Free buses for everyone in Reading - Green proposal rejected

Councillors approved a five-year bus improvement plan at last night’s meeting which includes aims to increase capacity and speed, and offer lower fares to teenagers.

The plans were briefly thrown off course when Green councillor David McElroy surprised other members with calls to investigate making buses “free and fair” for everyone in Reading.

PICTURED: Councillor David McElroy

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This was backed up by fellow councillor Brenda McGonigle, who suggested the council could trial it for six months or a year to help provide more incentive to use buses again amid lower usage during the pandemic.

But the plans were ridiculed by opposition councillors.

Councillor Tony Page, lead member for Environment, Planning and Transport, said officers are already fully stretched in working to ensure Reading Buses survives and the council cannot “take them away from important work to investigate something that is not going to happen and is not a high desire”.

The Labour councillor said Cllr McElroy should “think through the proposal”, warning that if buses all became free tomorrow they would be overwhelmed and people who really needed them would not be able to get on them.

Labour Cllr Liam Challenger said residents in Tallinn, Estonia, where they have free bus travel, have to pay £1,000 in taxes to support it and there were similar situations in other cities with the same scheme. He said the council’s scheme will instead target help towards those who need it most.

And fellow Labour councillor Rachel Eden said providing free bus services for everyone “is a lovely thought” and “really good for certain groups” but is not a cost free measure.

She said previous concessions have had to be restricted and she was “reluctant to do that” but added: “We have to cut our cloth to suit our purse”.

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The soon-to-be-mayor also suggested there could be negative consequence by increasing the amount of travelling and therefore the amount of emissions.

Conservative councillor Clarence Mitchell said the council should be proud of its bus service. Says absolute free transport “has its own hidden dangers”.

And Lib Dem councillor Ricky Duveen said, if the council had that money, it would be better to spend it in other ways, “particularly making houses more energy efficient”.

The amendment was rejected but the bus improvement plan (2021-25) was approved at last night’s Strategic Environment, Planning and Transport committee.

It includes targets to increase the average daytime journey speed by 43 seconds from 17 minutes 44 seconds in 2019/20 to 17 minutes 1 second in 2024/25.

It also includes targets to increase the amount of total passengers per year by 1.8 million, rising from 22.2 million in 2019/20 to 24 million in 2024/25.

Other plans include:

• Expanding the provision of discounted bus tickets for teenagers
• Introducing a flat fare between Reading town centre and University of Reading
• Increasing direct journeys to workplaces and other destinations outside the town centre, particularly from less socially advantaged areas
• Simplifying services
• Improving bus-rail integration
• Making buses more accessible
• Improving buses for tourists
• Decarbonising buses

The council also wants to introduce a bus passenger charter to give passengers more of a say in the future of bus services in Reading, among other plans.