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just a note that the E19 is effectively two routes rather than one, basically 40mins each, the only things they have in common are Livingston Centre and the Airport, other companies would probably have them as A and B. And from what I’ve seen, the frequency is actually starting to benefit it...

651 was a takeover from Nordi’s Dunfermline service. The predecessors to the x24 and x25 was the 12/16 (with the 10 operating a very similar route to the current X18) then the 21/22. I believe they launched around 2000 as I know prior to that if we were going to Corstorphine from Livingston we...

A related question of which companies do and which don’t allow reversing without a banksman. Seems to be a common myth online now that buses legally can’t reverse without banksman. We had a while in West Lothian where First and Lothian Country would meet head on in narrow villages and the...

On E19. I’m not saying it will or won’t be a success. But do remember back when Lothian Country first came on the scene many, including myself, were talking of them running empty. And look where we are now. Not saying Ember will be the new LCB, but there can be a build it and they will come...

My observation not of now vs 40 years ago but even 10-20 years ago. 10-20 years ago most people bought week or month tickets, so most of the week, most of the journeys just involved people flashing the pass at the driver. Now, with the prevalence of tap tap cap on non-flat fare bus routes...

I don’t know what goes into the application process, but is it also possible that decisions are also based on quality of submission, i.e. who has submitted the best business cases? Having worked with the government in various cases, I’d be surprised if there isn’t some level of quality criteria...

I do feel this E19 has the real opportunity to be a success, but they really need to advertise it, widely. Livingston is a large town and West Lothian is densely populated, but our airport services have never been particularly popular, but that’s because they’ve either been like the 555/777 and...

Said when FlixBus started someone could perhaps make success doing Calder Road then along the A71 to Livingston, either stop at The Centre and then join the motorway at J3A or skip the Centre and stop at the three fast link stops and join at J3. This would give a good chunk of Livingston fast...

Back when First Bus ran the Glasgow Express Services from Bathgate and Livingston, they had a number of wheelchair accessible coaches for the routes (Plaxtons I think). However, First seemed to have no bus allocation system, pretty much whatever came first. So we’d end up with Volvo Olympians...

Not been on too many of the vehicles, but observations from the outside, SD Travel in West Lothian always seem to have a well maintained relatively modern fleet.

And people used to complain First were expensive in West Lothian. At least they offered good value return tickets. Getting the train from Livingston is now 16-22% cheaper (£6.90 return to Edinburgh Park or £7.40 to Waverley). Obviously the train stations aren’t quite as conveniently located...

It’s not just AIRX that affects. I contacted Citylink earlier this year to say there is virtually nowhere to see where to catch their 902 from. All the publicity is for AIR. The airport is pretty poor for giving full information For the buses.

I was sure it was Stagecoach that ran that service. I could be wrong though. 1759439649 I was misremembering it as an airport service. https://www.scotsman.com/business/stagecoach-taxi-bus-axed-after-losing-cash-2477455?utm_source=chatgpt.com

Stagecoach East Scotland related question. I seem to remember back in the early 2000s a service by Stagecoach in Edinburgh which was basically an airport taxi bus service. Am I remembering correctly? May have been around the same time as Mr Motorvator coaches.

Could they not just cut through the campus and go up/down Curriehill Road. There is a tiny wee bit marked 1-way on the campus road, but sure they could get temporary permission. I know Curriehill Road is a bit narrow, but full size buses go on narrower roads elsewhere in the country.

There is some irony in the fact that Lothian made a thing of it being more modern buses when they entered the area, yet, once again West Lothian, becomes the area for the hand-me-down buses. Yes, they are better maintained than First’s were, but it is still quite ironic that so much of the fleet...

Fair enough. I’ve only done it from the Edinburgh side. Had many a colleague surprised at how fast the journey is by the coach. Glasgow to Inverness seems to be pretty close journey times though.

Think it is worth noting a difference between the Scottish and English networks. For a lot of the long distance journeys within Scotland, the coaches are as fast, if not faster, than the equivalent train. Travelling up to Inverness or Aberdeen from Edinburgh, is usually faster unless you get...

I know this has been shared before. But thought it worth sharing the network West Lothian used to have before all our small operators were forced out. This is from 2009. We’ll never see a network like that again sadly. You could pretty much get anywhere from anywhere.

that was right up to the network refresh in 2017/18. I used to travel every day on them for work. Here’s the timetable from 2011 which I uploaded. https://www.railforums.co.uk/attachments/h_1307081333_2051_west-lothian-tt-bklt-web-pdf.183991/ And here’s a timetable from 2017...