Reading Buses expand their area

[whole diary]

[Adelante_CCT]

First Wokingham, then Bracknell, and from December Reading Buses will be serving London as well......albeit in a roundabout way.

702 Greenline

We’re pleased to confirm that we will be operating the 702 Bracknell – Windsor – Slough – London Greenline service from Wednesday 27th December after First withdraw.

[Surrey 455]

First Wokingham, then Bracknell, and from December Reading Buses will be serving London as well......albeit in a roundabout way.

702 Greenline

We’re pleased to confirm that we will be operating the 702 Bracknell – Windsor – Slough – London Greenline service from Wednesday 27th December after First withdraw.

Will it still be operated as a Green Line route or will it lose its identity?

[Thatcham Crossing]

No doubt it will be named after some fast animal or other!

[Fourbee]

I couldn't think of any real life green cat, this fictional one used to run away a lot   
https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/heman/images/8/85/Cringer.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20090819010316

[stuving]

First Wokingham, then Bracknell, and from December Reading Buses will be serving London as well......albeit in a roundabout way.

702 Greenline

We’re pleased to confirm that we will be operating the 702 Bracknell – Windsor – Slough – London Greenline service from Wednesday 27th December after First withdraw.

Will it still be operated as a Green Line route or will it lose its identity?

The Greeenline brand is owned by Arriva, and was used under licence by First, though the 702 was the last route operated under that agreement. Arriva might license it to Reading buses, if both parties are interested in the idea. If this "London to Legoland bus" only goes as far as Bracknell, running it as a Reading Buses service would look a bit silly, and perhaps confuse. However, if RB have a plan to extend it to Reading, that would make sense. Watch this space ...

PS: Reading Buses' own full statement was this:

702 Greenline

We’re pleased to confirm that we will be operating the 702 Bracknell – Windsor – Slough – London Greenline service from Wednesday 27th December after First withdraw.

Our timetable and fares will be broadly similar to those operated today and more details will be posted here as soon as they are finalised.

We will be operating a special limited service on Christmas Eve (24th December) which this year falls on a Sunday and again full timetable details will be posted here shortly.

We look forward to welcoming Greenline customers on-board and working to develop the service over the coming months. 

[bobm]

It won't be Reading Buses first foray into London.

As with a number of operators they started operating into the capital when services were deregulated in 1980.  Initially it was a joint operation with Southend Transport with both running buses to the other's town across London.

Later it was cut back to finish in London and finally ceased at the turn of the century.

This is a blind from the late 1980s

[JayMac]

Interesting to see a local independent push out a large established national operator. It's nearly always the other way round.

10 years ago Courtney Coaches (as was) operated just a couple of tendered bus services in the Bracknell Forest borough. That was after nearly losing their 'O' licence in 2006.

Today they are main operator of both commercial and tendered services in Bracknell, Wokingham, and Maidenhead. FirstBus tried, and failed, to hold on to their previous dominant position, closing their Bracknell depot in 2016.

[wiltshirebloke]

Interesting to see a local independent push out a large established national operator. It's nearly always the other way round

I don't think it's quite a case of RB pushing out First, rather First giving the service up and RB taking the service forward instead, as you say much in the way that Courtney's have in Bracknell etc

[JayMac]

I was talking only about Courtney v FirstBus in Bracknell, Wokingham and surrounding areas. There was direct competition between the two on commercial routes in the area. That usually ends up with the big boy winning. In this case though First threw in the towel.

[Adelante_CCT]

Now RB will be taking over some Slough area services under contract

http://www.slough.gov.uk/news/newsdetail.aspx?id=18452

[Adelante_CCT]

And in more local news, yesterday saw the start of the new route 17 buses, which feature double doors, the first time for standard Reading buses operations for many years.

[bobm]

They abandoned separate entrance and exit points in the 1990s after a series of incidents including a least one fatality when passengers were caught in the exit doors. 

There were quite a few buses which spent their final years in the town with the exit doors plated over.

[Adelante_CCT]

Correct, sadly I remember the most serious incident in question, I assume safety is greater these days with sensors etc.

[bobm]

I would assume so.  With driver only operation relying on mirrors, external and internal, on a crowded vehicle was never very satisfactory particularly in wet weather.

[Surrey 455]

Reading Buses will still be called Green Line although the buses themselves may not be green. They've also brought out a Green Line 702 app.

http://www.reading-buses.co.uk/articles/the-new-green-line-702

The new Green Line 702!
From 27 December we are taking over Green Line 702 from First. All existing season and period tickets will still be valid and, for now, the timetable will stay broadly the same, although all London bound journeys will run 5 minutes earlier to make sure we don’t run late leaving London.

Because we’re not taking over the previous fleet of buses, for the next 8-9 months we will be using a mix of suitable vehicles from the existing Reading Buses fleet which have high back coach-style seats and some temporary vehicles hired in, including a small number of full-specification coaches. All vehicles will, of course, be fitted with free WiFi.

looking forward
We have ambitious plans to develop the route and will be evaluating a number of new vehicle types during January and February 2018, with a view to ordering a brand new fleet of modern coaches. We’ll also be watching closely over the coming months to see how the current timetable performs, how good the fares are, and see what opportunities there are to market and improve this useful service to increase use and make it a success for the long term..............

and a vintage bus service on Christmas Eve

Special FREE service on Christmas Eve
First will finish operating the route at the end of Saturday 23rd, leaving Christmas Eve Sunday before our full service starts. As this is likely to be quite a quiet day we will be co-ordinating a free vintage bus service along the route using volunteer drivers/conductors and their vehicles who will operate in aid of our Reading Buses Charity of the Year, Red Balloon Learner Centre - all donations welcome!
This will run to a special timetable with buses running between London Victoria and Windsor with a second shuttle service operating between Windsor and Bracknell - click here for the timetable.