HUNDREDS of patients have been left stranded after a vital bus route from Woodley to the Royal Berkshire Hospital was cut.

Residents living in Fairwater Drive and surrounding roads in the Southlake ward used to catch the Reading Buses number 19 straight to the hospital’s Craven Road entrance. But the service has been scrapped and split into three new services.

Six bus stops have been removed from Fairwater Drive and Nightingale Road, meaning that pensioners and NHS workers now face a 10-minute walk to the nearest bus stop in either Woodlands Avenue or Drovers Way.

Dozens of pensioners complained to Reading Buses chief executive James Freeman when he spoke at Woodley Town Council’s community services meeting on Tuesday night.

Retired pre-school teacher Mary Stonebridge, of Woodlands Avenue, believes a “massive” area of Woodley is losing a vital service.

She said: “It’s quite a large area — we feel victimised. I have a daughter with a young family who lives in Fairwater Drive, and they cannot get a bus.

“Lots of people who work at the hospital feel unsafe having to get up and walk to Bulmershe to catch a bus at 6.30am.

“You also have to get a bus into Reading, from Woodley, to then catch a bus back to Earley.”

Southlake councillor Beth Rowland argued the service would be “worked off its feet”. She added that residents now also have to take two buses — the 14 and 19c — to get to the Loddon Vale GP surgery, changing at the Woodley precinct.

Cllr Rowland believes residents have been “disenfranchised” by the bus company and Wokingham Borough Council.

She said: “This has stopped us living our normal lives. Residents cannot get the doctors’ surgery in Loddon Vale on one bus. Asking them to change for the sake of a mile in the winter is plain daft. I wouldn’t do it.”

Mr Freeman said that the route, which is commissioned by Wokingham Borough Council, had been divided to shorten journey times and reduce costs.

He said: “It would be difficult to see how we could improve the route by diverting it back up Fairwater Drive. Those extra three minutes make a difference at the other end when getting through Reading, and you’d need another bus to keep the service on time. A bus costs £200,000 to run for a year.

“The resulting operation of the 19a and the 19c is more reliable. It’s not perfect — all routes have their problems, but it works much better.

“There are residents who have benefited from the changes. The 19a and 19c are carrying considerably more people.

“There are always going to be some that win and some that lose in these circumstances.”

Mr Freeman suggested that residents could use ReadiBus to get to the hospital and for other journeys.