New Reading Buses route 459 Iver to Heathrow T5 from 04/11/2019

[whole diary]

[BBM]

https://www.reading-buses.co.uk/new-bus-link-heathrow-airport

Reading Buses have announced that this new 459 route will start on Monday and fares will be free until the new year but initially the service will only run hourly during the middle part of the day on Mondays to Fridays.

Timetable

Route Map

It looks like the route will be used to trial new vehicles with different fuel types as follows:

Phase one - electric power
The first of the three phases of the new Reading Buses 459 service starts on November 4 and will run until December 20.

The initial timetable will operate Monday to Friday between approximately 9.30am and 2.30pm – and will be completely free to use. This first phase will be trialled using a full electric bus.

Phase two - using our gas knowledge
For phase two, we will use one of our single deck buses that run on compressed natural gas - this phase will run between January 2 and January 31.

Phase three - full timetable
Once we have trialled the electric and gas buses, we will be in a position to implement the full timetable from February 3 - which will include a service running from 3am until after midnight and, of course, include weekends. From phase three, full fares will be in operation, with these communicated well before they start.

The service will be run by a  Euro 6 diesel engine bus – which has fewer emissions than even a single occupancy modern car.

[eightonedee]

Hmm

Ironically, quite a large part of the route looks like it will disappear if the proposed Heathrow extension is implemented!

And I don't quite follow how a Euro 6 compliant bus emits less than a much smaller Euro 6 compliant light passenger car either.

[stuving]

Hmm

Ironically, quite a large part of the route looks like it will disappear if the proposed Heathrow extension is implemented!

I think they might have at least a few months of operation before that's an issue.

And I don't quite follow how a Euro 6 compliant bus emits less than a much smaller Euro 6 compliant light passenger car either.

The mention of a "single occupancy" car suggests they were thinking about emissions per passenger (whatever they did or didn't put into the words). In g per vehicle-km the exhaust emission numbers look like:
Car: (NOx) 0.06    (PM2.5)  0.0015
Bus: (NOx) 0.6      (PM2.5)  0.0023

(Other emission factors are available. Come to that, emission factors in g/kg fuel are available too.)

[Oxonhutch]

Ironically, quite a large part of the route looks like it will disappear if the proposed Heathrow extension is implemented!

[cynic hat #ON]

If the route is displaced, would they be due compensation for lost trade?

[cynic hat #OFF]

[Surrey 455]

Is it a new route or a re-routing? I have a vague memory of CentreWest running the 459 from Uxbridge through Cowley and into Iver using minibuses, later transferring to other operators. This would have been in the 90s onwards.

[Reading General]

They are stretching themselves too far with stuff like this. Is it territory grabbing or a move to raise funds once the Heathrow western access line has arrived?

[Ralph Ayres]

That's a very odd and rather limited route, but when the operating hours expand it's presumably hoping to tap into the airport workers who currently drive to work market.  There's surely not enough trade from local residents catching a plane. Coincidentally(?) at around the same time Carousel are having another go at their airport service via the A40 from Beaconsfield and Gerrards Cross, having withdrawn the route a year or so back.

A relic of the old 459 does still run from Uxbridge to Iver and Langley, but renumbered 583 as it seems Bucks County Council can't cope with subsidising a route unless they can give it a special number to confuse the locals who've known the old number for years.