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

Bus9120UK

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5 Oct 2019
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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?
It was moved back to Waverley temporarily in June 2024 due to works making the existing stop at South St David Street unavailable. It's supposed to move back later this year, but hopefully the arrangement is made permanent.
The stop at George Street is used when Waverley Bridge is unavailable.
 
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Lx008

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16 Jul 2023
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Has the 12 started to see more deckers and could it be the next service to switch over?

Although anecdotal, living beside the route I’ve noticed more and more deckers on the 12 over the last few weeks - can anyone confirm or deny this?

As an aside, it seems to be a complete hodgepodge of deckers, I think at this point I’ve seen every sub-group of decker other than the BZL, even the XLB on occasion
 

Bus9120UK

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Has the 12 started to see more deckers and could it be the next service to switch over?

Although anecdotal, living beside the route I’ve noticed more and more deckers on the 12 over the last few weeks - can anyone confirm or deny this?

As an aside, it seems to be a complete hodgepodge of deckers, I think at this point I’ve seen every sub-group of decker other than the BZL, even the XLB on occasion

The last bus leaving the depot (at 08:07) on the 12 is regularly a double decker. I assume they just take what is left.
 

Avenger20

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8 Aug 2011
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288
Other way around, it moved from Waverley Bridge to George Street during Christmas and then back to Waverley once the festivities had finished.
You're right enough, just had a bit of a moment I guess when I was thinking it through. Thanks for clarification.

Hopefully it is realised that Waverley Bridge is the ideal location in the city centre for an airlink terminal point. I know our council are hell bent on the wonderful phrase "walking, wheeling and cycling" just like every other council these days but they surely have to realise the damage that solely focusing on those endeavours is causing to public transport infrastructure.
 

granitebuses

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9 Jun 2025
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Aberdeen
If these two reasons (long delivery time and low range) are behind the decision to not pursue any more BZLs in the near future, then it seems logical Lothian might opt for Wright Electroliners and/or ADL Enviro400EVs. Delivery times would be faster as they're manufactured in the UK and they both have good range - up to 600km for the second generation Electroliner and 620km for the second generation Enviro400EV, compared to 300km for the BZL DD, though I don't think there's any doubt that Volvo will also introduce an improved second generation variant at some point.
Chances are they will stick with anything with Volvo as Lothian had a big partnership with them which is why mostly or not all their fleet is full of Volvo engined buses, If I’m correct they did trial the Wrightbus Electroliners, and it basically struggled with the hills in the city.
 

Bus9120UK

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Might buses 1 and 2 now be withdrawn? Both out of service a few days and an increased presence of deckers on the 36. Today we've got 293, 362 and 391.
 

ScotRail158725

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I don't think I've ever seen this many double deckers on the 36 at once. Makes a nice change.
back in its pre covid days that used to be normal to find up to 3 a day on it.
IIRC during covid deckers were its only allocation though i could be wrong
 

CraigLockhart

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6 Jun 2019
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back in its pre covid days that used to be normal to find up to 3 a day on it.
IIRC during covid deckers were its only allocation though i could be wrong
The tree work they did at the start of the year in Glenlockhart Road has made a massive difference to the clearance for deckers.
 

Lothiangem22

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30 Jan 2019
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183
I believe it was always the plan that central would operate a fully double deck garage, however Glenlockhart Road was a concern for the 36.

After a lot of persuasion Glenlockhart isn’t a problem anymore, however due to the storms a few days ago there is a tree on Eyre Place which has fallen that low that it’s an issue for single deck buses, let alone deckers!
 

TheEastCoaster

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I believe it was always the plan that central would operate a fully double deck garage, however Glenlockhart Road was a concern for the 36.

After a lot of persuasion Glenlockhart isn’t a problem anymore, however due to the storms a few days ago there is a tree on Eyre Place which has fallen that low that it’s an issue for single deck buses, let alone deckers!

I never thought Glenlockhart was an issue to begin with, i thought it was down to just allocation, but it would be a joy to see doubles on the 36 permenantly.
 

stevenedin

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26 Jul 2021
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Edinburgh
I've noticed that the new announcements on most of the 600 buses and the 700 buses are very low. Not very good for those that are hard of hearing. I feel like the volume on most of the 441-465 batch are perfect with the odd few too low.
 

FlybeDash8Q400

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26 Jun 2018
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Edinburgh
I've noticed that the new announcements on most of the 600 buses and the 700 buses are very low. Not very good for those that are hard of hearing. I feel like the volume on most of the 441-465 batch are perfect with the odd few too low.
I think it’s more the speakers being broken as opposed to the announcements being too low. This isn’t restricted to just the batches you refer to.
 

ScotRail158725

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27 Nov 2018
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I've noticed that the new announcements on most of the 600 buses and the 700 buses are very low. Not very good for those that are hard of hearing. I feel like the volume on most of the 441-465 batch are perfect with the odd few too low.
Good they’re a pain in the arse those announcements especially when they say half the words wrong
 

zjsptgzxyspks

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13 Mar 2023
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Kirkcaldy
It seems the 22 always have ex-London during the day but switch to MMCs in the evenings. Just curious what's the reason behind this allocation.
 

ScotRail158725

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It seems the 22 always have ex-London during the day but switch to MMCs in the evenings. Just curious what's the reason behind this allocation.
I’ve always assumed it keeps the newer buses out longer meaning less wear and tear requiring more inspections on the older vehicles but that could be nonsense, something similar used to happen back pre covid when the 35 was using B7s, they’d all come off around 7/8pm and half the 15 plates allocated to the 34s would interwork onto the 35 for the evening
 

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