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

[Bus9120UK]

I imagine the issues upon initial delivery will also be a factor. I recall initial deliveries had a number of problems so they all were delayed to get them sorted. This early image shows the door poles in silver. After delivery a good number were also sent to Ferrymill motors for several weeks at a time for modifications, 754 was sent to Volvo in Loughborough and many more made visits to Cardonald.

 

[mabosh]

I imagine the issues upon initial delivery will also be a factor. I recall initial deliveries had a number of problems so they all were delayed to get them sorted. This early image shows the door poles in silver. After delivery a good number were also sent to Ferrymill motors for several weeks at a time for modifications, 754 was sent to Volvo in Loughborough and many more made visits to Cardonald.

The black panel (is it actually glass?) surrounding the nearside destination display and continues under the first two nearside lower deck windows was also wrong. It's white now.

 

[buslad1988]

The black panel (is it actually glass?) surrounding the nearside destination display and continues under the first two nearside lower deck windows was also wrong. It's white now.

Yes that’s glass/window. The white isn’t a panel as such, it’s just vinyl.

 

[mabosh]

Yes that’s glass/window. The white isn’t a panel as such, it’s just vinyl.

Ah, I didn't realise, I've never looked at it closely. I think it looks better without the vinyl actually.

 

[ScotRail158725]

637 and 638 both out today repainted

 

[FlybeDash8Q400]

I think capacity will (and should) have played a big part in any decision to move away from BZL’s.

Many of the frequencies Lothian run post covid cannot sustain short deckers, regularly you’ll see rammed BZL’s on 14’s, 27’s etc - the 14’s in particular needed a frequency uplift as it was, the allocation has exasperated the problem.

There’s definitely an issue at times. Not withstanding the 14 and 27. I find the 7 and 8 equally as bad during the peaks. The 9 isn’t great at the university end either, but has plenty of additional buses to cope with the problem of there being simply too many students in one go, rather than the buses used.

Basically the BZL’s should be replacing vehicles on routes that have been converted to double deckers such as the 1, or other routes where ex London’s are known to work fine, such as the 5 and 45.

 

[Jonathan Lynch]

There is a 37 which moves onto the 27 for the rest of the day.

Saw a BZL on 37 this morning which strikes me as an unu

15.30 from deanburn can have anything on it. sometimes a blz 394 today.

 

[computerSaysNo]

A quick question about BusTimes - on the Vehicles by Route page (e.g. https://bustimes.org/services/113-west-granton-pencaitland/vehicles), what do the numbers on the right mean? (1021, 1022)
Also do the numbers under the Trip column mean anything?

 

[Bus9120UK]

A quick question about BusTimes - on the Vehicles by Route page (e.g. https://bustimes.org/services/113-west-granton-pencaitland/vehicles), what do the numbers on the right mean? (1021, 1022)
Also do the numbers under the Trip column mean anything?

I think that's it trying to match the trip to the board number which is available via traveline data. It's not excellent at it.

If I had to guess the trip numbers continually increase with changes. They were all in the 239* range (some were occasionally 242) before and are now up at 246/7. I previously thought this number might've had more meaning but perhaps not. Obviously they'll have gone through many numbers throughout the process which were never used.

East Coast buses and Lothian Country start with 2467, then Longstone use 2467 into 2468, Marine vehicles are at 2468, Central are 2469 and 2470.
It suggests they do get grouped/completed/assigned in order of garages but I doubt it means anything in particular.

Individual routes all use numbers within a range but I'm not sure what the order is to it if any. Obviously if you look at an individual bus the trip numbers do not increment one by one so it must be done more generally.
In fact across the whole route the trip numbers actually decrease over the course of the day rather than going up!

I'm curious if these are just internal numbers that are used across their systems and whether the trips do have separate numbers assigned to them or not.

 

[Edirim]

I think that's it trying to match the trip to the board number which is available via traveline data. It's not excellent at it.

If I had to guess the trip numbers continually increase with changes. They were all in the 239* range (some were occasionally 242) before and are now up at 246/7. I previously thought this number might've had more meaning but perhaps not. Obviously they'll have gone through many numbers throughout the process which were never used.

East Coast buses and Lothian Country start with 2467, then Longstone use 2467 into 2468, Marine vehicles are at 2468, Central are 2469 and 2470.
It suggests they do get grouped/completed/assigned in order of garages but I doubt it means anything in particular.

Individual routes all use numbers within a range but I'm not sure what the order is to it if any. Obviously if you look at an individual bus the trip numbers do not increment one by one so it must be done more generally.
In fact across the whole route the trip numbers actually decrease over the course of the day rather than going up!

I'm curious if these are just internal numbers that are used across their systems and whether the trips do have separate numbers assigned to them or not.

The numbers are the block numbers and can be obtained from Edinburgh bus tracker API. It's certainly not a perfect system the matching but a good go is had at it.

 

[Bus9120UK]

The numbers are the block numbers and can be obtained from Edinburgh bus tracker API. It's certainly not a perfect system the matching but a good go is had at it.

I had assumed it was Traveline as the API bustimes.org uses is currently https://lothianapi.com/vehicles/all which doesn't return any block numbers.
It doesn't use anything else from Lothian/Edinburgh Council.

 

[AWCook]

Yes. There's a pair at Scania, Newbridge.

Do we have any fleet numbers or registrations for these?

