Ember: Electric coach service

[Glasgowbusguy]

Will the coaches have the range?

The GT14 have over 300 miles of range so if they can charge in Skye it should be doable

 

[Highland050261]

Wonder if a Skye - Glasgow route could be in the cards as thats a money maker for city link

They could put a Outstation in at Skye like they have at Thurso and Fort William.

Some photos of the Thurso Outstation from today.

 

[Jordan Adam]

They could put a Outstation in at Skye like they have at Thurso and Fort William.

Some photos of the Thurso Outstation from today.

The coaches still wouldn't have enough range to reliably do Glasgow to Skye.

 

[Spsf3232]

The coaches still wouldn't have enough range to reliably do Glasgow to Skye.

The 25 plate GTe14s would make Glasgow to Uig in one go with a recharge in Skye before return.

 

[computerSaysNo]

From the Flixbus thread:

Ember are opening a base in Livingston later this year, so that may have been a consideration.

Do you have any more information on that? Searching this thread for "Livingston" returns no results.

 

[Volvodart]

From the Flixbus thread:

Do you have any more information on that? Searching this thread for "Livingston" returns no results.

See below - "We are planning to open our Livingston hub later this year so to start, drivers will be based at our City of Edinburgh hub until the Livingston hub is ready"

Ember - Intercity Bus and Coach Driver - Livingston

Various start dates available from October 2025.Ember is the UK's first fully-electric, zero-emission coach company. We launched in October 2020 and are now running multiple routes across Scotland. W

ember.recruitee.com

 

[route101]

Interesting, I wonder if its to Boost routes from Edinburgh or Glasgow. Perhaps to Inverness.

 

[overthewater]

Surly its open up the route south to England? They said they have plans to move south?

 

[peterblue]

There definitely seems potential in some kind of Newcastle to Edinburgh route. Both large student towns, and a few sizeable (relative terms) villages en route like Kelso with no direct rail or bus link.

 

[sng7]

From the Flixbus thread:

Do you have any more information on that? Searching this thread for "Livingston" returns no results.

The planning application for it was also approved in May.

This link should take you to it: https://planning.westlothian.gov.uk....do?caseType=Application&keyVal=SH0NNWRJK7S00
or search application 0551/FUL/24 in the west lothian planning portal

 

[Spsf3232]

The planning application for it was also approved in May.

This link should take you to it: https://planning.westlothian.gov.uk....do?caseType=Application&keyVal=SH0NNWRJK7S00
or search application 0551/FUL/24 in the west lothian planning portal

Interesting times ahead,

Just waiting on the planning permission being granted for Glasgow now.

 

[NorthOxonian]

There definitely seems potential in some kind of Newcastle to Edinburgh route. Both large student towns, and a few sizeable (relative terms) villages en route like Kelso with no direct rail or bus link.

It's certainly a route you'd think they'd be looking at - whether via the coast or via the Borders.

Both routes have their pros and cons here. The coast has more towns (and they're all relatively large) but there's more existing options with the railway serving places like Dunbar or Berwick (but not Haddington, and only Alnwick quite poorly). Going inland is a shorter distance, though journey times are longer due to the roads being a bit worse. The main downside of an inland route is that the main roads (A68 then A696) don't really go anywhere useful - Newcastle Airport, Jedburgh, and St Boswells are directly on the route, but for anywhere else you'd have to divert quite markedly - perhaps running via the A7 would make sense to pick up potential Galashiels/Melrose custom. While I agree Kelso deserves better links (especially now the direct Edinburgh bus no longer runs), I can't see a sensible route that includes it without adding quite a lot of time.

I'm conscious Ember have quite a lot on their plate at the moment and overexpanding too quickly is a risk. Especially if it involves extensions into a country where some aspects of bus and coach operation are quite different (no concessionary passes on coach services, for one). But it would certainly get custom - if nothing else I'd certainly use it!

 

[Glasgowbusguy]

Is there any update on Oban service's

 

[Spsf3232]

Tickets now on sale for E6 Inverness to Thurso from Wednesday 9th July

 

[paravostok]

Interesting times ahead,

Just waiting on the planning permission being granted for Glasgow now.

Do you think we'll see any Livingston routes? something similar to the E10?

 

[route101]

Do you think we'll see any Livingston routes? something similar to the E10?

I wonder if they will go up against Citylink and Flixbus on the 900/090 routes.

 

[paravostok]

I wonder if they will go up against Citylink and Flixbus on the 900/090 routes.

