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

[LothianBusesPh]

Just to ask, how is it that these 4 can do it yet the others can’t?

The registrations are registered with the Airport

 

[scosutsut]

I wonder if ECB will lose 1051-1062 as they only have 5 B9s to replace.

They have the red interiors so would suit LCB or City.

 

[Bus9120UK]

I wonder if ECB will lose 1051-1062 as they only have 5 B9s to replace.

They have the red interiors so would suit LCB or City.

I can see either option happening depending on future service changes.
If Lothian Country has improvements or expansion planned, it may be more sensible for 1051-1062 to move there and if they end up with a surplus, some of the 66 plates could return to city.
Alternatively if there is no or limited plans to improve Lothian Country services, 1051-1062 could return to city and some 11 plates withdrawn.

 

[ScotRail158725]

Potentially. They might not have glass staircases and they need an emergency door somewhere. The length is the most obvious visual difference.

Im pretty sure they cone with glass staircase as standard but that might have changed in 9 years, the emergency door will be at the usual rear offside

 

[FlybeDash8Q400]

I wonder if ECB will lose 1051-1062 as they only have 5 B9s to replace.

ECB will look quite different as basically two thirds of its fleet is being replaced.

I’ll start off with the boring/predictable outcomes. The 5 B9TL’s and 3 E200mmc’s will be gone. 51-65 and 195-196 are likely to all transfer to Lothian. That’s all the single decks replaced and 5 out of 20 deckers replaced.

Deckers wise the obvious theory is an increase of 3-4 vehicles - depending if 496 is added or not, with the 5 B9TL’s withdrawn and 1051-1062 taken out and transferred to Livingston.

At Lothian Country this is much easier to work out. Assuming the aforementioned 1051-1062 did move to Livingston alongside 20 new B8L’s, this gives 32.

24 B9TL’s will need to be replaced and there will be increases at Livingston. That seems obvious. What isn’t obvious is how much does actually increase. So playing it safe, let’s say 5 extra buses are needed. This means 27 vehicles depart and that’s where I would suggest 461-463 return to Lothian. There is a small chance you have 461-465 all at Livingston but that’s an increase of 10 and I think that’s getting pretty unrealistic. Even keeping 461-463 put with an increase of 8 feels unrealistic.

So to recap. By this time next year:

ECB has 20 Evora’s (5 short, 15 long), 20 B8L’s and 23 B5TL’s totalling 63. An increase of 4.

Lothian Country has 20 B8L’s, 20 B5LH’s and 32 B5TL’s totalling 72. An increase of 5.

 

[Scotrail314209]

I wonder, with all the new developments going on at West Craigs would there be scope for running a Nightbus through to this area? I know the 100 stops nearby but for most people it’ll be quite a walk.

There seems to be quite a lot there, so surely a Nightbus might be feasible?

 

[ScotRail158725]

I wonder, with all the new developments going on at West Craigs would there be scope for running a Nightbus through to this area? I know the 100 stops nearby but for most people it’ll be quite a walk.

There seems to be quite a lot there, so surely a Nightbus might be feasible?

No, Nightbuses aren’t the most feasible in the places they serve already the N43 and 100 are a walk away from West Craigs

 

[TheEastCoaster]

No, Nightbuses aren’t the most feasible in the places they serve already the N43 and 100 are a walk away from West Craigs

I dunno, the N16 and N25 are pretty busy from when I used them, it wouldn't hurt to at least trial an extension for the N31

On that note, when are they going to finally open that Bus Gate at West Craig's? Lothian really jumped the gun with that announcement.

 

[FlybeDash8Q400]

No, Nightbuses aren’t the most feasible in the places they serve already the N43 and 100 are a walk away from West Craigs

I’m not going to disagree with your overall point of a service being unnecessary, but I wouldn’t say the N43 is walkable to/from West Craigs. The 100 is just about doable.

 

[ScotRail158725]

I dunno, the N16 and N25 are pretty busy from when I used them, it wouldn't hurt to at least trial an extension for the N31

Im not saying every night bus is a dud but overall as a whole you don’t really get many people on them apart from friday and saturday night heading out of town. They’ve just withdrawn the half hourly daily N26 along that corridor and replaced it with a one way loop that runs 3 times on weekends i doubt the demand for West Craigs alone would warrant undoing that change when the 100 is near enough

I’m not going to disagree with your overall point of a service being unnecessary, but I wouldn’t say the N43 is walkable to/from West Craigs. The 100 is just about doable.

