|
Post by wirewiper on Mar 8, 2024 18:11:43 GMT
Vehicle News, December 2023NEW VEHICLES<snip> 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 NBY1429 - ND73 DST<snip> All information is courtesy of Robert Williams, CEO Reading Buses via Bus Zone Forum (Google Groups) The two Irizar i6s coaches arrived at the beginning of March and have been allocated 24-registrations: 1428 - ND24 NBY 1429 - ND24 NBD
|
|
|
Post by wirewiper on Mar 12, 2024 8:48:41 GMT
Upcoming service changesFrom Monday 25th March, London Line 701/702 and Flightline 703 will have new timetables, with additional morning and evening journeys and some journeys retimed to help with punctuality. www.reading-buses.co.uk/more-buses-and-new-timetable-25-march-windsor-express-routesFrom Tuesday 2nd April new Reading Borough Council route Buzz 18 will be introduced, reviving an historic route number* that was once carried by trolleybuses. This will replace route 42/42a between Kenavon Drive, Central Reading and Rivermead; buses will then continue via Cow Lane and Portman Road (bringing a bus service to these roads for the first time), Oxford Road and Kentwood Hill to terminate at Tilehurst Triangle (stop X, Walnut Way). Buses will usually run every 40 minutes throughout, although at Monday-Friday peak times buses will run every 20 minutes between Kenavon Drive and Central Reading as a self-contained shuttle route 18a. An hourly Sunday service will operate. The evening service ceases around 19.30. Buzz 18 will serve brand-new stops at River Academy (opening September), Ashmere Terrace, Portman Road Tesco, Bridgewater Close and Stone Street, and will restore a service to stops at Oak Tree Road, Derwent Avenue, Armour Hill and Kentwood Close. The route will be operated by gas-powered Scania/Enviro300s in Buzz livery that were acquired from Stagecoach North East. The route is funded by Reading Borough Council's BSIP funding. The route will pass under the Cow Lane railway bridge which was reconstructed in the 2010s and the roadway widened and lowered, allowing full-size vehicles to use the road; this was part of the major reconstruction of Reading Station and the railway junctions to the west. www.reading-buses.co.uk/introducing-buzz-18* Route no. 18 was originally carried by the Kentwood trolleybus route, which was extended to Armour Hill in 1958, although this ran directly via Oxford Road. Trolleybuses ran up to every 15 minutes until March 1968 when the route was converted to motorbus. However the route was gradually eclipsed by other routes as Reading expanded westwards and it finally died out in the early 2010s.
|
|
|
Post by mark on Mar 12, 2024 14:51:44 GMT
* Route no. 18 was originally carried by the Kentwood trolleybus route, which was extended to Armour Hill in 1958, although this ran directly via Oxford Road. Trolleybuses ran up to every 15 minutes until March 1968 when the route was converted to motorbus. However the route was gradually eclipsed by other routes as Reading expanded westwards and it finally died out in the early 2010s. Reading Corporation Transport used route letters to describe its services until August 1964 and the Kentwood route was initially the C. These letters were used on timetables but not generally displayed on the vehicles which relied on a destination alone. The exceptiobs to this were the Sunbeam F4As, AEC Reliances and Dennis Lolines which lacked rear destination displays so they did show the route letter. When route numbers were introduced they consciously avoided using those already employed by Thames Valley on services in the town. Route 18 was converted to motor-bus operation after 3 March 1968 although there was a farewell run along the route the following Sunday (10th). The overhead wasn't taken down until July and 56 years later a few traction poles remain on Kentwood Hill!
|
|
|
Post by wirewiper on Mar 13, 2024 16:31:52 GMT
Some vehicle news:
ADL Enviro400 City 741 (generic livery) was delivered on 1st March and has now been re-registered RG24 BUS. Lion-liveried 241-247 entered service on 12th February and 248 on 20th February. Lion-liveried ADL Enviro400 ex-hybrids 211-3 went into reserve on 11th February and 216/7 were withdrawn from that date as a buyer has been found (214 is already withdrawn after its fire in December).
