Reading Mainline Memorabilia

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Reading Mainline Logo (32738 bytes)

23rd July 1994
~
22nd July 2000

Tickets

These are examples of standard tickets issued on Mainline buses, the 85p single and the 43p child fare equivalent:

85p ticket (4148 bytes) 43p ticket (5282 bytes)

This is a test ticket issued by conductors at the start of each day before going in service, or when the ticket roll is changed:

Test ticket (4875 bytes)

Yellow tickets have been used on occasions when Mainline crews have worked Reading Buses routes. This was done when when Routemasters helped out Reading Buses on the football service 79, when No.26 did a one off operation on the 17, and also possibly when crews helped out with Sunday services. I currently don't know whether yellow tickets were issued on the 79 on the occasions when it was entirely Routemaster operarted.

This is the case used for weekly Mainliner tickets. They were valid from the day of issue until the following Saturday, and were only ever valid on Mainline vehicles. Mainliners issed on Saturdays were valid until the following Saturday.

Mainliner case (12776 bytes)

This is the Mainline staff pass, issued to all employees of the company, including regular part time workers.

Staff Travel Pass (11171 bytes)

This ticket was issued by the conductor on the annual tour of Reading by the British Trolleybus society.

Tour ticket front (11892 bytes) Tour ticket back (14343 bytes)

Each year the society tour around Reading by preserved bus, and this year they decided that it would be nice to do a tour of the old Mainline routes by Routemaster bus because they would not be around very much longer. Nos.25 and 43 were used, the Mainline crews volunteering their services for free. The tour route was as follows:

Line H from Town Centre to Kilnsea Drive
Line J from Kilnsea Drive to Whitley Street
Line B from Whitley Street to Swallowfield Drive
Line A from Engineers Arms to Town Centre
Line H/C from Town Centre to Hemdean Road
Line H/C from Hemdean Road to Town Centre
Line A from Town Centre to Turnhams Farm
Line E from Tilehurst Triangle to Tilehurst Bear Inn
Line A to Town Centre

This did lead to a little confusion amongst passengers in town that night, especially along Kentwood Hill and Oxford Road. Even though Mainline buses had never operated during the late evening, and had by then stopped operating on the routes toured for some months, some people still expected the bus to stop for them! It just shows how few people look at the blinds, the tour buses were showing "To Hire a Mainline bus...." on the via blind and SPECIAL as the destination. People at the old terminal points were also slightly bermused, seeing two Routemaster buses arrive together unloading a mass of photographers who took pictures of the buses turning around, before jumping back on and disappearing again!

Timetables

Here is the timetable issued for Line F whilst the company was still independant in September 1996. This, the second issue was released when the route was extended from Southcote Frilsham Road to Calcot SavaCentre.

F Timetable cover September 1996 (118513 bytes) F Timetable September 1996 (225310 bytes)

Once Mainline had been taken over, Reading Transport took to producing a single booklet for all Mainline routes, rather than printing the individual leaflets like the one above as Mainline had done. Before the only booklet printed was for Lines A, B and X, which operated in conjuction with each other. Inside the booklets produced by Reading Transport there would be a page about service changes, and information about Mainliners tickets, crew operation and service 79. A new booklet was produced every time service changes were made from until Line C was withdrawn at which point only Line D, E and F remained. Then a single leaflet for Line F was produced detailing the changes being made to it and giving the timetable. This leaflet was distributed with the old booklet which had the correct timetable for Line D/E (and also the old Line C timetable and the out of date Line F timetable).

This is the running card for the morning peak Line E operation from Monday 12th June 2000 until the end of operations on this route on 21st July 2000. The morning running number was E1, as shown, and the afternoon peak service used running number E2. Line E only operated at peak periods by this time. Running cards were given to drivers and conductors on the route, giving them information about their duty. Buses which were in service all day would have cards which could span up to three different duties, and were handed over by staff when changing crews in town. Click the image to enlarge:

E1 card front (77569 bytes) E1 card back (80633 bytes)

If you think that there is anything about the company that has been missed, please feel free to email. All contributions for the site are welcome.
Reading Mainline