I think if they do it would have to be more interesting than just another M8 bus though. I think somewhere like Bathgate makes sense, as they have a quite large catchment, no options for buses to Glasgow that don't involve travelling halfway to Edinburgh and then turning back or making their way to Harthill. Plus with Ember pricing and consistent image as being quasi-premium I think there's a lot of potential.

 

[AndrewTaylor95]

I think if they do it would have to be more interesting than just another M8 bus though. I think somewhere like Bathgate makes sense, as they have a quite large catchment, no options for buses to Glasgow that don't involve travelling halfway to Edinburgh and then turning back or making their way to Harthill. Plus with Ember pricing and consistent image as being quasi-premium I think there's a lot of potential.

I reckon Armadale and Bathgate are a shout if Ember where to try a service from Edinburgh to Glasgow

 

[NorthOxonian]

Tickets now on sale for E6 Inverness to Thurso from Wednesday 9th July

Interestingly the route extends to Scrabster from Thurso - and while the timetable doesn't seem to have been designed with ferry connections in mind, going northbound there are some reasonable connections onto both of the winter services (and two of the summer ones). Going southbound the connections are a little worse, but even then the waits aren't horrendous.

 

[N1]

Interestingly the route extends to Scrabster from Thurso - and while the timetable doesn't seem to have been designed with ferry connections in mind, going northbound there are some reasonable connections onto both of the winter services (and two of the summer ones). Going southbound the connections are a little worse, but even then the waits aren't horrendous.

Yes, there are some okay connections. Morning southbound service leaving just after X99 will be a disadvantage. 4:30am departure from Inverness to make the morning ferry is also helpful for those who don't mind an early start. Overnight southbound seems likely to be fresh air though.

 

[Buzby]

I reckon Armadale and Bathgate are a shout if Ember where to try a service from Edinburgh to Glasgow

Just as I avoid any 900 that loops through EuroCentral, an Ember wandering through Bathgate or Armadale might benefit citizens of those outposts, but at the expense of other direct carriers. True, they can avoid it if nobody books (like the Cumbernauld detour) but it loses the cachet of being an Express service.

 

[computerSaysNo]

Do you think we'll see any Livingston routes? something similar to the E10?

I wonder if they will go up against Citylink and Flixbus on the 900/090 routes.

I think if they do it would have to be more interesting than just another M8 bus though. I think somewhere like Bathgate makes sense, as they have a quite large catchment, no options for buses to Glasgow that don't involve travelling halfway to Edinburgh and then turning back or making their way to Harthill. Plus with Ember pricing and consistent image as being quasi-premium I think there's a lot of potential.

I reckon Armadale and Bathgate are a shout if Ember where to try a service from Edinburgh to Glasgow

Just as I avoid any 900 that loops through EuroCentral, an Ember wandering through Bathgate or Armadale might benefit citizens of those outposts, but at the expense of other direct carriers. True, they can avoid it if nobody books (like the Cumbernauld detour) but it loses the cachet of being an Express service.

I'm sure someone asked Ember about an Edinburgh to Glasgow in a Facebook comment and they said they have no current plans.
That said, it looks like East Whitburn, Blackburn and Seafield have:

• no current direct bus service to Edinburgh;
• changing at Livingston is possible but means having to use the slow X27/X28 to get to Edinburgh;
• Going to Fauldhouse and changing to the train is possible but likely not practical as it means travelling a substantial distance in the wrong direction and then changing from a once an hour bus onto a once an hour train;
• Going to Uphall and changing to the train is possible but likely not practical as the current bus goes all the way through Livingston before it gets to Uphall.

Also:

• Livingston itself has no fast bus services to Edinburgh;
• Livingston has no fast bus services to Glasgow;

So I could see it being possible for Ember to run something like Edinburgh fast to Livingston then Seafield, Blackburn, Whitburn, then maybe straight onto the motorway from there.
I've also been thinking, regarding the Citylink 900, it looks to be a lot easier for people from Edinburgh to get to the centre of Glasgow (as the bus stops at Haymarket, Roseburn, Murrayfield, Corstorphine, Maybury and Ratho Station), than it is for people from Glasgow to get to the centre of Edinburgh (as the 900 stops at Buchanan Bus Station and nowhere else), so maybe Ember coming off the motorway at say Baillieston and then running limited stop along the A8 into Glasgow might be beneficial in giving people from there a reasonably fast link to Edinburgh?

 

[Buzby]

You’re re-inventing the wheel! The 900 stops at Baillieston in both directions unless routed Via Eurocentral (where it stays on the M8) of the trips I’ve taken, single digit passengers at peak times doesn’t much look like demand. Livingston had two stations both running services to the cities you mentioned, which is probably why there is a shortage of services.

