West Berkshire Community Connect: Northwest Downlands and Newbury

This service connects the Northwest Downlands area of West Berkshire with Newbury Town Centre. 

Northwest Downlands Zone 

If you book a journey starting in the Northwest Downlands zone, you may travel either into the Newbury zone, or to another location in the Northwest Downlands zone.
 

The Northwest Downlands zone includes:

• Beedon
• Boxford
• Brightwalton
• Catmore
• Chaddleworth
• Chieveley
• Donnington
• Downend
• Farnborough
• Fawley
• Leckhampstead
• North Heath
• Peasemore
• Snelsmore
• Winterbourne

Newbury Zone 

If you book a journey starting in the Newbury zone, you may travel to anywhere in the Northwest Downlands zone.

You cannot book Community Connect to travel between two locations within Newbury. This is because there are already other bus services in Newbury. You can see all of our services and timetables on our journey planning pages.

The Newbury zone includes:

• Cheap Street
• Market Street
• Monks Lane
• Newbury College
• Newbury Railway Station
• Newbury Retail Park, Pinchington Lane 
• Newbury Wharf Bus Station 
• Park House School
• Park Way
• St Bartholomew's School
• Tesco, Pinchington Lane 
• West Berkshire Community Hospital

A leaflet about the service is also available:  West Berkshire Community Connect Northwest Downlands leaflet [4MB] .
 

How to book 

Find information on how to book and how much the service costs on our West Berkshire Community Connect page

For help using the app, visit our using the app page.

For more advice and answers to frequently asked questions, visit our help and guidance page.

Travelling further afield 

By bus 

At Newbury Wharf Bus Station there are timetabled bus routes available to Wash Common, Greenham, Tesco (Pinchington Lane), Newbury Racecourse, Thatcham, Reading, Basingstoke, Andover, Didcot, Hungerford, Kintbury, Lambourn, East/West Ilsley.

By train

The Northwest Downlands service can take you to Newbury Railway Station where you can catch GWR (Great Western Railway) services to Reading, London Paddington, Thatcham, Hungerford, Bedwyn and the West Country.

Travel to West Berkshire Community Hospital 

If you have a hospital appointment, you can book Community Connect to take you directly to the hospital.

Things to do 

Our Bus Services for Days Out in West Berkshire pages have information on how to explore West Berkshire by bus. This includes the Northwest Downlands and Newbury service.

Snelsmore Common and Donnington Castle are in within the Northwest Downlands zone.

There are many walking routes within the Northwest Downlands Zone.

Northcroft Leisure Centre is within the Newbury zone.

Timetabled bus services: Community Connect A (CCA) 

As well as the bookable service, we also run a timetabled service between Brightwalton and Newbury.

The service is known as CCA (Community Connect A). It operates one journey into Newbury in the morning and a return journey to some Northwest Downlands villages in the afternoon. 

Students for all schools and college can use the 7.30am service from Brightwalton to Newbury (the service now starts at 7.30am rather than 7.35am). 

As this is a public bus, these services may be used by any member of the public, not just students. You do not need to book to use this service, but you won't be able to track the journeys within the passenger app. 

Community Connect A (CCA) operates Monday to Friday all year round, but not on public holidays. 

During term time

During school term time, the service will continue to Newbury College, Park House and St Barts every day (the service now starts at 7.30am rather than 7.35am).

During term time, we've also added a return journey from Newbury College at 15.10pm, Park House School (Monks Lane entrance) at 15.14pm and St Bartholomew's School (Andover Road stop by Buckingham Road) at 15.18pm.

During school holidays

The scheduled CCA 7.30am and 15.10am services between Brightwalton and Newbury will still run during school holidays.

The only difference is that the service will not stop at Newbury College, Park House and St Barts. Therefore, the morning journey will terminate at Newbury Wharf Bus Station and the afternoon journey will start at 15.24pm from Newbury Wharf Bus Station.

A leaflet about the Community Connect A bus service is also available:  West Berkshire Community Connect A Bus Service [2MB]

Legal

You can read our terms and conditions here.

You can read our privacy notice here.

If you have any questions about this service, please contact West Berkshire Council by emailing Community Connect or call 01635 519650.

Funding 

West Berkshire Community Connect On-Demand Transport Services has been made possible by funding from HM Government, given to West Berkshire Council after submission of a Bus Services Improvement Plan 2021 [3MB] in October 2021.