Door Forward StreetLites for Reading

Reading Buses has ordered five 10.8m Door Forward Wrightbus StreetLites. They will be fitted with audio and visual next stop announcements, free wi-fi, Hanover audio destination repeaters and CCTV. The 34-seaters will also provide extra internal space to accommodate growing passenger numbers and wheelchair users. The new fleet will take the place of Reading’s existing fleet of smaller StreetLites to give greater capacity in response to customer growth of over 20% since the original vehicles were introduced in April 2012. An artist’s impression, by Ray Stenning of Best Impressions, shows pink branding for the Lower Caversham Shuttle. Liveries for the other four will be orange (for the 19/19a routes) and silver. They are expected to enter service towards the end of November. Reading Buses Depot Engineering Manager, Phil Herlingshaw and Unite Chairman, Derek Blissett, along with another driver, recently visited the manufacturer’s Ballymena factory to agree the final layout of the cab area. CEO, James Freeman, said, ‘I am confident that the front layout of the buses, which is different to existing small vehicles in service, will be warmly welcomed.’