesco Distribution Centre will continue - please check for exact times.	Click here for times.
tiger 7	All buses from Fleet are suspended. There will be three daytime journeys between Reading and Riseley Mondays-Saturdays only.	Click here for times.
leopard 8/9	The leopard 8 and 9 will each run hourly during the day, Monday to Saturdays. This combines with leopard 3 to provide a bus every 20 minutes between Reading and the Royal Berkshire Hospital. On Sundays only the leopard 8 will run hourly between Reading and Spencers Wood.	Click here for times.
bronze 11	Buses will run hourly Monday to Sunday. You will not be able to board the bus at St Mary's Butts.	Click here for times.
orange 13/14	Orange 13 and 14 will each run hourly Monday to Saturday. During evenings and on Sundays each route will run every 2 hours.	Click here for times.
sky blue 15	Buses will run hourly between Reading and Calcot (Sainsburys) - IKEA is currently closed. Some evening journeys will run only between town centre and Dee Park.	Click here for times.
sky blue 16	Sky blue 16 will run hourly Monday to Sunday.	Click here for times.
purple 17	Buses will run every 30 minutes Monday to Sunday. The overnight service will be suspended.	Click here for times.
little oranges	The little oranges 19a and 19c will be split, providing an hourly service between Reading, Woodley and Lower Earley, and reverse. Little oranges 19b will run hourly. All buses will run an amended route. See below for full description.	Click here for times.
claret 21	Buses will run hourly all week, with a reduced Monday to Friday evening service and no Sunday evening service.	Click here for times.
pink 22	Buses will run hourly Monday to Saturday. The normal Sunday timetable will continue.	Click here for times.
berry 23/24	Buses will run hourly Monday to Saturday. The normal Sunday timetable will continue.	Click here for times.
pink 25	Buses will run hourly Monday to Saturday. The normal Sunday timetable will continue.	Click here for times.
yellow 26	Buses will run every 30 minutes Monday to Saturday between Reading and Calcot (Sainsbury’s) -IKEA is currently closed. Evenings and Sundays will have an hourly frequency. Overnight services are suspended.	Click here for times.
little berries 27/29	The current hourly service will continue to run Monday to Saturday daytimes as little berry 29 only. The evening and Sunday service will continue as current.	Click here for times.
royal blue 33	Buses will run hourly Monday to Sunday, with a reduced Monday to Friday evening service and no Sunday evening service.	Click here for times.
buzz 42	The current Saturday timetable will continue running Monday to Saturday.	Click here for times.
greenwave	The current Saturday service, with the supplementary 61r operating on Monday to Friday will continue, however there will be slight tweaks to the timetable due to entry restrictions at Green Park. Buses will not be able to visit Lime Square and will run a diversion loop via Longwater Avenue and Brook Drive.	Click here for times.
Connect Henley	The current Saturday service will run Mondays – Saturdays until Thursday 9 April. After this date the service will be suspended.	Click for current timetable.
Winnersh Triangle park & ride	This service is suspended from Saturday 28 March.
Green Line 702	This service is suspended from Monday 6 April.

little oranges route

Little oranges 19a/19c

All buses leaving Reading will be little oranges 19c and will run the normal route around Woodley until Gipsy Lane. There is then an amended 'loop', with buses running either as 19c (via Chalfont Way ASDA then Silverdale Road Shops) or a 19a (via Silverdale Road shops then Chalfont Way ASDA). Once buses get back to Gipsy Lane, they will all be little oranges 19a to return to Reading.

There will be no direct route to Reading from Silverdale Road, all buses return to Reading via Woodley.

Little oranges 19b

Buses will run broadly as normal, but will have a different 'loop' at the end with alternate buses running in different directions. The first route sees buses running to ASDA as normal and then continuing along Elm Lane and Wilderness Road to return to town. The second route sees buses running along Wilderness Road and Elm Lane to get to ASDA before returning along the 'normal' route to town.