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Lothian Buses and ECB Discussion

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Lothian_Bus

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The 22 and 26 I think we can safely rule out. As others have said these routes have recently had new buses allocated and the 26 has also had it's entire fleet painted in the Edinburgh Zoo theme.

There have been a few comments about the 22 being quiet. Not the one's I have been on.

At this stage we don't know if all buses are due to head to Central but if they do then surely the 31 or 37/47 would be a possibility. It depends on what routes these buses are best to go on though and they may end up contained within the city boundaries such as they did with the last batch on service 8.

A portion of the 44 is based at Central (most are at Longstone) so perhaps we could see the 42 buses being split between Central and Longstone (not necessarily 50/50) and ending up on the 31 and 44. I think 42 would be very close to the combined PVR of these two routes.

Also, I would need to find the post from earlier this year but are we not still expecting another 25 buses to arrive at some point? The discussion was 25 new B5TL's and 20 B5HL's. We have had 20 B5TL's so far (12 on the 8 plus another 8 on the 124) but I thought we were due more.
 
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SpeedbirdA350

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Does airlink need new buses again though? I thought the rule with airlink buses was to replace them at 3 year old, but they are on 17 plate so just over a year atm.

I think it's going to be intersting to see how they work within the fleet as a whole though and if Lothian decide to place more orders for the model over wrightbus.

Does anyone know if they have rear steer axle?
 

Jordan Adam

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Does airlink need new buses again though? I thought the rule with airlink buses was to replace them at 3 year old, but they are on 17 plate so just over a year atm.

I think it's going to be intersting to see how they work within the fleet as a whole though and if Lothian decide to place more orders for the model over wrightbus.

Does anyone know if they have rear steer axle?

It appears they don't, but no one seems to really know. I've tweeted ADL hoping to get a definite answer!
 

oldman

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The 11 goes up in frequency during the peaks so you could save a bus or two with the new ones. The 16 stays at every 10 minutes. The core section of the 11/16 from Comiston to town is very busy all the time so I don't think you would want to reduce the off-peak.

The 22 is every 8 minutes off-peak so that could also be an invisible saving.

Are there other routes which have an increased peak frequency compared to off-peak? Not many I think - the longer routes tend to have expresses.
 

Tom1791

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They could in theory reduce the 26 to every 10 minutes and use the current buses on the 31 since it still passes the zoo. However, I'm expecting some at least to appear on the 37 which from my experience is one of the most busy services from central. Hopefully the 16 too which is generally busy throughout the day and could be better timed with the 11s to provide suitable capacity/better frequency for Morningside (rather than the 16s often running 2 minutes behind the 11s on the current timetable around 4pm)
 

MrHopefull

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Does airlink need new buses again though? I thought the rule with airlink buses was to replace them at 3 year old, but they are on 17 plate so just over a year atm.

I think it's going to be intersting to see how they work within the fleet as a whole though and if Lothian decide to place more orders for the model over wrightbus.

Does anyone know if they have rear steer axle?
quite possible as there was talks that ECB would take some old air/sky link buses to replace the older gemmis
but I guess we will have to wait to find out
 

Jordan Adam

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Lots of scrubbing like Aberdeens 6x2s

Yup, sadly when the E500s were built the powered tag was not an option on the "Trident" chassis, where as now it is. The main issues these new B8Ls will have is an appalling turning circle, this is not an issue on our E500s as they're only 12M. The turning circle on the E500s is just slightly better than that of a normal 12M single.

The rear tyres will need replaced roughly every 4 weeks, Might be even worse with Edinburgh's roads. Over 42 vehicles that's quite a significant cost!
 

Gingerbus1991

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Yup, sadly when the E500s were built the powered tag was not an option on the "Trident" chassis, where as now it is. The main issues these new B8Ls will have is an appalling turning circle, this is not an issue on our E500s as they're only 12M. The turning circle on the E500s is just slightly better than that of a normal 12M single.

The rear tyres will need replaced roughly every 4 weeks, Might be even worse with Edinburgh's roads. Over 42 vehicles that's quite a significant cost!
But then lothian seem to be rolling in it, there profit last year was 13million with about 6 mill going to the council.

Its there LCB that must be burning money.

