20th Century

Turnpikes through Reading

The Bath Turnpike

Coaching Inns

Horse Trams

Electric Trams

Trolleybuses

Buses

Road improvements

Trunk Roads and Motorways

With the coming of the Railways, the Bath Road lost its coach traffic. The Railways became the main means of moving around the country for both people an goods. It was not until the invention of the motor car that roads started to become a popular way of moving around the country again.

By the 1930's the Bath Road was regaining its importance. In 1936 the Ministry of Transport organised the road system into A and B roads, with some important routes being called Trunk Roads. The Bath Road became the A4 and a trunk route in this new system.

After the second world war car ownership became more and more common. The pressure on the roads became great. Despite the improvements and bypasses around some towns, travelling along the A4 became slow. By 1970 30 000 vehicles a day were travelling west along the A4 between Maidenhead and Reading, where the size of the road was suitable for only 13 000 vehicles per day. There were often 10 mile traffic jams along this section of road as cars tried to get through Reading. In Reading itself, the mix of local traffic and the long distance traffic led to terrible traffic jams.

With the opening of the M4 in 1971 the long distance traffic left the A4 using the M4 instead. Now all the long distance traffic bypasses Reading town centre which only has to cope with local people.