Flightline 703-liveried 738/740 entered service on 16th February and 739 on 17th February. ADL Enviro400 MMCs 780/781 are temporarily out of service at Reading to have their seats retrimmed; they are to retain Flightline 703 livery as the frequency is being enhanced from 25th March.
Scania OmniDekka 801 has been withdrawn as it is beyond repair. It has been out of use since 6th November.
Of the former Stagecoach Scania/Enviro300 gas buses 437 entered service on 19th February, 439 on 5th March and 437 on 11th March with 438 still to enter service. These are all in the new two-tone green Buzz livery and are used on route 9; they will also be used on the new Buzz 18 which replaces route 42 from Tuesday 2nd April. Of the two for driver training, 310 is nearly complete and 309 has now gone for conversion and repainting.
The new Irizar i6s Efficients 1426/7 CORRECTION: 1428/9 for Newbury and District are C57Ft (or 53 seats when a wheelchair is carried), They have audio-visual next stop announcements so can be used as back-up on Flightline 730/731. Their intended 73 registrations were voided and they now carry ND24 NBY and ND24 NBD.
|
|
|
Post by edvid on Mar 13, 2024 18:01:00 GMT
The i6s Efficients are 1428/29 since they arrived after the Leopard-bodied B8Rs (which became 1426/27).
|
|
|
Post by wirewiper on Mar 14, 2024 8:29:46 GMT
The i6s Efficients are 1428/29 since they arrived after the Leopard-bodied B8Rs (which became 1426/27). Thank you - original post corrected.
|
|
|
Post by wirewiper on Mar 18, 2024 16:59:06 GMT
There is a small number of Reading Buses timetable changes from Monday 15th April: Jetblack 1: Timing changes to improve punctuality. There will also be some minor adjustments to times on Newbury & District route 1a/1c to maintain even frequencies between Thatcham and Newbury. Orange 13/14: Timing changes to improve reliability. In the evening peak an extra route 14 journey will be added to increase capacity. Purple 17: Revises timetable with increased frequencies: 8 minutes at peak times, 9 minutes on weekday and Saturday daytimes, and up to every 10 minutes on Sundays. Yellow 26: Overnight journeys retimed to offer better connections out of late night trains from London. www.reading-buses.co.uk/april-15-timetable-improvements
|
|
|
Post by wirewiper on Mar 19, 2024 17:02:29 GMT
Reading Buses is making minor changes to the Buzz 9 timetable from Tuesday 2nd April (coincidentally this is the start date for the new Buzz 18 service which is replacing the 42). At the request of Reading Borough Council which is funding the service through BSIP money, on schooldays the 06.51 and 07.49 departures from Green Park Station will operate as 9b and will operate via Redlands Road instead of Addington Road and Craven Road, due to traffic congestion. A stop at the rear entrance to Royal Berkshire Hospital will be served. On school holidays these journeys will operate as route 9 via the normal route. www.reading-buses.co.uk/timetable-changes-buzz-9-0
|
|
|
Post by wirewiper on Mar 26, 2024 11:00:18 GMT
Reading Buses has been awarded £4.7 million ZEBRA2 funding towards 24 electric double-deckers. They would be used on routes 17 and 21 and will enter service over the next couple of years. www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-68658329No order has been announced, but Reading Buses has trialled a number of electric demonstrators over the pas few months including a BYD/ADL Enviro400 City EV, a Wright Streetdeck Electroliner and the new double-deck Yutong U11DD. The existing gas-powered Scania/ADL Enviro400 City on route 17 date from 2018 and would be cascaded to other routes - there are a number of former hybrid ADL Enviro400s that date from 2010/2011 and are nearing the end of their working life, these are mainly used on routes 15, 16, 23/24 and 26. The vehicles on route 21 are some of the first ADL Enviro400 MMCs to enter service in the UK and date from late 2014.
