Children aged 5 to 15 ride free from any bus stop in Wokingham borough until 31 August: ask the driver for a ticket. How it works and what's excluded.

Three weeks of it are left: any child aged five to 15 can take a bus for free from any stop in Wokingham borough on any date in August, under a Government-funded offer that runs until Sunday 31 August. The free travel applies to local journeys even where they finish outside the borough, as long as they start inside it, and it covers the area’s three main operators, Reading Buses, Thames Valley Buses and Carousel Buses (Wokingham Borough Council).

The Department for Transport is funding the offer through the Government’s Great British Summer Savings scheme, which is also cutting VAT on tickets for attractions such as soft play centres and museums this summer (summersavings.gov.uk; Thames Valley Buses).

How to use it

There is nothing to register for. A child, or the adult with them, simply asks the driver for a free child ticket when boarding; the driver issues a ticket to each child, which the scheme requires. Drivers may ask for proof of age if they think a passenger looks 16 or over (Thames Valley Buses).

The operators’ small print differs slightly, so it is worth knowing whose bus you are on:

  • Reading Buses includes all its routes except football buses and Reading Festival services, and says children aged 10 or under should be accompanied by someone aged 16 or over. Notably, it confirms free travel applies on the whole of its London Line 701 and 702 routes, which run through Reading, Bracknell, Legoland, Windsor and Slough to central London, and on the Flightline 703 to Heathrow (Reading Buses).
  • Thames Valley Buses includes all its public routes except the F53 and F54 football buses and Go2Gate, with no distance limit and no cap on the number of journeys a child makes (Thames Valley Buses).
Who pays what on Wokingham borough buses in August 2026: under-5s free with an accompanying adult as always, ages 5 to 15 free by asking the driver for a ticket until 31 August, ages 16 to 18 pay discounted Boost fares, adults pay singles capped at £3
Graphic by Wokingham Online

Everyone else’s fares

The offer does not change anything for other passengers. Under-5s already travel free with an accompanying adult, adult single fares remain capped at £3, and concessionary pass holders carry on as normal (Wokingham Borough Council; Thames Valley Buses). Young people aged 16 to 18 are outside the free scheme but can use the operators’ discounted Boost tickets; Reading Buses notes that Boost app verification does not count as proof of age for the free offer (Reading Buses).

This is a step up from last summer’s version. In August 2025 the council’s youth travel offer let anyone aged five to 16 take a £1 single or £2 return, and more than 10,000 journeys were made; the council says it introduced the discounts after young people told it bus fares were stopping them getting out (Wokingham Borough Council).

What it means for you

For the rest of the school holidays, a family day out by bus costs only the adults’ fares. From Wokingham, Winnersh, Woodley or Earley that puts Reading, Bracknell and Windsor within reach for nothing per child, and on Reading Buses’ 701 and 702 even Legoland and central London count. Ideas for closer to home are in our things to do in Wokingham guide, and if your journey mixes bus and train, our Wokingham train times and fares page covers the rail side. The offer ends with the month: from Monday 1 September, child fares return to normal.

Sources

Details verified against the council and both operators’ own pages on 11 August 2026.