West Berkshire night buses to end due to council cuts

Newbury, Thatcham and Stockcross services to terminate by end of year

LATE night bus services covering Newbury, Thatcham and Stockcross will terminate on New Year's Eve.

Newbury & District Buses N1 late evening service runs from Newbury bus station – via Turnpike estate, the West Berkshire Community Hospital, Thatcham Broadway and Falmouth Way. The service runs daily from 9.15pm until 12.36am.

The service has been running since 1998, but the last N1 bus will stop in the town on December 31.

The move leaves Reading Buses Jet Black 1 service as the only late night service for the route.

Thatcham town councillors heard at a meeting last week that the service was no longer deemed commercially viable.

The town council’s technical consultant, Chris Watts, informed councillors that: “There’s not a lot we can do about it.

“We are not in any power to fund it, only the highway authority has that power.”

Newbury & District Buses operates the service on behalf of West Berkshire Council, which subsidises the company.

The council announced it would be cutting funding to bus services in 2013 as part of its budget cuts.

At the time, the council said that it needed to plug a £17m funding shortfall over the next three years.

The council is also cutting funding to the N2 evening service, which runs from the bus station via Wash Common and on to Tesco at Pinchington Lane and Newtown Road.

The N4 evening service covering Speen and Stockcross will also have its funding withdrawn.

Responding to the Newbury Weekly News, West Berkshire Council said that 420 people used the N1 service during the 26 days it operated in September.

The N2 served 174 passengers and the N4 had 50 during September.

A statement from West Berkshire Council said: “It is with regret that we announce that the council is unable to continue funding the town’s late evening bus services.

“You will be aware of the pressure all councils are under to deliver savings.

“This has led to the hard decision that funding for the N1, N2 and N4 services will not continue beyond the end of the year.”

The council thanked Newbury & District Buses for running the service over the years.