Free Christmas travel

Great news for our customers as West Berkshire are once again funding free bus travel on selected weekend days! 

Bus service improvement plan (BSIP) funding made available by the UK Government will help you leave the car at home, avoid parking fees (and parking stress!) and head into town for shopping or to meet up with friends and family. 

By leaving the car and taking the bus this November and December you can help reduce the amount of congestion on the roads and help improve local air quality too! A single double-decker bus at full capacity can take around 2km of cars off the road.

West Berkshire

Customers boarding within West Berkshire will be able to get free return tickets on Saturday 16 November, Saturday 14 December and Saturday 21 December. Your journey must start within West Berkshire and you will be issued a return ticket allowing travel back from anywhere you travel to, including outside the West Berkshire area (e.g. Reading town centre).

When you board you can either ask the driver for a free single ticket, or a return one. If you are planning to travel to and from somewhere outside of West Berkshire be sure to ask for a return ticket as you will be unable to get a free single ticket boarding from outside of the area!

Your return ticket will have a barcode on it so when you are ready to travel back, simply scan the ticket as you board.

getting your free travel

When travelling for free please be careful not to place a payment card or mobile device on the reader as you get on – otherwise, you may get charged for tapping on. Please ask the driver for a ticket to your destination.

Concessionary passes and existing pass holders

During these free travel days, concessionary pass holders should continue to scan their passes as normal. If you already have a ticket (for example a 30 day pass) you should also still scan your pass. Whilst this might sound strange, it is necessary because the council need to match the correct type of journeys to see how successful the day is compared to a normal day!

valid services

All our routes have this offer - including jet black within West Berkshire. 

Free travel is not available on our football services.

jet black

Our jet black buses run between Newbury and Reading and so cross between West Berkshire and Reading Borough. The table below shows the stop where the boundary is - if you get on any stop between Newbury and this stop, you can get your free travel.