A new stretch of bus lane is set to open on Oxford Road, part of a road scheme aimed at improving bus services along the road.

The Reading Council's £26 million investment in bus services will see the new lane installed on the outbound carriageway of Oxford Road, between Pangbourne Street and Norcot Road.

The lane is being created through a redesign of the highway, without reducing road space for general traffic.

The westbound left-turn lane to Norcot Road has also been extended to improve movements at the roundabout.

Resurfacing works will take place between Shaftesbury Road and Norcot Road every night this week, up to and including Friday, November 1, with closures in place between 7pm and 2am.

Diversion routes will be in place during the closures.

The bus lane will go live immediately after the works.

The latest bus priority measures come just four weeks after the opening of a new bus lane on the outbound carriageway of Oxford Road between Zinzan Street and George Street.

The schemes are part of a programme of five new bus lanes being created in the borough, the first of which opened in London Road (Cemetery Junction) in east Reading in August.

The new bus lanes form part of the council’s wider Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP), which received the funding from the Department for Transport.

All five bus lanes have been selected for stretches of road where services suffer most from delays due to traffic congestion, particularly at peak times.

The aim of the BSIP is to encourage greater use of public transport by making bus travel easier, more convenient, more reliable, and quicker.

Councillor John Ennis, lead councillor for climate strategy and transport, said: "The busy Oxford Road is an integral part of Reading’s best-used bus route, the Purple 17, which runs between east and west Reading all day every day.

"The introduction of these two new bus lanes will benefit many thousands of passengers whose journeys will now run more smoothly, as well as residents who live in and around the Oxford Road by reducing congestion and the health impacts of air pollution.

"Reading already boasts an excellent bus network and it will become an even more attractive way to travel if buses can avoid traffic congestion and journeys are quicker and more reliable."

Work on a new inbound bus lane along London Road, between Sidmouth Street and London Street, and on the A327 Southampton Street, inbound from Pell Street to the Oracle roundabout, are both expected to begin in the spring of 2025.