Thames Valley toe treading

Saturday 8th November 2025

Earlier in the year I reported on interesting developments in the Thames Valley bus network some of which arose following tender contracts won by Go-Ahead owned Carousel Buses but also some commercial expansion by the company including the restoration of a link between Maidenhead and Reading via Twyford (route 127).

Reading owned Thames Valley also pitched in in the summer with new route 704 between Maidenhead, Slough and Heathrow Airport challenging First Bus’s dominance of that market.

Now, both Reading Buses and its associated Thames Valley are expanding again adding two further new routes to the former county known as Berkshire’s network. Route 12 runs half hourly between Twyford and Reading and route 20 runs hourly between Maidenhead and High Wycombe.

Both routes began on Monday and I took a ride on Thursday to see how they were settling in.

New half hourly route 12 only runs in the off-peak utilising two buses otherwise committed to school journeys in Reading at peak times on routes 91 and 92 so it’s one of those additional routes being run at the margin of costs (assuming fixed costs are priced into the school journeys). The timetable runs later in the afternoons on Saturdays and there’s no service on Sundays.

These extra two journeys an hour bring the Twyford to Reading off-peak bus offering from four to six buses an hour.

Carousel Buses has latterly been the main operator along this corridor with its half hourly route 850 (High Wycombe to Reading via Twyford) and the relatively new hourly 127 (Maidenhead, Twyford, Reading).

Reading Buses has been the minor operator with just hourly route 128 (from Wokingham) which takes a slightly longer route into Reading from Twyford via Sonning.

I travelled on the 12:07 departure from Reading thinking there might be shoppers going home for lunch. The bus arrived from its inbound journey at 12:04 with eight passengers alighting but there were no other takers to head back to Twyford nor did any join on the journey.

The journey was characterised by a seemingly padded timetable with the driver waiting time on four occasions during the 33 minute ride.

Twyford itself is served by a clockwise loop, most of which also has Carousel’s half hourly route 850 so the 12 isn’t adding anything new other than a bespoke timetable for Twyford.

Journeys from Reading at 07 past the hour generally slot in between Carousel’s departures which leave Reading at 00 (127) and 15/45 (850) although inbound to Reading the 12 treads on the toes of the 850 arriving at 00 which is probably why eight people alighted from the 12 at 12:04, as the 850 was running late and hadn’t appeared.

Reading Buses is using two former Newbury & District double decks but my bus on Thursday was a 16 year old ADL Enviro400 which was a bit past its prime.

It’s good to see a timetable leaflet for the new route has been produced although unfortunately this doesn’t include a traditional timetable layout detailing intermediate timing points – just departure times from each end of the route, which is a bit unhelpful especially with the loop working at the Twyford end.

I’d picked one up in the town centre which was just as well as the supply on board the bus was only for Woodley routes 13/14 which, it should also be said, cover the inner part of this contested corridor into Reading also running half hourly.

I’m not sure the Twyford to Reading corridor needs six buses an hour in the off-peak (in addition to four trains an hour, albeit not very evenly spread apart) but I guess the team at Reading Buses reckon the costs are more or less covered for the off-peak buses so why not grab some of the revenue Carousel’s new route 127 might have been taking from the populated part of the route served by the 13/14.

I’m not sure the team at Carousel Buses will see it quite so positively though and they may also not be enamoured with this week’s other new route added to the network, Thames Valley’s hourly service 20 between Maidenhead and High Wycombe which is treading on the toes of Carousel Buses hourly route 37 which has linked the two towns via Furze Platt, Cookham and Bourne End for many years.

Indeed, as part of the changes introduced earlier in the year, Carousel extended that route from Maidenhead through to Windsor creating a long lost connection across the Royal Borough and into neighbouring Buckinghamshire.

Thames Valley has been quite canny in not replicating the 37 route like for like with its new 20. It’s absorbed a section of former local Maidenhead route 7 by leaving the town in a westerly direction via St Mark’s Hospital before continuing on northwards to Furze Platt where it then duplicates the 37 through Cookham to Bourne End.

From there it follows the route taken by Carousel Buses service 36 via Flackwell Heath before heading further west to enter into High Wycombe via Marlow Hill and Desborough Avenue, ironically the route taken into and out of the town by the 850 thereby adding a touch of toe treading at both ends of that route from the 20 and the 12.

The timetable extends over an 06:10 to 21:30 day with a northbound journey taking 61 minutes and southbound 54 minutes meaning it commits just over two buses with an interworking arrangement with another route in Maidenhead to ease off the otherwise impossibly tight turnarounds especially as buses get 16 minutes stand time in High Wycombe.

I travelled on the 13:25 departure from Maidenhead’s Frascati Way and after picking up in the main central bus stop and Sainsbury’s we left the town with 13 on board. Five of these alighted within Maidenhead itself, so would have previously used a local service, with one to Cookham Dean and another to Cookham who would have caught a Carousel 37.

Interestingly of the five left on board, a group of three alighted in Flackwell Heath which previously would have involved a change of bus from the 37 to the 36, with the other two passengers travelling all the way to High Wycombe and looked like they were also trying out the new route out of interest like myself.

Leaving Maidenhead at 25 minutes past the hour route 20 is five minutes ahead of the 37 departure at 30 minutes past the hour. Returning from High Wycombe route 20 departs at 42 minutes past the hour with the hourly through journeys to Maidenhead on the 37 leave at 20 past the hour – there’s also an hourly ‘short’ to Bourne End at 50 minutes past the hour.

It’ll be interesting to see how this competitive situation plays out in the coming months. There’s no doubt toes are being trodden on here. Reading Buses’ internal communications explained the background as “some of the changes have been inspired by Carousel Buses August enhancements to routes 7A, 53, and 103 that mirror parts of our long-standing routes 7, 52 and 702/3”. In launching the new route 20 they add “we are hoping that it will be a very popular addition” perhaps helped by some attractive fare and ticket deals including extending its simplyMaidenhead ticket zone as far north as Bourne End and a new Wycombe zone north of Bourne End.

As you can see Thames Valley has introduced new Enviro200 buses on to the route while Carousel has similarly invested in the same for its enlarged Thames Valley network…

… which I see is being marketed using a ‘BOROUGHBUS’ branding.

With all these new buses and enhanced servcies, residents of the Royal Borough haven’t had it this good for many a year. If ever.

It also means there’s a lot of purple buses running around in Maidenhead between the two operators, and then of course the occasional newly branded purple liveried First Bus appears too.

Back at Maidenhead’s Frascati Way I noticed the main departure bus stop is now over subscribed at certain times each hour which can lead to a frantic dash by passengers. At one point there were five buses all trying to fit into the lay-by.

I also noticed the Royal Borough hasn’t got round to updating the departure displays other than someone has stuck route 20 details on top of what was already there.

But, impressively in High Wycombe bus station, Buckinghamshire’s comprehensive timetable displays had been updated…

… although the departure bus stop was another stick over job.

What was most impressive was this excellent display of timetable booklets from Carousel covering the Company’s various brands and with a plentiful supply of each one in the bus station.

Meanwhile, on board the bus on route 20 there was a supply of Thames Valley’s updated Maidenhead booklet…

… but I still think it’s regrettable one comprehensive booklet with a comprehensive map for both Carousel Buses and Thames Valley can’t be produced for the area.

I suspect tensions between the two operators means that hope is currently a forlorn one.

Roger French

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