Published: Friday, 2nd January, 2009 11:10am

Buses stuck on Norcot Road should get priority

by Adam Hewitt

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BUSES constantly snarled up in congestion should get priority over cars to persuade more people to switch to public transport.

That call comes from the new Reading Buses chairman, Stuart Singleton-White, who said the Norcot Road roundabout in west Reading has become the latest blackspot nightmare.

Shoppers driving from the west and south who use Portman Road to reach the new Tesco are putting extra pressure on the roundabout and causing delays from all directions at key times, affecting the smooth-running of the 17 service.

Mr Singleton-White said: "Reading needs more bus priority measures so that we can overcome the traffic issues which dog our town."

He said such measures could require large-scale work and would fall under Reading Borough Council's transport plan or its upcoming bid for hundreds of millions of pounds towards public transport improvements - and, potentially, congestion charging - from the Government's Transport Innovation Fund.

But he added: "In the short term we would certainly like to see something done at the Norcot Road roundabout because of the delays to our number 17 service caused by the opening of Tesco on Portman Road."

Borough transport leader Tony Page said: "We're looking at that whole stretch of the Oxford Road. The number 17 is our priority, there's no point it being so frequent if it's just clogged up in traffic."

Mr Singleton-White, a former Labour councillor who has been on the board at Reading Transport since 2001, also praises recent developments on the buses, including the successful Premier Route branding, the introduction of bio-ethanol buses, the driving training academy and the jump in passenger numbers.

He added: "There has been tremendous progress across many areas of the company of which we are very proud, but there is a great deal more to do."