Will Maidenhead get a bus station?

Last June, Royal Borough cabinet members agreed to pursue a share of the £3bn ‘Bus Back Better’ scheme, which is a national plan to improve bus services as well as make them better, cheaper, and greener.

Now a bus service improvement plan has been drawn up with a series of proposed measures following consultation with bus users, non-users, and stakeholders.

A majority of residents say the buses were too expensive, less frequent, and want more routes.

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It was said at a cabinet meeting on Thursday, October 28, that the plan will be updated annually following a bus network review and further consultation with residents and operators.

Unlike other Berkshire councils, the Royal Borough does not have a bus station. This prompted officers to look into a feasibility study into the construction of a bus hub in Maidenhead.

If a Maidenhead bus station goes ahead, it could cost up to £10m.

Other measures include trialling cheaper tickets, discounted fares for advantage card holders, increasing services on Sundays and evenings, improving bus stops in town centres, and roll-out real-time data.

These proposals with be submitted to the Department for Transport by October 31. It is not yet known how much funding the council will get – but some of the plans will be funded through section 106 and CIL monies, a levy paid by developers.

Cllr Gery Clark

Cllr Gerry Clark (Con: Bisham & Cookham), lead member for transport and infrastructure, said: “A whole range of potential new services could be implemented according to need and the feedback and collaboration with our new enhanced partners, the operators.

“Where there is a need for new services, that’s exactly where prioritisation would expect to be forming and falling within our service improvement plan.”

Cllr David Cannon (Con: Datchet, Horton & Wraysbury), lead member for public protection and parking, “hoped” views from rural areas will be taken “seriously” to connect them to the towns and reduce “isolation”.

According to the report, the borough has the second-highest average day ticket, which stands at £5.30 – only 77p cheaper than Bracknell.

The Royal Borough also has one of the lowest numbers of passenger journeys nationally. There were 1.4m journeys in the Royal Borough, which equates to 9.3 journeys per head.

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To compare, Wokingham, which is the second-lowest, had a figure of 16.4. The highest was Reading and stands at 137.5 journeys per head.

In the borough, passenger and journey numbers have dipped in 2020/21 but that was mainly driven by the pandemic. Despite restrictions being lifted, bus usage has still not returned pre-Covid levels, and the council hopes this new plan will bump those numbers up.

However, the Royal Borough had 95 per cent of buses running on time in 2018/19, one of the highest in Berkshire. This could be because operators may be able to make up time in the rural areas whereas services only operating in town centres are likely to experience more congestion.

Currently, there are 25 bus routes operating in the Royal Borough, provided by seven different operators including Arriva.

If the government accepts the council’s plan, the funding from this scheme will be available to spend from April 2022.