HC Deb 03 April 2000 vol 347 cc313-4W
Mr. Jenkin

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions how many(a) buses and (b) passengers have used the M4 bus lane on each day since the ending of Reading Buses' services to and from London; and if he will make a statement. [115267]

Mr. Hill

[holding answer 20 March 2000]: The bus lane continues to help provide a first-class service for passengers using buses, coaches and taxis and benefits all road users. Use of the bus lane has increased by over 20 per cent. from 3,000 vehicles in the last week of operation to 3,700 vehicles using the bus lane each day. Of these 600 are buses (including coaches), and each bus carries 15 passengers, an average of 9,000 bus passengers each day. Under normal traffic conditions, time savings of up to nine minutes are being obtained by users of the bus lane, and the reliability of their journey increases.

Reading Buses will withdraw their London service on Sunday 7 May 2000. Therefore data on changes to usage of the M4 bus lane will not be available until some time later Reading Buses use the lane 15 times per day. This accounts for only 2.5 per cent. of buses and coaches using the lane and is much less than the typical week by week variation in these vehicles.

I am disappointed Reading Buses are withdrawing their London service. I understand that this was on economic grounds, and that they say that the services would have stopped earlier but for the M4 bus lane. I am however pleased that another operator has increased use of this section of the M4 by 30 buses per day since the bus lane opened.

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