I seem to recall that the 22 went to Sighthill around that time. I was seeing someone who was at Heriot Watt in 1993, and the main daytime service was the 65. In the evenings (and possibly weekends - memories are a bit hazy) it was the 22A, which would turn right off Gorgie Road, go round the houses a bit, before rejoining the A71 and heading out to Riccarton. I honestly can't remember if it terminated there or went onto Currie afterwards.
Herriot Watt has come a long way since the '90s, when the half hourly 22 was all it had from the Sighthill direction (now there's the 25/34/35, making it a very popular terminus)!
The half hourly 65 replaced the 22, one of those things that I like, when operators introduce a new service and ensure it's got some passengers on it on day one by giving it a section of another service - the 65 was basically there as competition for the CitySprinter C5/C55s on the Lochend - A71 corridor but LRT gave it the weekday bit of the 22 beyond Sighthill so that this "new" route had some "existing" passengers.
I’d even propose bringing the 32 back and have it work off the 21 in a unique way.
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Cutting the old circulars made some sense, since it allowed Lothian to run a more reliable service, focus frequencies (and bigger vehicles) on the city centre sections, trim services in the quieter sections (e.g. the Duddingston bit of the 42/46), penetrate housing estates properly (rather than the days of the 19/39 keeping to Boswell Parkway, when the CitySprinter minibuses were actually serving the houses)... I get that... probably a handful of people and allowed some conspiracy theories about forcing people to pay twice but a positive thing overall... but then the current 21 is so unwieldy that I wonder whether it ought to be similarly trimmed.
There are faster journeys available through the city centre for a lot of the flows that the 21 does (e.g. Wester Hailes to the Infirmary must be a pretty tiny market, but the 33 runs a more direct route... Leith to the Gyle is every few minutes on the 22), so how about:
21: Run it as now from Wester Hailes/ Gyle to Leith but terminating at Restlerig (replacing the 25 from Leith to Restalrig)
25: Herriot Watt to Waterloo Place (cuts will need to be made to the overall frequency on Leith Walk anyway, and the 21 will cover the Restalrig section)
50: New service replacing the 21 from Leith to the Infirmary but starting at Ocean Terminal, giving Portobello a link to the popular shopping centre, co-ordinating with the 49 to provide a frequent service from central Leith to central Portobello (and on towards Milton Road) - much easier to -co-ordinate with the 49 when the "50" would be a much shorter route than the 21
What areas did the old Lothian bus 43 route serve/do (the one that went to Haymarket)
The version I knew in the 1980s/1990s was the same as the 44, but running via Cockburn Crescent at Balerno (in the days when the 44 only served the eastern side of Balerno) - the 43 was renumbered to 44A and then replaced by all 44 journeys doing the full loop at Balerno (EDIT - beaten to the punch by others above!)