Tbf it depends what you define as walkable but its definitely a short enough distance, theres plenty similarly sized places without a nightbus that are probably a further walk

 

[stantheman]

Passenger questions , does the 33 go to Shawfair railway station . And does the 4 go all the way up the hill to the Hillend outdoor centre nowadays thanks

 

[Avenger20]

Passenger questions , does the 33 go to Shawfair railway station . And does the 4 go all the way up the hill to the Hillend outdoor centre nowadays thanks

No to 33, yes to 4

 

[DespacitoPlayz]

does the 4 go all the way up the hill to the Hillend outdoor centre nowadays thanks

The 4 stops right by the entrance to the sports center luckily for you

 

[Porty]

Passenger questions , does the 33 go to Shawfair railway station . And does the 4 go all the way up the hill to the Hillend outdoor centre nowadays thanks

For future reference you can see the detailed maps and stops of every route in both directions on the Lothian app by clicking on info, then timetables, and once you choose a route you can scroll down to the map and expand the view to see the fine detail.

 

[LothianBusesPh]

Bus 2e is in Central for driver familiarisation

 

[AilsaBus]

Whats bus 2e?

 

[scosutsut]

Whats bus 2e?

I'd guess one of the new Wrightbus GB Kite Electroliners.

 

[ScotRail158725]

74 terminus is changing back to where it was before the last service change from Sunday

 

[Numpt33]

Whats bus 2e?

the first single decker electric in Lothian's fleet

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 11 Jun 2026 ==

How about bendy-buses? They’d have high capacity AND go under low bridges (joking of course…..non-standard vehicles)

Lol, that and the huge amount of yard space artics take - which Lothian (particuarly East coast) has in abundance.

 

[Resuwen]

For consistency it would be nice if they stuck an e on 291-4’s fleet numbers

 

[Numpt33]

Opportunity Charging presumably has a dependency on buses not running late? With little or no time to recharge at a terminus or risk gaps in frequency - or having to add buses and therefore higher operating costs…Seems a big dependency in a congested city like Edinburgh.

Especially given Edinburgh Council's determination to always have at least one critical road to be dug up, and make sure traffic signals always work against buses at all possible times

 

[InOban]

Especially given Edinburgh Council's determination to always have at least one critical road to be dug up, and make sure traffic signals always work against buses at all possible times

It's not the Council's fault that its ancient gas/water/sewage infrastructure keeps failing. The relevant organisations will schedule the work to suit. (Unless it's an emergency of course )

 

[Avenger20]

It's not the Council's fault that its ancient gas/water/sewage infrastructure keeps failing. The relevant organisations will schedule the work to suit. (Unless it's an emergency of course )

It is however the councils fault when they decide to complete upturn an established route to narrow the usable road space to provide cycle lanes and pavements wider than the carriageway itself. "It's all part of our plan to make it easier to walk, wheel and cycle"...

 

[Numpt33]

It's not the Council's fault that its ancient gas/water/sewage infrastructure keeps failing. The relevant organisations will schedule the work to suit. (Unless it's an emergency of course )

It is also the Council's fault if the buses catch every single red light on the way into the city and then say they have bus priority.

 

[Resuwen]

Can’t be far off seeing a Kite fully ready for service

 

[NorthEastern]

Can’t be far off seeing a Kite fully ready for service

Hopefully. The one that was pictured on here recently looked pretty ready (externally at least)

 

[TheEastCoaster]

Is there any update on the bus gate at Turnhouse for the 31? seems ridiculious that Lothian hyped up the 31 to run via West Craigs months ago and nothing has come of it.

 

[Highland050261]

Bus 2e is in Central for driver familiarisation

SV26OFE 5e is now at Central aswell.

 

[TheEastCoaster]

Is there any update on the bus gate at Turnhouse for the 31? seems ridiculious that Lothian hyped up the 31 to run via West Craigs months ago and nothing has come of it.

Guess it's still in mystery!

 

[stantheman]

What will happen to the 7900s on the 36 after the new buses arrive ? Any idea what will operate the 32 thanks