Council-supported bus routes could be cut and merged next year under plans being considered by the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead council.

The council currently subsidises 13 bus services run by private companies across the borough. But plans indicate that it will only provide funding for 12 from April next year when contracts for these run out, with some services being cut or merged into new routes.

Plans presented to leading councillors say the Royal Borough’s budget for bus services ‘will not be sufficient’ to carry on running the same services ‘on a like-for-like basis’.

Councillors on the Royal Borough’s cabinet committee are set to meet on Wednesday, September 2, to give council officers the power to award new contracts next year.

Plans say that although many of the bus services in the borough are run commercially by private companies, the council provides financial support for some of these ‘to maintain the service for residents’.

The Royal Borough council currently subsides the 1, 3, 8 (Maidenhead), 9, 15, 16, 234, 235, 238, 239, 305, P1 and W1 services. Contracts for these are set to run out at the end of April next year and the council will have to issue new ones.

Yet a report set to be discussed by leading councillors says the council’s budget for bus services won’t be enough to carry on providing the same service ‘as a result of inflation’.

It also says that the private bus companies don’t have to continue running these services after April and are ‘unlikely to do so on current levels of financial support’.

Now the council has already begun appealing to companies to bid to run six new lots of services. These will be:

  • The 1 and 1A between Windsor and Ascot via Sunninghill
  • The 3, 3A and 4 Maidenhead town services
  • The 15 between Slough, Eton and Eton Wick
  • The 16 between Windsor and Maidenhead
  • The 10 and 10A between Windsor and Staines
  • The 227, 227A and 228 from Maidenhead to Henley and Twyford

Plans suggest that stops currently served by the number 8 will be served by the number following a similar route, while stops currently served by the number 9 will also be merged into the number 16.

Meanwhile the 234, 235, 238 and 239 routes will be merged into 227 and 227A routes from Maidenhead to Twyford, and a 228 from Maidenhead to Henley.

Stops served by the 305 between Staines and Colnbrook look set to be served by the 10 and 10A service between Staines and King Edward VII Hospital in Windsor.

And the P1 park and ride between Windsor town centre and King Edward VII looks set to lose its funding, while stops served by the W1 Windsor Town Circular will be served by the number 1.

The proposed changes follow a public consultation run by the Royal Borough late last year that asked residents what they would like to see from bus services. However the report to council leaders say proposed routes could change in negotiations with bus companies.

Councillors are being asked to give authority to senior officers to agree new contracts set to start in April next year.