ABOVE: Reading Buses 11 (RG11 ZEB), an ADL Enviro400EV, is seen on the Oxford Road, west of Reading Town Centre, working route 17 to Tilehurst Water Tower. All photos in this article were taken on Saturday 14 March 2026.
100 British Bus Routes: Route 17
Tilehurst, Water Tower to Reading, Wokingham Road
23 May 2026
Runs: Daily, 24 hours a day
Operator: Reading Buses
Weekday daytime frequency: Up to every eight minutes
Weekday Vehicle Requirement: 13 buses
Off-peak journey time (weekdays): 43-48 minutes
Estimated route length: 6-7 miles
It is said that people from Reading know they are nearly home when they see the top of the Tilehurst Water Tower, as they drive eastbound along the M4 motorway towards the town. The tower - still functioning - was built in 1932 to ease pressure on the Bath Road reservoir, an underground complex in West Reading.
I wonder whether bus drivers on Reading Buses route 17 have the same warm feeling when they see the Tower ahead of them? Route 17 terminates right alongside it, after all. Standing 120 feet tall, it is one of the highest points in Reading Borough. It even doubles up as a local radio transmitter. Well why wouldn't you on a structure that size?
ABOVE: Tilehurst Water Tower dominates the landscape as Reading Buses 15 (RG15 ZEB), an ADL Enviro400EV, reaches journey's end on route 17.
Long-established route 17 is Reading Buses' flagship service. Reported to have started as a horse-tram route in 1901, it later became a trolleybus service. Once known just as the "main line", it gained its number during trolleybus days (source: Bus Zone - RTL Route 17). It became a motorbus when trolleybuses fell out of fashion.
I'm making a late Saturday afternoon journey across town on this route. It's probably no coincidence that both ends of the route are right at the edges of Reading Borough. The suburb of Calcot is only about a mile south of the Tilehurst terminus, and the road south remains quite residential, but this route stays rigidly inside Reading.
The turning points at both ends of this route are very straight-forward; a full circuit of the roundabout almost next to the Tower suffices at this end. It gives me a nice side-on view of what is a brand-new bus:
As the flagship route, the 17 became one of the first two Reading Buses services to launch the electric revolution in the town (the other route being the 21 from Reading to Lower Earley). A batch of 24 ADL Enviro400 EV buses was introduced en masse on Friday 6 February 2026 to a great fanfare.
The first took an historical numberplate, MRD 1, but the remainder were given numberplates RG02 to RG24 ZEB inclusive - comprising "RG" for Reading and "ZEB" for Zero-Emission Bus". They all have plates that match their fleet numbers as well, which is unusual nowadays, although those plates make the buses look older than they actually are.
The first part of this journey from Tilehurst is through what looks like pretty affluent commuter territory:
Described as a "village", Tilehurst is partly in Reading and partly in West Berkshire. These areas are reportedly known as "Tilehurst Within" and "Tilehurst Without". As we have already established, the 17 only runs through "Tilehurst Within".
The earliest record of Tilehurst is from 1291 , where it is listed as a hamlet of Reading, and owned by Reading Abbey, in Pope Nicholas III's taxation records. The modern Tilehurst has a Site of Special Scientific Interest, Sulham and Tidmarsh Woods and Meadows, located just to the west of the village, and four local nature reserves.
The village centre is Tilehurst Triangle:
ABOVE: Tilehurst Triangle
We progress to the Norcot area. The name means "North Cottage". Still officially the village of Tilehurst, we are joining the main Oxford Road which will take us into the town centre. It doesn't look much like a village, with large shops and a petrol station, and especially with the Saturday afternoon traffic building up.
Reading Buses' vehicles carry different liveries for different routes or groups of routes, mainly based on colours, although a few routes are also branded after big cats. The 17 is the Purple route. Oxford Road at this point is shared with "Sky Blue" and "Azure" routes:
ABOVE: Reading Buses 224 (SN61 BCU), an ADL Enviro400, heads west along Oxford Road on "Sky Blue" route 15A, a different way round to Tilehurst.
We pass the site of the former Battle Hospital. This started life in 1867 as the Reading Union Workhouse, and became the Reading War Hospital during World War I. It gained the Battle Hospital name in 1930. The hospital closed in 2005 and most of the site has been demolished, but the frontage has been retained (see Google Streetview).
We come to Reading West station. I had always thought of this station as a small, run-down, unstaffed station with a limited service. It is nothing of the sort, having not only staff but barriers! It obviously serves an important purpose as the main access point to the railway for people in this area.
Barely another half mile brings us to the town centre.
ABOVE: At the town centre end of Oxford Road we find Reading Buses 8 (RG08 ZEV), another ADL Enviro400EV, heading for Tilehurst on route 17.
I have always rated Reading highly as a place to shop. I think I have mentioned before that, as a child, I was usually taken to Uxbridge or Slough, so a trip to Reading was always a special treat - especially as it meant two trains each way rather than the one that we would need for Slough! It's a busy, bustling town.
ABOVE: The pedestrianised Broad Street runs through the heart of Reading's shopping district.