|
|
|
Post by wirewiper on Mar 26, 2024 18:59:05 GMT
Easter 2024: Good Friday, 29th March: - Reading Buses will operate special timetables, these will be largely based on Saturday timetables although Buzz 9, little oranges 19a/b/c, Buzz 42, Hospital Park & Ride 300 and Winnersh Park & Ride 500 will not operate. London line 702 will operate to the Saturday timetable. - Football buses: a full service will operate for the Reading v Northampton Town fixture (3pm kick-off). - Thames Valley Buses will operate to Sunday timetables, including Flightline 703. - Newbury & District services will not operate, except route 1E between Thatcham and Newbury which will operate to the Saturday evening timetable and Flightline 703/731 which will operate to the Sunday timetable. Easter Saturday, 30th March: normal Saturday timetables. Easter Day, Sunday 31st March: normal Sunday timetables Holiday Monday, 1st April: Sunday timetables on all routes (routes which do not operate on a Sunday will not operate). www.reading-buses.co.uk/easter-timetables-2
|
|
|
Post by MetrolineGA1511 on Apr 2, 2024 8:51:30 GMT
Reading Buses has been awarded £4.7 million ZEBRA2 funding towards 24 electric double-deckers. They would be used on routes 17 and 21 and will enter service over the next couple of years. www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-68658329No order has been announced, but Reading Buses has trialled a number of electric demonstrators over the pas few months including a BYD/ADL Enviro400 City EV, a Wright Streetdeck Electroliner and the new double-deck Yutong U11DD. The existing gas-powered Scania/ADL Enviro400 City on route 17 date from 2018 and would be cascaded to other routes - there are a number of former hybrid ADL Enviro400s that date from 2010/2011 and are nearing the end of their working life, these are mainly used on routes 15, 16, 23/24 and 26. The vehicles on route 21 are some of the first ADL Enviro400 MMCs to enter service in the UK and date from late 2014. Thank you for this heads-up. I could find it intriguing to postpone my visit to Oxford so that I can compare Oxford & Reading electric buses on the same visit.
|
|
|
Post by mark on Apr 2, 2024 13:51:46 GMT
Reading Buses has been awarded £4.7 million ZEBRA2 funding towards 24 electric double-deckers. They would be used on routes 17 and 21 and will enter service over the next couple of years. www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-68658329No order has been announced, but Reading Buses has trialled a number of electric demonstrators over the pas few months including a BYD/ADL Enviro400 City EV, a Wright Streetdeck Electroliner and the new double-deck Yutong U11DD. The existing gas-powered Scania/ADL Enviro400 City on route 17 date from 2018 and would be cascaded to other routes - there are a number of former hybrid ADL Enviro400s that date from 2010/2011 and are nearing the end of their working life, these are mainly used on routes 15, 16, 23/24 and 26. The vehicles on route 21 are some of the first ADL Enviro400 MMCs to enter service in the UK and date from late 2014. Thank you for this heads-up. I could find it intriguing to postpone my visit to Oxford so that I can compare Oxford & Reading electric buses on the same visit. It might be a long wait - Reading’s BE buses are not expected until late 2025!
|
|
|
Post by TB123 on Apr 2, 2024 13:52:46 GMT
Thank you for this heads-up. I could find it intriguing to postpone my visit to Oxford so that I can compare Oxford & Reading electric buses on the same visit. It might be a long wait - Reading’s BE buses are not expected until late 2025! Order expected to be placed by the month end apparently - interesting to see what is ordered
|
|
|
Post by mark on Apr 2, 2024 13:57:59 GMT
It might be a long wait - Reading’s BE buses are not expected until late 2025! Order expected to be placed by the month end apparently - interesting to see what is ordered …indeed. It will also be interesting to see what the political fallout is if RB orders Chinese buses - there was a bit of a firestorm in Blackpool about this and Nottingham City Transport is at pains to stress how much UK value add its Yutong buses have!
|
|
|
Post by TB123 on Apr 2, 2024 14:00:06 GMT
Order expected to be placed by the month end apparently - interesting to see what is ordered …indeed. It will also be interesting to see what the political fallout is if RB orders Chinese buses - there was a bit of a firestorm in Blackpool about this and Nottingham City Transport is at pains to stress how much UK value add its Yutong buses have! That was my thought too! Interestingly there was talk elsewhere that RT were very impressed by the Yutong product, as I know many have been.
|
|