Reading PlusBus is decent (if not outstanding) value; with a Railcard it's £2 for roughly the same area as a £4 Reading Buses day ticket (£1.80 single), with additional validity on the other operators (Thames Travel and Arriva being the only significant ones; fortunately Reading Buses have a near-monopoly). And you don't need exact change for PlusBus
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Didcot PlusBus is not great. Only £2, but not valid on the town local services (operated by Whites Coaches) , nor on the main, frequent service (operated by Courtney Buses( to one of the two major business/science parks outside the town.
And the two major towns that Didcot is a railhead for (Wantage and Wallingford) are just outside the zone...
It's a bit better since several contracts were transferred from a local low-cost operator of generally quite shabby buses (which didn't accept PlusBus, or indeed any other common ticket) to Thames Travel, which do accept PlusBus.
OK within a limited area, the PlusBus price compares favourably with the Oxford Smart Card (South Oxfordshire Zone) ticket (£18 for any five days) that has validity on the same operators, but which does stretch to those two other towns. But it's not great,
I think PlusBus isn't best suited to relatively rural locations - it's better for towns where one is likely to make several short journeys by bus, rather than a single (or return) journey to a more distant place. The latter can be catered for with through tickets to the destination by bus as exists for other places already.
As well as Wallingford and Wantage, Didcot is a railhead for Abingdon - although the bus links with Oxford are better, Didcot is better if going west. Abingdon and Wallingford are both accessible from two or more directions - it would be great (if a routeing nightmare!) if bus links could work from any suitable station - for example "Wallingford Bus" could be via Didcot, Oxford, Reading or Goring. Pie in the sky land however
As an aside, I was amused to note that Goring station advertises itself "for bus link to Wallingford". Erm, that would be 4 buses per day, from a small station with only local services; as opposed to 1bph from Didcot and 2bph from either Oxford or Reading!
It is silly that the shuttle bus to Milton Park isn't included, but it's not surprising as it's run on a rather odd model - it's effectively free for regular users, but visitors to the park are charged - hardly the warm welcome you'd think businesses would aim for. I'd estimate there's probably around 10 paying passengers a day, so it's not going to make any worthwhile revenue.