Ember have a tightrope to walk, but there is no shortage of services on the M8 corridor already, but since the bulk of passengers board at each end, these additional stops will impact the choice of those commencing their journeys. Lastly, there are already stopping service along the A8 from Bailleston to Glasgow also - the M8 despite it’s problems remains the best option for the bulk of passengers.

 

[davp]

The lights at Blackburn Cross will make that corridor a very slow option at busy times. I'd be surprised if there was demand to make that worthwhile. Ember would probably get the best footfall by calling at Livingston Centre and Fastlink, but that will add a good 15 mins time to any journey. I suspect most people from WL are using the train between Glasgow and Edinburgh - and maybe more when the peak fares go in September. Linking Livi and Bathgate into services at Falkirk and Stirling would be interesting and offer some different journey options.

 

[peterblue]

I'm not overly optimistic that an Edinburgh-Glasgow route will work. As there is already so much competition from City link and Flix you are having to make the economies of the route work with just the intermediate stops. It won't be realistic to compete with citylink on frequency. There already are buses to Edinburgh, albeit relatively slow ones, from areas in West Lothian. Are there really that many people in Whitburn etc, wanting to go to Glasgow?

 

[FlybeDash8Q400]

I'm not overly optimistic that an Edinburgh-Glasgow route will work. As there is already so much competition from City link and Flix you are having to make the economies of the route work with just the intermediate stops. It won't be realistic to compete with citylink on frequency. There already are buses to Edinburgh, albeit relatively slow ones, from areas in West Lothian. Are there really that many people in Whitburn etc, wanting to go to Glasgow?

Probably not, and the 902 covers the bits the 900 doesn’t cover at less frequent intervals. Then the AIR covers the West of Scotland to Edinburgh Airport market. The M8 corridor really is already well served.

I can’t see how this 090 is meant to work. If it was marketed as a feeder bus to the wider network, then fine. But it isn’t. It also can’t fully serve Edinburgh Bus Station due to capacity issues, so the 900 will always will on convenience. Gone are the days where people in the east would want to go to Glasgow Airport in large volumes. Edinburgh Airport has taken most of that traffic so you couldn’t even do that to try and fix the problem.

 

[roadierway77]

It's interesting to speculate regarding an Edinburgh to Glasgow route as it's likely the busiest coach route in Scotland and there's definitely money there, but Citylink have the two major traffic flows along the M8 corridor covered - Edinburgh to/from Glasgow and Glasgow to/from Edinburgh Airport. If Ember wanted to have a go at Edinburgh to Glasgow I'd say the most realistic route choice would be direct via the M8, stopping off in Livingston as that's the largest place between Glasgow and Edinburgh to not have any major fast coach links to either. M9/M80 stopping off in Falkirk is another option however I just don't think any coach company can realistically compete with the speed and convenience of the train on that corridor (hence why Midland Bluebird's X36/X37 and X38 go around the houses so much because they know people looking for a very fast link will take the train; realistically there's not too many that will be going end to end, especially with the X38). However Stagecoach's X51 from Livingston to Glasgow (which operated direct via Harthill and Maxim Park) didn't work and neither did First/McGill's X24 or Citylink's 902 between Livingston and Edinburgh, so I'd say Edinburgh to Glasgow is just too risky. They'd be better targeting other routes like Glasgow to Ayr, Fort William to Inverness and Edinburgh to Newcastle and filling in the Edinburgh/Glasgow to Inverness gap.

The real question is whether there will ever again be an Ember service with the number E2...!

 

[overthewater]

To be fair the X51 did work but stagecoach were so clueless that they never give it proper resources to resolve the issues, It was more hassle than it was worth, IE passengers lapped it up and couldn't get on. 902 goes Via Monklands to help bridge a gap between East and West and its doing rather nicely. Whitburn is suppose to be getting a Park n ride scheme its in the plans, but I doubt there any space on the 900, we may will see that going to every 10mins if it ever opens.

Stagecoach does pick a good handful of passengers at Forth Valley hospital, lets not forgot the ONE important fact First owned the buses and Trains for 15 years around Falkirk, why waste putting on an Express bus when you already control the trains..

 

[Highland050261]

Inverness drivers are currently being informed during interviews that Portree and Ullapool are planned routes from Inverness for next year.

 

[route101]

Pure speculation but I wonder if a South Lanarkshire - Edinburgh route would work.