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Post by wirewiper on May 23, 2020 17:31:26 GMT
I have seen photos of Reading Buses claret-liveried (route 21) Enviro400 MMCs on loan to Courtney Buses at Bracknell for route 194 (Bracknell-Camberley), this is presumably to allow social distancing. 754 and 755 have been photographed.
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Post by wirewiper on May 28, 2020 17:04:38 GMT
Reading Buses will be increasing services from Monday 1st June. New service levels will operate at something between Sunday and Saturday levels, on Mondays to saturdays. On Sundays (from 7th June) all routes will operate to normal Sunday timetables, except 11, 17, 21 and 26 which will operate a reduced level of service during the daytime. Night services on routes 5, 6, 17, 21 and 26 remain suspended.
Route 4 will be restored (it will operate hourly and alternate with X4) and route 7 is restored to Fleet. Routes 19a/19b/19c continue on their existing revised routes and timetables, presumably at the behest of Wokingham Borough Council which supports the 19a/19c. Winnersh Triangle Park & Ride and Green Line 702 remain suspended for now.
Thames Travel is restoring all its routes to a near-normal timetable from Monday 1st June, with a school holiday service operating on Mondays to Fridays. Late-night journeys on X2, X32 and X40 will not operate.
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Post by Catford94 on Jun 17, 2020 21:56:19 GMT
There seem to be a few enhancements this week (15 June) in the form of regular but un-publicised duplicates / extras on some routes (some full route, some part route, e.g. 17 town centre - Norcot, 13 / 14 to the first Woodley roundabout, full route on 5 / 6 Whitley)
This has led to a minor re-shuffle of buses, with 'Lion' buses back on the 4 / X4, presume to release generic buses for these extra workings.
Winnersh P and R buses continue to be deputising for 'little orange' midis on the 19 group, Greenwave routes are still using spare purple 17 double deckers (presume both to give better 'socially distant' capacity) - both of these have been standard for some weeks now.
Woodley 13 / 14 (usually orange), Lower Earley 21 (claret), Calcot 26 (yellow) and Tilehurst 33 (dark blue) all appear to have been generic buses since March - also seems to be some inter-working between these routes at the moment, presumably this saves a bus or two compared to the usual branded allocation on each route. Likewise Newbury 1 (usually black) and - until this week - Bracknell 4 / X4 have been generic as well.
There's also an 'H1 NHS Shuttle' which seems to be between town centre and Royal Berks Hospital (not publicised, although carrying full destination displays, so probably a contract route for NHS staff), usually using 'bronze 11' single deckers. The 11 has been midi, inter-working with Lower Caversham 29 (similar to normal Sundays.)
No news yet about further 'unlocking'
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Post by wirewiper on Jun 28, 2020 9:57:35 GMT
Reading Buses has announced a further uplift in services from Monday 6th July, with most routes returning to a normal or near-normal frequency. Night journeys resume on routes 5, 6, 17, 21 and 26 although on Friday and Saturday nights routes 17 and 21 will only operate hourly. There are a number of changes to the Caversham services. Routes 25 and 27/29 will be rerouted due to a new one-way system in Caversham and along part of Gosbrook Road. Inbound journeys on routes 22, 23 and 24 will operate direct via Caversham Road and no longer call at Station North, although before 09.00 on Mondays-Fridays they will call at Station South to drop off rail commuters. Timetables will be reorganised to ensure a better spread of departures between Central Reading and Caversham Centre. Green line 702 resumes from Saturday 4th July on its full timetable. Winnersh Triangle Park-and-Ride service 500 will resume on Monday 6th July, to the full timetable. The "Henley Connect" town services appear to have been discontinued - these last operated on Thursday 9th April, just before the Easter weekend. www.reading-buses.co.uk/more-buses-we-start-nearly-get-back-normal
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Post by Catford94 on Jul 5, 2020 12:29:52 GMT
The Flickr user Sou'wester has quite a few recent Reading photos including some of the (recently) scheduled 'odd workings' and some that were probably not scheduled - the 'Leopard' bus on normally minibus 42 is quite a rarity. www.flickr.com/photos/cliveabrown/Reading Bridge was closed from 29 June for up to 6 weeks for gas mains replacement at very short notice - news went public on 26 June, and Reading Buses 6 July timetables don't seem to take account of this, so looks like it will be handled as a diversion with controllers dealing with late running on a day to day basis.
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Post by Catford94 on Jul 8, 2020 22:41:04 GMT
Observations from the post-lockdown 6 July service,
Claret 21 buses still absent - presume still at Courtney / Thames Valley but otherwise mainly back to normal allocations, seem to be a few more generic buses around than usual, though.
