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Moving Around the Borough

Green light for signal upgrades at crossings

We're going to replace the traffic signals and supporting electrical equipment at four pedestrian and cyclist crossings, starting later this month.

They've reached the end of their useful life so we're installing new ones with money from the Department for Transport.

The dates for works, which will involve lane closures with temporary traffic management, are:

• 19 to 30 January - Elm Lane, near Beaconsfield Way, Earley
• 26 January to 6 February – A4 Bath Road, near Pound Lane, Sonning
• 16 to 27 February – Peach Street, near Goatley Way, Wokingham
• 9 to 20 March – Loddon Bridge Road, near Vauxhall Drive, Woodley

There'll also be advance warnings at each location and the crossings themselves will not be changing.

Elm Lane and Bath Road (above) will remain toucan crossings, while Peach Street and Loddon Bridge Road will remain puffin crossings.

A toucan crossing is called that because "two can" cross together, i.e. pedestrians and cyclists. Puffin (Pedestrian User-Friendly Intelligent) crossings can stop the lights changing if you walk away or adjust the crossing time for slower walkers. Though you may end up "puffin" if you run across!

Speed limits - making our streets safer for everyone

We're set to agree a new policy that governs how we set speed limits in the borough to help us keep everyone safer on our roads.

If approved tonight, this policy would guide how we handle your requests for lower speed limits, as well as our own assessments of which roads might benefit.

It would allow us to proactively review limits in the kind of areas where you’ve raised concerns about speeding, and then reduce them where that’s appropriate.

This is in direct response to your feedback, as the most frequently reported road safety concerns (35.6 per cent) in the 2023/24 financial year were about traffic speed.

When we consulted on local transport policies, there was strong support for improving safety in built-up areas, including through 20mph limits, and on rural lanes.

Listening to you and making changes for the better

It's clear you take road safety very seriously and we want to do all we can to respond to that. We share your concerns and don't believe any death or serious injury is acceptable on our roads, however people are travelling.

We want to help everyone get to work or school in a safe, healthy way as part of our vision to create a connected borough where everyone thrives.

Our speed limit policy would support all road users, not just drivers, and create more walking and cycling opportunities with consideration for wheelchair users or people with pushchairs.

We know speed limit reductions aren't always the answer, and all proposed speed limit changes will be subject to statutory consultation before we formalise them.

The policy will also be regularly reviewed and updated to ensure it remains relevant.

We're about to start work on our Woodley to Reading active travel route, which includes new 20mph speed limits. Construction begins on Monday 26 January - keep an eye out for a special newsletter with full dates and details of the scheme, and how the works could affect your journey.

Great year for buses as recovery continues

Passenger numbers on local bus services are continuing to increase, with our support, following a nationwide slump during the 2020 pandemic.

Some 2.6 million bus journeys took place in the borough between April 2024 and March 2025, the latest period for which official figures are available.

That's a five per cent growth across the network, compared with the previous year, and close to the pre-Covid figure of 2.8 million. On top of that:

• Improvements to the Leopard 3 in May 2025, which we supported, resulted in a 62 per cent increase in journeys between Arborfield and Wokingham
• Our summer youth travel offer allowed anyone aged 5 to 16 to travel for £1 (£2 return) in August, with more than 10,000 journeys undertaken
• We allowed free travel at any time for those with a disabled or "plus companion" pass, increasing usage by 16 per cent and new applications by 30 per cent
• We installed 20 new bus shelters under a new contract, some with measures like a "green" planted roof, solar roof or electronic advertising screen
• An extra late night bus was introduced on the orange 13 from Reading to Woodley on Fridays and Saturdays
• Our free Christmas travel offer across all routes on selected dates proved popular, with full figures to be confirmed

Some measures were funded by the Government through our Bus Service Improvement Plan and provided in partnership with operators.

Operators invest in their commercial routes

Reading Buses improved both the fleet and the timetable of their lion 4 and 4a service at the start of 2025, and have invested in 24 new state-of-the-art electric vehicles.

We've also seen the introduction of Carousel's new 127 service and Reading Buses' new 12 service, both linking Reading with the Twyford area.

From the start of this year, Carousel have updated the 127 service to call at Woodley and run hourly on Saturdays, in addition to the existing weekday provision.

Reading Buses have changed their fares due to increasing operational costs, though multi-journey, weekly or season tickets are still available and will provide better value than single and day tickets.

Shortlisted projects make rail accessible for all

Two projects overseen by adult social care provider Optalis, which supports Wokingham Borough residents, are shortlisted in the 2026 Community Rail Awards.

The first is its Supported Employment Travel Ambassador Programme, which is shortlisted in the Empowering Diverse Groups category.

This saw paid "travel ambassadors" with disabilities assess accessibility across the network and create practical how-to guides for others.

The second was a community art project at Wokingham station, featuring members of learning disability advocacy group CLASP, to mark 200 years of our railways.

This was led by artist Jo Werrett, of Optalis Community Lives, and is shortlisted in the Railway 200 Legacy category.

Both schemes were backed by the Southeast Communities Rail Partnership, with the winners to be announced on 19 March.

Optalis, CLASP and the Wokingham Learning Disability Partnership Board adopted Wokingham station in 2022 and have since created an Easy Read travel guide.

South Western Railway have fitted a train with a thermal imaging camera as part of a trial to detect faults like overheating or bad connections. They hope this will improve safety and reduce delays to your journeys.

Upcoming roadworks

We think these works will be the most disruptive, but you can see a list of all upcoming works in your area or browse our interactive map.

Twyford

Two-way lights - Waltham Road
Monday 19 and Tuesday 20 January, 9.30am to 4pm daily

There'll be two-way lights near the junction with Station Road while Virgin Media carry out fibre optic works.

Woodley

Multi-way lights - Butts Hill Road
Monday 19 to Wednesday 21 January, 9.30am to 4pm daily

There'll be multi-way lights at the junction with Western Avenue and Ravensbourne Drive while BT carry out fibre-optic works.

Keeping up to date

• For planned and emergency roadworks, follow us on Facebook
• To find out about roadworks near you, visit our interactive map
• For active and sustainable travel, visit My Journey Wokingham 
• Visit our major new roads page for plans and updates
• Find out more about resurfacing and repairs including potholes
• Report any issues with roads and streets online - including street lights, problems with traffic lights, potholes, damaged street furniture, problems with road markings and removal of dead animals. 
• Find out more about parking and permits including car park locations and costs, resident permits, park and ride services and appealing a parking fine
• Our transport and travel page includes applying for a senior citizen's or disabled person's bus and train pass, as well as public transport information
• The blue parking badges page has information on applying for, using, replacing and returning your blue badge