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.