Winnersh Triangle Park and Ride branded buses are still running in place of 'little orange' E200s on the 19 Woodley / Lower Earley services and the evening journeys that the 19 midis usually go on to in the evening (presume this is to provide a bit more capacity)
Greenwave single deckers back on the Greenwave network and also the Winnersh Triangle Park and Ride.
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Post by Catford94 on Jul 11, 2020 13:51:45 GMT
From others' observations on the web, the Claret 21 buses are still at Courtney (mostly on the 194)
Green Line 702 is using Emerald 5/6 buses (which have high backed seats) - suggestion is that the regular Green Line fleet do not have driver screens fitted.
702 has also moved terminus stop at Victoria, now using the Buckingham Palace Road stop vacated by Oxford X90 rather than the stop inside the Green Line coach station.
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Post by MetrolineGA1511 on Jul 11, 2020 15:08:26 GMT
From others' observations on the web, the Claret 21 buses are still at Courtney (mostly on the 194) Green Line 702 is using Emerald 5/6 buses (which have high backed seats) - suggestion is that the regular Green Line fleet do not have driver screens fitted. 702 has also moved terminus stop at Victoria, now using the Buckingham Palace Road stop vacated by Oxford X90 rather than the stop inside the Green Line coach station. Talking of route 702, still no clues about how imminent Metrodeckers are. Mind you, First York are still awaiting all theirs apart from the 1 delivered. Then of course Tower Transit have their 37 on order.
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Post by galwhv69 on Jul 11, 2020 15:38:05 GMT
From others' observations on the web, the Claret 21 buses are still at Courtney (mostly on the 194) Green Line 702 is using Emerald 5/6 buses (which have high backed seats) - suggestion is that the regular Green Line fleet do not have driver screens fitted. 702 has also moved terminus stop at Victoria, now using the Buckingham Palace Road stop vacated by Oxford X90 rather than the stop inside the Green Line coach station. Talking of route 702, still no clues about how imminent Metrodeckers are. Mind you, First York are still awaiting all theirs apart from the 1 delivered. Then of course Tower Transit have their 37 on order. Optare did recently tweet some pictures which included some Metrodeckers in York livery so at least the York ones are coming along
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Post by Catford94 on Jul 27, 2020 21:35:11 GMT
Further observations - all seems fairly quiet on service changes, which implies that the current services may stay in place until the school term starts again in September.
Reading Bridge re-opened sooner than expected, although some of the route changes on Caversham services seem to be permanent (less buses using the station north side interchange)
And a long time diversion on route 3 between Arborfield and Finchampstead has also ended (although the mini-bus shuttle that connected some of this area to the main route ended fairly early on in the lockdown and didn't seem to re-appear.)
There seem to be a few spare 'purple 17' buses around, and appearing on other double deck routes as required.
Route 6a (a variation of the Whitley Wood route, to serve shift changes at the big Tesco distribution centre in south Reading) seems to have regular extra / duplicate buses, presume to give more space with social distancing / reduced capacity. These journeys can be a variety of d/d buses, some colours seem more regular than others, so possibly scheduled off other route workings.
Hospital shuttle H1 (presume NHS staff only) between town centre and Royal Berks Hospital is still running, now usually generic single decker/s (not sure if it's 1 or 2 bus PVR), as the 'bronze 11' single deckers have gone back to route 11.
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Post by Catford94 on Jul 29, 2020 19:50:50 GMT
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Post by wirewiper on Aug 2, 2020 8:52:57 GMT
Reading Buses has confirmed that the order for five Optare MetroDeckers for Green Line 702 has now been cancelled:
"It is now over two years since the order for five Optare MetroDeckers for Green Line 702 was placed. A combination of ongoing production delays, an inability to provide a delivery schedule, mixed reviews regarding the demonstrator and our very difficult financial situation due to Covid-19 means that we have taken the decision to cancel the order.
This may be disappointing given the significant amount of time and energy that has gone into developing these bespoke customer focused vehicles. When we do get back to a position where we can start considering fleet investment again, we will start a new process to select the best vehicles for the route." (Robert Williams, CEO, Reading Buses)
ADL Enviro400 MMCs 760, 761 and 762 are to be given Green Line branding on top of their Emerald two-tone green livery and temporarily allocated to the route, this is possible as Emerald routes 5 and 6 are still operating with a reduced PVR compared to pre-Covid and this is likely to continue for the foreseeable future. This will release generic-liveried MMCs 756, 757 and 759 back to the main fleet which will enable the blue East Lancs-bodied Tridents to depart the fleet. Optare Metrodecker demonstrator 899 is to be returned to Optare and will be repainted out of its Green Line livery at Courtney Bodyworks.
