Great Western Coffee Shop

Reading Buses have updated their Coronavirus page https://www.reading-buses.co.uk/coronavirus (https://www.reading-buses.co.uk/coronavirus)

University service stopped.

Saturday service on most routes from next Monday, but note:

Thats very uncompromising.  I had an email from TESCO yesterday (other stores are available) saying that they are going to priortise opening for the vunerable and elderly between 0900 and 1000 each Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so how to get there by bus in time then!

[advocate mode=devil]As I have explained to a number of people older than myself in the past, they are not banned from using early buses.  They just have to pay their way like the rest of us[/advocate].  Let's see how my own attitude changes once I can get a magic card which is quite close now (assuming the government doesn't yank it forward into the future once again for England ...)

I can accept your point somewhat, but it can be very expensive travelling at peak times.  Most pensioners I know struggle with the limited cash they have.  I suppose I'm lucky not to be one of those, and my local TESCO is within reasonable walking distance anyway (just the carrying back of the shopping is a bit of a pain).

Very laudable of Tesco, but I thought that next week "the vulnerable and elderly" were meant to stay at home. How will more-able people be excluded during those hours? And what about carers and sons and daughters who are assisting?

May sound as if I'm having a go at Tesco, but I'm not. Good for them. I hope that Waitrose does something similar, though I suppose I could go to the very large Tesco a mile away.

I'm also trying to determine how slavishly I should follow the guidance about self-isolation. At the moment, I can readily self-isolate for more than 99% of the time but am tempted to shop with extreme caution, certainly until Waitrose ramps up its home-delivery service - and its website can cope with the demand. (Again, no criticism of Waitrose.)

Concessionary bus passes are underwritten by the government for specific times. The bus operators are going in a difficult place financially.

Reading Buses after discussions with local authrorities have 24/7 use of bus passes https://www.reading-buses.co.uk/concessionary-pass-time-change (https://www.reading-buses.co.uk/concessionary-pass-time-change). It would appear that Wokingham is the only one holding out.

This morning I perambulated around Tilehurst (and was able to social-distance, with the one exception of a jogger who shuffled past me). Between 0900 and 1015, four or five buses passed by, and I saw nary a passenger on any of them.

(But none of the food stores seemed at all busy. There were about a hundred vehicles in the Waitrose car-park, but the only people outside were five marshals in hi-viz tabards. I'm thinking of trying the "oldies" hour later in the week.)

EDIT: I did see solitary passengers waiting at two bus stops.

As I walked up towards Waitrose a woman asked me if the buses were running, and I had to say I didn't know - I'd not noticed today, and last week was a very long time ago. But only a minute or two later one went past the other way, so I guess that was her answer.

I joined a queue of only five people at Waitrose, and found all the things on my list (those I remembered, anyway). But Waitrose customers in Wokingham are a pretty level-headed bunch anyway; in the store we were all steering well clear of each other - it was staff standing around talking that got in the way most.

I photographed several shop doors on the way past, as it's often the only way to get specific information about their current opening hours/rules/alternatives. Notably my dentists, who have a very distant relationship with their web site and last changed it in October 2019.

Further changes to Reading Buses services yesterday:
https://www.reading-buses.co.uk/coronavirus (https://www.reading-buses.co.uk/coronavirus)
Routes tend to be moving towards hourly services, 17 every 20 minutes?

Lots of info on the doors of banks that I passed, including one asking customers to "bare with them" and advising that notes in the inside ATM might have been handled by as many as four people in the last 72 hours, but those in the outside ATM would have been untouched for five days.

There was a small notice on a Halfords door that I couldn't read because the frontage had been taped off and it was too far away. I did wonder whether their cycles department might still be functioning (not that I ride anymore). Recently it announced that it was closing its Cycle Republic chain, but with cycle shops being exempted from shutting down, will the company be reconsidering?

Halfords closed all their shops for at least Tuesday and Wednesday last week to "reconfigure" them before reopening, both cycle and car spares being considered essential. The Autocentres were to remain open. My car passed its MoT in one on Monday (not a foregone conclusion these days) and then of course two days later its old one was extended by six months.

I have a understanding it's ONLY MOT's due on and from 1st April  that have been extended by 6 months

Quite so and please remember that it's up to the driver to make certain that the vehicle remains in a roadworthy condition whilst being used extended mot or not.

That's right - but surely most of those being tested within the last couple of weeks would be. That's especially true for an archaeological specimen like mine, which dates from an age when several months' registrations happened on the 31st March.

Further reduction in services
https://www.reading-buses.co.uk/coronavirus (https://www.reading-buses.co.uk/coronavirus)
Possibly slowly moving towards Graham's estimates for reduced services.