There was once a Bus Station here, and I can remember visiting it to see what buses were present - my abiding memory is of Leyland Titans - but I don't think we ever went anywhere from there. The site, which was on or near Garrard Street, and close to Reading Station, is now built over, and buses park on the streets of course.
ABOVE: Reading Buses 781 (SN66 WRC), an ADL Enviro400 MMC, stands in Friar Street, Reading, awaiting departure on route 16 to Purley. The grand building in the background is Reading Town Hall. The façade dates from 1875 and the building is part Grade II and part Grade II*-listed.
The one-way system through the town centre is such that buses follow distinctively different routes depending on the direction of travel. Buses towards Tilehurst run south of Broad Street and don't get within a quarter of a mile of the railway station, whilst buses the other way go right past the door!
ABOVE: An unidentified ADL ENviro400EV passes the Edward VII statue outside Reading Station. An Orange double-decker behind is working either route 13 or 14 to Woodley (see busestopdeck.co.uk/027 for a profile of the latter). On the right, a single-decker provides one of the "Little Oranges" services in the 19 group - a complex series of circular services to Woodley and Lodden Bridge.
It does seem to take a long time to work across the town, but then it is Berkshire's largest town, with over 200,000 people living in the built-up area. Dating from the eighth century, Reading is home to the University of Reading and hosts the annual Reading Festival, one of England's biggest music festivals.
ABOVE: On the Kings Road in the east of the town centre, my bus is following a "Leopard" route 3 service for Wokingham. This bus, a Scania K270UB ADL Enviro300SG, is operated on either Compressed Natural Gas or Bio Natural Gas. Note the comprehensive detail on the bus stop flag to the left.
Reading is also where the Huntley and Palmers biscuit company was formed, by Thomas Huntley and George Palmer in 1822. By 1900, it was the world's largest biscuit firm, exporting to 172 countries, with a 24-acre factory employing over 5,000 people. Production ended here in 1976. The Huntley and Palmers site was demolished in 1978, except for the old Factory Social Club, which has been turned into flats. This building still carries the Huntley and Palmers name (see Google Streetview), and the bus stops outside are still known as "Huntley and Palmer's":
ABOVE: The remaining Huntley & Palmer's building
We continue down Kings Road, past a number of buildings belonging to Reading College. This road is one-way, out of town, apart from a contra-flow bus lane.
ABOVE: Another "Purple" 17 passes along the contraflow bus lane in Kings Road, on the eastern side of the town centre.
We reach Cemetery Junction, where the Grade II-listed Reading Cemetery Arch can be found. Unfortunately it was covered in scaffolding at the time of my visit, but you can see what it should look like here.
The cemetery itself has been in place since 1843. Some historically-noteworthy local people have been interred here, including Joseph Edward Sydenham, the founder of Reading Football Club, and Mary Gordon Burnett and Hugh Edward Walford, who set up the successful Reading Blind Aid Society. Nowadays, several Muntjac Deer live in the cemetery grounds.
The road splits two ways here, with the cemetery occupying the land in between. The left fork heads for the A4 road towards London, but we take the right fork, heading south-east onto the Wokingham Road for the last part of our journey.
ABOVE: Reading Buses 9 (RG09 ZEB), on the Wokingham Road alongside the Cemetery.
This area is, once again, largely residential. The main buildings of the University of Reading are in this part of town, and a Leisure Centre / Gym / Swimming Pool sits in Palmer Park:
As we approach the terminus of route 17, I have a moment to consider the information screen that is compulsory for all new buses now. Well done to Reading Buses for making it less intrusive than many other companies have, but I still wonder if it should be raised a little higher, as there seems to be room to do so:
The terminus is at The Three Tuns, an 18th century public house and former coaching inn on the Wokingham Road. This is the very last stop before the border of Reading Borough with Berkshire.
ABOVE: Reading Buses 15 (RG15 ZEB), stands outside the Three Tuns public house on the Wokingham Road.
I said earlier that the turning points on this route are very straight-forward. I'm not sure if that's really true in the case of this end of the route. Buses have to turn right, across a busy road, into Holmes Road, and use Holmes Road to complete a U-turn back onto the main road. It feels rather precarious to me, as you can perhaps tell by the position of the bus in the picture below (note the wheels on maximum steering)!
ABOVE: Reading Buses 15 again, part-way through the U-turn that it needs to make prior to heading back to Reading Town Centre and beyond. The bus stand, seen in the picture above, is to the right of this, just out of sight, and the bus must get itself to the stop in the centre of the picture (ahead). This bus is terminating in "Central Reading" rather than running on to Tilehurst.
The difficult turnaround dates back to the days of trolleybuses and turning circles, but there weren't so many vehicles on the road in those days!
And so the 17 heads back for the town centre, as it does 24 hours a day - up to eight times an hour in the peaks! Not bad for a local cross-town service!
But it's so much more than that. My journey today has not been especially busy, but it's clear that this is an important route, with plenty of short and longer-distance customers - the 17 is a vital artery through the town.