Perhaps these having longer wheelbases wont be to harsh on the rear wheels.

I honestly wouldve thought rear-steering wouldve been for sure considering there length.
 

Jordan Adam

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But then lothian seem to be rolling in it, there profit last year was 13million with about 6 mill going to the council.

Its there LCB that must be burning money.

Perhaps these having longer wheelbases wont be to harsh on the rear wheels.

I honestly wouldve thought rear-steering wouldve been for sure considering there length.

I see the Media are calling them the "Monster Bus".

Surely the "Titanic" would be more appropriate as this name would reflect the poor turning circle! :lol:

It's somewhat off topic, but i think it was here you mentioned about these being ideal for Aberdeen. Having had a thought about it, they wouldn't fit round the Braehead/Balgownie area on the 1.
 

Gingerbus1991

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I see the Media are calling them the "Monster Bus".

Surely the "Titanic" would be more appropriate as this name would reflect the poor turning circle! :lol:

It's somewhat off topic, but i think it was here you mentioned about these being ideal for Aberdeen. Having had a thought about it, they wouldn't fit round the Braehead/Balgownie area on the 1.
Albeit is hasnt been confirmed that the chassis can't be shrunk to fit a 12m overall body length.

I would think that if Volvo/ADL want this to the UK offering they will likely make a 12m one.
 

Jordan Adam

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Albeit is hasnt been confirmed that the chassis can't be shrunk to fit a 12m overall body length.

I would think that if Volvo/ADL want this to the UK offering they will likely make a 12m one.

The wheelbase can be any length ADL want it to be, even all the way down to an overall length of 10M! Although there's not a market for that in the UK.
 

GusB

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The wheelbase can be any length ADL want it to be, even all the way down to an overall length of 10M! Although there's not a market for that in the UK.
That shows how much has changed over the years. 10.3m Olympians were considered to be "long", with 9.8m being the "standard" length.
 

ANWP Tom

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31 and maybe the sometimes well loaded and older bussed 25 seems logical for the new ones on a direct old for new basis but there are a lot of place capacity would help, peak eastbound 44s and 26s are crammed for example
 

Gingerbus1991

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I'm guessing these are the ones from 701-825 but someone may wish to correct me.
As far as I understand, that is correct, 701-750 will probably be withdrawn within the next year while 751-825 will presumably follow them.
Am I gonna guess right that the 42 new XLBs due in january are partly to displace some mid-life vehicles to subsequintly replace these B7s
 

TheEastCoaster

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Christmas and Hogmanay timetables have been released for Lothian

Here’s some highlights
*All Skylink services will run on Boxing Day/New Years Day
* No West Lothian services on Christmas/Boxing and New Years Day
* Hogmanay buses will be £5 this year
* 43 every 15 minutes on New Years Day
* N8, N22, N33 not running on Hogmanay this year. N14 partially replacing N8 and N44 reinstated in Tranent, (No Nighthawks this year either)

You’d think with the N44 east end being scrapped they’d actually bring the NightHawks in to cover all of East Lothian
 

overthewater

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First are running the Christmas/Boxing and New Years Day in West Lothian, I see the 43 is back to every 15mins after Lothian got there backside tanned by public..
 

VioletEclipse

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Christmas and Hogmanay timetables have been released for Lothian

Here’s some highlights
*All Skylink services will run on Boxing Day/New Years Day
* No West Lothian services on Christmas/Boxing and New Years Day
* Hogmanay buses will be £5 this year
* 43 every 15 minutes on New Years Day
* N8, N22, N33 not running on Hogmanay this year. N14 partially replacing N8 and N44 reinstated in Tranent, (No Nighthawks this year either)

You’d think with the N44 east end being scrapped they’d actually bring the NightHawks in to cover all of East Lothian
Straight from free service to £5? that won't be popular!
 

Lothian_Bus

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427 back in Standard Livery. Currently operating on Central service 10 but wonder if it will end up at Longstone with the rest of it's batch.
 

Darklord8899

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You’d think with the N44 east end being scrapped they’d actually bring the NightHawks in to cover all of East Lothian

I suspect the N44 has been brought back as EL Council haven't stumped up cash for the Nighthawks to run, Christmas Day/New year's Day services run supported by ELC
 
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