Changelog

The bus page credits the Department for Transport's open bus data, and the link in that credit pointed at a GOV.UK page that has since been taken down. It now points at the page that replaced it. Nothing about the bus information itself changed.

Live positions for five core Reading Buses routes — the 17, 21, 9, 26 and 22 — straight from the operator's own vehicles, with how far away each one is in plain words.

Corrected the flood-scheme status and added the January 2024 flooding to the council/tax/bins/flood research doc.

The flood page said the North Reading and Lower Caversham scheme was still at design stage. It was actually reviewed and not progressed by the Environment Agency in December 2021. Updated with that and the January 2024 flooding.

Live hourly air quality and, in season, pollen — with the IDR, Cemetery Junction and Caversham Road hotspots called out from the council's Air Quality Action Plan.

Reading Festival runs 27–30 August at Richfield Avenue. This page is written first for people who live here and did not buy a ticket: the hours the site is open, the roads and river paths that close, where cars are sent to drop off, and the numbers for noise and litter. Two things are not published yet, and the page says so rather than filling the gap. Reading Borough Council publishes the road closures about a week before the festival — it did so on 14 August in 2024, 17 August in 2023 and 16 August in 2022 — so what you see now is what the council closed in 2024, labelled with that year on every line, kept only to show the shape of the weekend. It disappears the moment this year's list exists. Set times are not out either; the festival releases those about a week before. Underneath, the line-up: 100 acts, which day and which stage.

Type your postcode, pick your address, and the page shows the real collection dates for every bin — food waste weekly, grey and red on alternate weeks, garden waste on its own round. Nothing is guessed: the dates come from Reading Borough Council's service each time you look. You can add your email for a reminder the evening before. It is only ever the evening before, because the council asks for bins to be out by 6am and brings the rounds forward to 5am in hot weather — a reminder on the morning itself would reach you too late to do anything with. The food waste container is named the way the council names it: a black 23-litre bin, not the small kitchen caddy, which is not emptied if you leave it at the kerb. Glass and textiles are not collected at the door in Reading; they go to a bring bank or to Island Road.

Reading is the western end of the Elizabeth line, and for a lot of the town the day starts and ends at the station. The new board reads the line's live status straight from Transport for London, so you can tell before you set off whether trains towards Paddington and central London are running normally, delayed, or part-suspended. It covers the Elizabeth line only — Great Western Railway's fast trains to Paddington are a separate service, so we link National Rail and GWR for those too.

The town page now opens with a colored-pencil drawing of the ruined flint walls of Reading Abbey standing among the trees of the Abbey Quarter, with the River Kennet and a low footbridge below.

Reading now has its first tools. A live Thames & Kennet flood watch reads river levels and any warnings straight from the Environment Agency. A council-tax comparator sorts out the town's quirk of being split across three councils — Reading, Wokingham and West Berkshire — that each charge differently. And a resident tips board collects local knowledge on where to live, eat, and register with a GP or dentist. More to come, with a live rail departures board top of the list once we have access to the data feed.