Lothian Group discussion (Lothian City, Lothian Country Bus and East Coast Buses)

[stevenedin]

Im a little surprised that 905/906 are leaving, they seem to be perfect for the Uni Shuttle Bus, low utilization so can use an older bus that may need a little more downtime with a captive market that doesn’t really care about how modern the bus is, no need for screens or anything since only 2 stops.
Is the difference in parts between a Gemini and Gemini 2 big enough to warrant not keeping them?

Two of 929-931 or 933-935 could be used as a replacement for the uni shuttles as they are in all over white. They could even put a wrap on it advertising the uni if the uni decided to pay for advertising.

 

[VioletEclipse]

What are the chances of the remaining BZLs arriving before the end of the year? With 11 entering service in September and then 9 in November it will be May before all 50 are in service if it continues at an average of 5 per month.

 

[Lx008]

Any idea why the 9 has been de-electrified, range issues?

 

[H00V3R]

Any idea why the 9 has been de-electrified, range issues?

Most likely range issues, The mound certainly takes a lot of power to get up which might just be taking too much in the colder weather

 

[buslad1988]

There have been a number of issues with the electrics running out of charge as with the cold weather they’ve had the heating on all day and it’s draining the batteries.

 

[Numpt33]

Why can't they just use something other than the batteries for heating? Are the buses heated before they enter service? I.e. still plugged in

 

[Resuwen]

Why can't they just use something other than the batteries for heating? Are the buses heated before they enter service? I.e. still plugged in

They will be, but on a cold day with constantly opening and closing doors, clearly that will drop the temperature pretty quickly

 

[overthewater]

Going by the following link: https://coins.westlothian.gov.uk/viewSelectedDocument.asp?c=e%97%9Dj%96i%82%8A

McGills wont be operating the X38 over the four day period and Lothian country plans to operate No72 and 74 Commercial on 26th December, going by last year numbers that no surprise getting nearly 1000 people on the 72.

Lothian it looks like will providing the festival services again this year for the grand sum of £37,350. I'm still surprised West Lothian continues to pay top dollar for Christmas day service.

 

[FlybeDash8Q400]

Lothian it looks like will providing the festival services again this year for the grand sum of £37,350. I'm still surprised West Lothian continues to pay top dollar for Christmas day service.

Would imagine that the operators will run their own services, albeit with subsidy. Lothian running the X38 would require borrowing Eclipse2’s from Marine, or if East Coast have enough spare Eclipse3’s to borrow. I’m not sure that scenario is very likely to happen.

 

[Stan Drews]

Going by the following link: https://coins.westlothian.gov.uk/viewSelectedDocument.asp?c=e%97%9Dj%96i%82%8A

McGills wont be operating the X38 over the four day period and Lothian country plans to operate No72 and 74 Commercial on 26th December, going by last year numbers that no surprise getting nearly 1000 people on the 72.

Lothian it looks like will providing the festival services again this year for the grand sum of £37,350. I'm still surprised West Lothian continues to pay top dollar for Christmas day service.

The X38 will be operated between Linlithgow and Edinburgh by McGill’s, from Livingston depot as per previous years.

 

[Baileygirl]

Going by the following link: https://coins.westlothian.gov.uk/viewSelectedDocument.asp?c=e%97%9Dj%96i%82%8A

McGills wont be operating the X38 over the four day period and Lothian country plans to operate No72 and 74 Commercial on 26th December, going by last year numbers that no surprise getting nearly 1000 people on the 72.

Lothian it looks like will providing the festival services again this year for the grand sum of £37,350. I'm still surprised West Lothian continues to pay top dollar for Christmas day service.

The route for the 72 and 73 is interesting, Both going through Howden from St Johns to the Centre. Then the 72 going straight to Pumpherston from the centre

 

[FlybeDash8Q400]

The route for the 72 and 73 is interesting, Both going through Howden from St Johns to the Centre. Then the 72 going straight to Pumpherston from the centre

I think it’s just the way they have worded it. Both should be as per normal route.

 

[ScotRail158725]

641 operating out of Longstone on the 3 today

 

[stevenedin]

Does anyone know why the bus tracker at the stops shows completely different information to the bus tracker app? They show in minutes but is it still timetable?

 

[Bus9120UK]

Does anyone know why the bus tracker at the stops shows completely different information to the bus tracker app? They show in minutes but is it still timetable?

Bus tracker gets time from the AVL, app gets time from a system which calculates the time based on the location of the bus and block/rota/run (not sure whats correct) inserted by control.

 

[stevenedin]

Bus tracker gets time from the AVL, app gets time from a system which calculates the time based on the location of the bus and block inserted by control.

Thanks

 

[Auld reekie]

641 operating out of Longstone on the 3 today

What is special about this bus?

 

[FlybeDash8Q400]

What is special about this bus?

Marine allocated.

 

[Auld reekie]

Marine allocated.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 27 Nov 2024 ==

Okay.

 

[Lothiangem22]

I have on good authority that the remaining 30 BZL’s will arrive by end of December with a further 50 due in May.

 

[overthewater]

That hopefully means we will see some improvements to West Lothian Network in February or June.

 

[Ghostbus]

Are Lothian drivers given the authority to turn a bus early or even not start a new turn if the bus doesn't have enough charge to get back to the depot? Or do they just drive the duty the planners have laid down based on the estimates mentioned earlier, and contact control if or when it slows to a nice gentle stop with the needle on 0%?

 

[stevenedin]

I have on good authority that the remaining 30 BZL’s will arrive by end of December with a further 50 due in May.

Is this on top of the original order?

 

[ScotRail158725]

1094 on the 8 this evening, just emerged from Central heading to the royal infirmary. First time an XLB has been on the 8?

 

[Bus9120UK]

1094 on the 8 this evening, just emerged from Central heading to the royal infirmary. First time an XLB has been on the 8?

1063/6/9, 1071-1073, 1075, 1081/3/7/8, 1090/2/3/6, 1102/3/7, 1118/9 have tracking history on the 8. Some, but not all of these, will be errors.

 

[Metal Mickey]

That hopefully means we will see some improvements to West Lothian Network in February or June.

Can’t be February as they’ve registered a change to start from 1st December.

 

[Bus9120UK]

Can’t be February as they’ve registered a change to start from 1st December.

Reminder that the 72 was launched on October 15th last year and then changed again on the 3rd of December

 

[Metal Mickey]

Reminder that the 72 was launched on October 15th last year and then changed again on the 3rd of December

That’s because McGill’s withdrew their entire West Lothian network on 3rd December last year and the local transport authorities supported, at short notice, some enhancements to existing LCB services and also some new services were introduced to fill the void vacated by McGill’s.

If you register a service change you have to operate it for a minimum of 90 days unless there are exceptional circumstances as I’ve just explained.

 

[overthewater]

Of course there is nothing stopping Lothian having a new registration, like 72A or 73A to get the services going. However it looks like it will be March/April then.

 

[Metal Mickey]

Of course there is nothing stopping Lothian having a new registration, like 72A or 73A to get the services going. However it looks like it will be March/April then.

The only thing stopping them is their Network and Scheduling teams being overloaded with unnecessary admin and I think they’ll be reviewing at least 3 months worth of data for the upcoming changes from 1st December before making any future changes so I would suggest early summer at the earliest if there’s to be another change.