Transport Secretary Alistair Darling announced last Friday that he will subsidise councils to set up commuter coaches into Reading and London, including 'priority measures' on the overcrowded local road network, and charge employers a levy for every parking space they have.

A pilot scheme is expected to get underway in Aylesbury, and if successful, pressure would be applied from transport bureaucrats in Guildford for Newbury to follow suit.

Traffic experts reckon using executive coaches to whiz office workers into town and city centres could cut congestion by 8%, but warned that the scheme needed to be combined with charging bosses a high rate to park at work.

However, green transport lobbyists are concerned that bus lanes may be used as an excuse to expand the M4 to eight lanes, and are awaiting further details.

Newbury has the second highest car ownership rates in the country, behind Surrey, and traffic in West Berkshire is expected to grow by a fifth in the next 10 years, so Whitehall will pressure councils to examine the latest batch of radical measures in the coming years.

West Berkshire Council already wants Vodafone and New Greenham Park to use some of their car parks for a park and ride scheme on Saturdays, and is prepared to use 'bus priority' measures on the A4 and A339 to offer a faster alternative to work.

In the meantime, the South East Regional Transport Study revealed that top of the government's wishlist is to upgrade rail links between Southampton and the West Midlands, to enable the line to take most of the lorries off the A34.

The rail route has run via Basingstoke, Reading and Didcot, since the local north-south route was closed in the 1960s. Trains found it hard to pull heavy loads up the steep downs, and ironically, the railway line now lies under Newbury bypass.

All these schemes can be put into place with the Transport Act 2000, but the government said it will now pile on the pressure to address congestion in the south east.