By October 2004 the foundations had been set for the introduction of the
Premier Route concept, the most frequent and well used services gaining
individual route branded colours based on a standard layout as fleets of new
vehicles entered service, starting with the most important
route 17. The new standard
livery became gray and beige with a silver swoosh, with the gray replaced
with the appropriate route branded colour on branded routes. Gray vehicles,
later termed 'generic' vehicles, were for use on any route when the branded
vehicles were not available. The gray was later amended to silver to help
brighten the appearance of the vehicles.
An updated version of the livery was
introduced in December 2010, replacing the beige with a second shade of the
main branded colour, and the "oval" logo with the "colour bar" logo.
The last vehicles with the oval logo were repainted in 2017, reflecting
the speed and rate at which the company now refreshes its vehicles. A
general policy was established in 2017 that all vehicles in the core Reading
fleet would be refurbished after 5 years, and then at 10 years either
replaced or refurbished again for a further 5 years service on other routes.
A number of significant expansions took place in the late 2010s on the
back of a policy of profitable expansion to increase returns to the
shareholder:
16 June 2014 - The Leopard (6 vehicles)
Route 144 between Reading, Arborfield and Wokingham was taken over
commercially upon re-tendering by Wokingham Borough Council, including
enhancements between Reading and Arborfield that were being provided
commercially by the previous operator Thames Travel. Branded as the
Leopard 3, six brand new vehicles were diverted from other routes to
operate it. Three further vehicles were subsequently added in 2016, 2017
and 2018 as operations with parallel Reading Buses route 9 were
gradually merged, and new housing and retail developments prompted
additional enhancements to the service.
Thames Travel had operated the 144 under contract to Wokingham
Council since the collapse of Tillingbourne on 19th March 2001, for a
time interworking it with route X38 from Oxford and Wallingford to
Reading.
26 July 2015 - The Lion (10 vehicles)
Reading Buses purchased route 90 (Reading - Wokingham - Bracknell)
from First ahead of their planned closure of Bracknell depot, operating
it on First's registration between 26th July and 31st August 2015 with
some vehicles out-stationed at First's Bracknell depot until service
could be reregistered and rescheduled to run from Reading. It was
rebranded the Lion 4/X4 from 31st August 2015. Initially 9 vehicles were
allocated, but this was rapidly increased to 10 to improve reliability.
Eight refurbished vehicles were released by new deliveries into the
fleet to operate the service, supplemented by two second hand vehicles.
27 December 2017 - Green Line 702 & Thames Valley (11 vehicles)
First Berkshire, the successor to the Slough, Bracknell and
Maidenhead parts of The Bee Line decided to stop running the long
standing 702 between Bracknell, Windsor, Slough and London after
Saturday 23 December 2017. Reading Buses saw an opportunity to replace
the service to generate profitable long-term growth, believing that it
had been significantly under promoted in previous few years, and so
registered a replacement from Wednesday 27 December, with a free
heritage running day taking place on 24th December to provide continuity
of service.
The service operated from Reading using 6 vehicles, with placement
journeys operating in service between Reading and Bracknell to create
additional links.
First Berkshire then announced that they would be withdrawing Slough
routes 2, 5, 10/11 and 15 after 30th January 2018. Reading Buses
registered a replacement for route 2 between Dedworth, Windsor and
Slough commercially to supplement the 702, and won an emergency contract
to run route 5 from Slough to Cippenham, requiring a total of 5 buses to
be based at a small outstation at Slough Bus Station under a new Thames
Valley brand from 30th January 2018. Competition from Courtney Buses on route 2 saw the 2
quickly withdrawn after 5th May 2018, the resource moving to allow the
702 to be split at Legoland, and new route 703 to be overlaid between
Slough, Windsor and Legoland, but also starting from Heathrow and
extended to Bracknell.
16 April 2018 - The Tiger (2 vehicles)
The Reading to Hartley Wintney section of Route 7 (Reading -
Spencers Wood - Hartley Wintney - Fleet - Aldershot) was purchased from
Stagecoach South, along with two vehicles and extended to Fleet Station.
Reading Buses rebranded the route Tiger using two cascaded vehicles in
September 2018, and were already running Wokingham subsidised evening
journeys as far as Riseley. Additional journeys running as route 8 to
Farnham were withdrawn by Stagecoach without replacement.
The 7 ended up being operated by Stagecoach following their
acquisition of Fleet Buzz in December 2011. Fleet Buzz operated the
route as their number 72 following the collapse of Tillingbourne in
March 2001, the number being changed from traditional route 12 to avoid
clashing with Reading Buses route 12. Reading Buses also provided
similar routes 111 and 112 to Spencers Wood and Riseley until their
final withdrawal on 13th July 2009.
13 September 2018 - Newbury & District (27 vehicles)
Newbury & District Ltd was acquired from the Weavaway group on
13th September 2018,
including a depot at Greenham Business Park near Newbury and 24 vehicles.
Maintenance transferred from Tappins depot at Didcot to Mill Lane in
Newbury, the site in Greenham Park being purely for parking and offices,
but Mill Lane too small to accommodate the parking. The gain of three
additional school contracts and the need for some engineering spare
vehicles led to six vehicles being added to the fleet on completion, and
then three others were taken away after competitive operations were
rationalised from 23rd April 2019.
30 April 2019 - Courtney Buses (53 vehicles)
Courtney Coaches Ltd, Courtney Bodyworks Ltd and Courtney ATF
Ltd were purchased on 30th April 2019 following announcement that
terms for the acquisition had been agreed on 5th March. This included the main depot in Bracknell and
a support
site at Hogwood Industrial Estate, several outstations, and 53 vehicles.
Originally formed by the purchase of a couple of taxi firms in
Wokingham in 1973, the company changed direction and moved into coach
hire in the 1980s, becoming Courtney Coaches including corporate
contracts and servicing business parks. In 2000 they won their first
local bus contract in Bracknell, and gradually refocused on local bus
operations, rebranding as Courtney Buses in late 2011.
Courtney Buses won a number of tenders in Bracknell from 13th July
2015, prompting First to withdraw its remaining commercial operations in
the town and close it's Bracknell depot after 29th August 2015. Green
Line route 702 was moved to operate from First's Slough depot. After a period of
difficult negotiations, First eventually allowed Courtney Buses to take
on the lease of their Bracknell depot Coldborough House in Market
Street, albeit in the knowledge that it had been sold for imminent
redevelopment, and one of the reasons why First wished to close it.
The date for the closure of Coldborough House was announced whilst
the acquisition was being finalised, leading to the slight delay in
completion. Operations relocated to a new site at The Maple Centre in
Bracknell on 22nd May 2019, whilst the workshop temporarily moved to
Hogwood for six weeks whilst the new workshop adjacent to the Maple
Centre was vacated by the previous occupier.
Reading Buses "Thames Valley" operations in Slough were transferred
to Courtney Buses from 3 November 2019. Courtney's Slough based routes
were relocated from Bracknell to Slough under the Thames Valley name and
merged to form a single network. Meanwhile Reading Buses Green Line 703
moved from Slough to Bracknell, but as a Reading Buses service with
drivers supplied by Courtney.
Other key milestones include:
5th September 2016 - regaining the West Berkshire Council contracts
for Newbury services (and commercial Thatcham locals 101/102) rebranded
Kennections (7 vehicles)
17th September 2019 - won contract to operate the National Express
925 Woking - Heathrow service (2 vehicles + 1 spare)