 

[atfd26]

I have been wondering are the screens that can be seen on the Lothian 700es being rolled out across the whole fleet or just select vehicles. As I have noted 462 has the larger font now but 553 has had it removed?

 

[stevenedin]

I have been wondering are the screens that can be seen on the Lothian 700es being rolled out across the whole fleet or just select vehicles. As I have noted 462 has the larger font now but 553 has had it removed?

I have noticed the new stretched destination displays on a few buses I think 587 as well. I put it down to them replacing the screen and that was the default. It would be nice if they changed them to the standard rather than stretched as they don't look right.

 

[FlybeDash8Q400]

Hanover discontinued the screens Lothian had standardised on. I believe Lothian got a deal on these to clear the stock out. Once that happened they had to turn to the next best alternative, which are these stretched examples.

Any buses that have had old ones put in are likely repaired examples - such as 569, where a stretched screen has replaced the older ones on another bus - such as 933.

 

[Dfatcontroller]

Do we have any fleet numbers or registrations for these?

They apparently now carry registrations but haven't been back past to look.

 

[atfd26]

Hanover discontinued the screens Lothian had standardised on. I believe Lothian got a deal on these to clear the stock out. Once that happened they had to turn to the next best alternative, which are these stretched examples.

Any buses that have had old ones put in are likely repaired examples - such as 569, where a stretched screen has replaced the older ones on another bus - such as 933.

Ah thanks, I do find them much harder to photograph from a selfish perspective. But personally feel the less stretched screens are so much clearer and less busy

 

[VioletEclipse]

Are 191-193 confirmed as withdrawn and for sale, or just in reserve for now?

 

[Avenger20]

Are 191-193 confirmed as withdrawn and for sale, or just in reserve for now?

193 was definitely put up for sale, unsure about 191 & 192.

 

[ScotRail158725]

632 repainted now

 

[Auld reekie]

There appears to be more 15 plates on the 44 these days. I maybe wrong.
Would there be any particular reason for this if my observations are correct?

 

[route101]

Found an old timetable for the 300 airport service. Do you think this service could work today?

 

[Lothianbus703]

There appears to be more 15 plates on the 44 these days. I maybe wrong.
Would there be any particular reason for this if my observations are correct?

4 buses a day I think are 15 plate hybrids on it each day.
Although today it had two 11 plate Gemini 2's, 378 and 380.

Found an old timetable for the 300 airport service. Do you think this service could work today?

depends what version

 

[Auld reekie]

4 buses a day I think are 15 plate hybrids on it each day.
Although today it had two 11 plate Gemini 2's, 378 and 380.


depends what version

Thanks.

 

[TheEastCoaster]

Found an old timetable for the 300 airport service. Do you think this service could work today?

Honestly If they wanted it to work they wouldn't of butchered it with every service change up untill it's inevitable withdrawal, when they changed the route to Cameron Toll it had potential, but the biggest problem in my eyes was that it never served the Royal Infirmary.

Clearly with the way they changed the 22 route means they still want to maintain that Slateford - Gyle link without introducing a new service, but honestly I doubt it will ever come back, even in a city service form, I couldn't even think of what they could number it

 

[Lothianbus703]

Honestly If they wanted it to work they wouldn't of butchered it with every service change up untill it's inevitable withdrawal, when they changed the route to Cameron Toll it had potential, but the biggest problem in my eyes was that it never served the Royal Infirmary.

Clearly with the way they changed the 22 route means they still want to maintain that Slateford - Gyle link without introducing a new service, but honestly I doubt it will ever come back, even in a city service form, I couldn't even think of what they could number it

6/28/40/41/42/46/50

 

[route101]

Honestly If they wanted it to work they wouldn't of butchered it with every service change up untill it's inevitable withdrawal, when they changed the route to Cameron Toll it had potential, but the biggest problem in my eyes was that it never served the Royal Infirmary.

Clearly with the way they changed the 22 route means they still want to maintain that Slateford - Gyle link without introducing a new service, but honestly I doubt it will ever come back, even in a city service form, I couldn't even think of what they could number it

The 300 didn't last long I believe. I suppose it was quite a slow route .

 

[Bus9120UK]

The 300 didn't last long I believe. I suppose it was quite a slow route .

The initial 300 to Ocean Terminal lasted a long time originally operating as service 35. The 300's "downfall" began when it was changed to serve Cameron Toll in 2018 with the Old Town > Ocean Terminal stretch moved back onto the newer and present version of the 35. It meant that a large chunk of the route (Sighthill to Bristo Place) was shared with the new 35. Post lockdown it didn't return to Cameron Toll and was shortened to terminate at Surgeon's Hall and then shortened further to Bread Street in 2021 before permanent withdrawal in 2022. I do reguarly see posts about it being a much missed route, but there is no chance it would work anymore.

 

[Avenger20]

With regards to the Airlink, I know the city centre terminal point was moved from George Street to Waverley Bridge during Christmas, but it seems to have quietly remained on Waverley Bridge since then. Have the local authority realised that it has always been the best place for it but want to save embarrassment by not announcing it?

 

[alexf380]

With regards to the Airlink, I know the city centre terminal point was moved from George Street to Waverley Bridge during Christmas, but it seems to have quietly remained on Waverley Bridge since then. Have the local authority realised that it has always been the best place for it but want to save embarrassment by not announcing it?

Other way around, it moved from Waverley Bridge to George Street during Christmas and then back to Waverley once the festivities had finished.