Road works to create a new bus lane along Oxford Road are due to begin this week as part of a controversial £26 million expansion of bus services.

Reading Borough Council is set to begin work on a new bus lane along Oxford Road this week, following a consultation that drew a mixed response from residents. 

The 400-metre lane will be created along the busy road outbound between Zinzan Street and George Street.

Road works to create the lane are due to start east of Bedford Road on Thursday and then continue west of Bedford Road across Friday and Saturday. This will involve daytime off-peak road closures with signed diversions. 

The new bus lane is part of a £26 million council investment in bus services across the town, which has included a controversial bus lane opened in London Road - prompting reports of "nightmare" congestion from drivers and nearby residents. 

According to a spokesperson from Reading Borough Council, the Oxford Road bus lane been selected as it is a stretch of road where bus services suffer from the most delays due to congestion, particularly at peak times.

John Ennis, Reading Council’s Lead Councillor for Transport, said: “Reading is a major centre for employment and leisure, attracting many thousands of daily journeys from both inside and outside the borough.  

"While we welcome that economic success, there is no doubt it brings major challenges in terms of congestion, air quality and the damaging knock-on health impacts on residents, particularly those who live alongside or near to major routes.

 “A key thread for the Council is to create faster and more reliable alternatives to the private car and this latest new bus lane along the Oxford Road contributes to that by creating extra capacity, which allows buses to avoid getting caught up in jams on what is a busy stretch of road.

"In this instance, it has been possible to create that extra capacity through the redesign of the highway and with no loss of capacity for general traffic."

A public consultation on the plans for the bus lane attracted 56 comments objecting - and 57 comments in support of the proposal. 

"I would absolutely welcome any plans for bus lanes along the Oxford Road, especially the stretch between the town centre and Battle Library," one resident commented.

They added: "It is wonderful that the buses are so frequent and affordable along this route, but unfortunately at peak times they are often not a usable option due to car congestion.

"Currently I fairly often find it quicker to walk home from town along the Oxford Road than take the bus, due to car congestion along the Oxford Road."

But others were concerned about the lane's effect on traffic, which was seen a "terrible" problem along Oxford Road.

One resident commented: "Bottlenecking key roads with further bus lanes is counter intuitive and will lead to significantly worse traffic all around."

Some of the support and objection comments were conditional on motorcyclists being granted access to the bus lane.

Recently, a motorcyclist raised alarm that him and fellow bikers were refused access to the bus lane in London Road.

However, the council made changes to allow bikers into the lane on a trial basis starting when road signs were adjusted on Friday, September 13.