On a more positive note, National Express route 925 (Woking Station - Heathrow Airport), which is contracted to Reading Buses, will recommence from 10th August to its full timetable, save for one minor alteration.
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Post by redexpress on Aug 2, 2020 11:06:52 GMT
Reading Buses has confirmed that the order for five Optare MetroDeckers for Green Line 702 has now been cancelled: " It is now over two years since the order for five Optare MetroDeckers for Green Line 702 was placed. A combination of ongoing production delays, an inability to provide a delivery schedule, mixed reviews regarding the demonstrator and our very difficult financial situation due to Covid-19 means that we have taken the decision to cancel the order.
This may be disappointing given the significant amount of time and energy that has gone into developing these bespoke customer focused vehicles. When we do get back to a position where we can start considering fleet investment again, we will start a new process to select the best vehicles for the route." (Robert Williams, CEO, Reading Buses) An understandable decision but the line "mixed reviews regarding the demonstrator" must be a tad worrying for Optare (as well as other operators who have placed MetroDecker orders).
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Post by Eastlondoner62 on Aug 2, 2020 11:06:54 GMT
Reading Buses has confirmed that the order for five Optare MetroDeckers for Green Line 702 has now been cancelled: " It is now over two years since the order for five Optare MetroDeckers for Green Line 702 was placed. A combination of ongoing production delays, an inability to provide a delivery schedule, mixed reviews regarding the demonstrator and our very difficult financial situation due to Covid-19 means that we have taken the decision to cancel the order.
This may be disappointing given the significant amount of time and energy that has gone into developing these bespoke customer focused vehicles. When we do get back to a position where we can start considering fleet investment again, we will start a new process to select the best vehicles for the route." (Robert Williams, CEO, Reading Buses) ADL Enviro400 MMCs 760, 761 and 762 are to be given Green Line branding on top of their Emerald two-tone green livery and temporarily allocated to the route, this is possible as Emerald routes 5 and 6 are still operating with a reduced PVR compared to pre-Covid and this is likely to continue for the foreseeable future. This will release generic-liveried MMCs 756, 757 and 759 back to the main fleet which will enable the blue East Lancs-bodied Tridents to depart the fleet. Optare Metrodecker demonstrator 899 is to be returned to Optare and will be repainted out of its Green Line livery at Courtney Bodyworks. On a more positive note, National Express route 925 (Woking Station - Heathrow Airport), which is contracted to Reading Buses, will recommence from 10th August to its full timetable, save for one minor alteration. Judging by that paragraph they don't seem to be particularly impressed with Optare. Something I do wonder if what caused the delays, the 134s buses seem to have arrived and I think the 702 buses were ordered around the same time. Also could be interesting to see if the C3 and 23s buses are ready by the Autumn too.
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Post by wirewiper on Aug 2, 2020 11:11:28 GMT
Reading Buses has confirmed that the order for five Optare MetroDeckers for Green Line 702 has now been cancelled: " It is now over two years since the order for five Optare MetroDeckers for Green Line 702 was placed. A combination of ongoing production delays, an inability to provide a delivery schedule, mixed reviews regarding the demonstrator and our very difficult financial situation due to Covid-19 means that we have taken the decision to cancel the order.
This may be disappointing given the significant amount of time and energy that has gone into developing these bespoke customer focused vehicles. When we do get back to a position where we can start considering fleet investment again, we will start a new process to select the best vehicles for the route." (Robert Williams, CEO, Reading Buses) ADL Enviro400 MMCs 760, 761 and 762 are to be given Green Line branding on top of their Emerald two-tone green livery and temporarily allocated to the route, this is possible as Emerald routes 5 and 6 are still operating with a reduced PVR compared to pre-Covid and this is likely to continue for the foreseeable future. This will release generic-liveried MMCs 756, 757 and 759 back to the main fleet which will enable the blue East Lancs-bodied Tridents to depart the fleet. Optare Metrodecker demonstrator 899 is to be returned to Optare and will be repainted out of its Green Line livery at Courtney Bodyworks. On a more positive note, National Express route 925 (Woking Station - Heathrow Airport), which is contracted to Reading Buses, will recommence from 10th August to its full timetable, save for one minor alteration. Judging by that paragraph they don't seem to be particularly impressed with Optare. Something I do wonder if what caused the delays, the 134s buses seem to have arrived and I think the 702 buses were ordered around the same time. Also could be interesting to see if the C3 and 23s buses are ready by the Autumn too. It's also worth noting that the MetroDeckers weren't ordered on Mr Williams' watch - they were ordered when Martijn Gilbert was CEO, and both he and John Bickerton, his chief engineer at the time, have moved on.
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