A better picture would help before I say that to be fair. I've seen the West Lothian livery with a better picture but yet to see any with decent lighting for this.
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McGill's Scotland East (Midland Bluebird and Eastern Scottish)
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The whole bus feels like that, it feels like a bodge job.
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ScotRail158725
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Its been hand painted with rollers aswell, Its already flaked off a bit around the rear brake lights
FlybeDash8Q400
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I think these Pulsar2’s are just the start of many transfers to come. Could we even see Scotland East get its first new buses in a number of years? I want to say the Enviro400mmc’s 2016 were the most recent new ones?
Trnsprt4Sctlnd
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If that is for real its just another worstbus operation..
computerSaysNo
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Where are the pulsars coming from, Dundee?
I noticed from pictures online that they have the (cheaper?) window surrounds, so the windows aren't flush with the body; it just looks cheap and tacky to me
.I also thought the wheels looked very small in comparison to the body size; do they have smaller wheels than the Volvos?
McGills West reserve fleet, no?Where are the pulsars coming from, Dundee?
I noticed from pictures online that they have the (cheaper?) window surrounds, so the windows aren't flush with the body; it just looks cheap and tacky to me
I also thought the wheels looked very small in comparison to the body size; do they have smaller wheels than the Volvos?
FlybeDash8Q400
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They have gasket windows as they were built to Arriva spec and these buses were part of the sale of Arriva Scotland West to McGill’s.Where are the pulsars coming from, Dundee?
I noticed from pictures online that they have the (cheaper?) window surrounds, so the windows aren't flush with the body; it just looks cheap and tacky to me
I also thought the wheels looked very small in comparison to the body size; do they have smaller wheels than the Volvos?
Leyland Bus
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It certainly looks very "flat", definitely a roller job... Shame, with a few decent tins of paint and a proper coach painter and this would look stunning!
computerSaysNo
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Ahh okay, thanks.
Ahhh, I hadn't realized there were still vehicles kicking about from that time.
318266
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Surely you can think of a better place to put it than across there!
Photo shows a close up of the bottom front of a McGill's Midland Bluebird livery Wright Pulsar II, registration YJ09 CVN, with the bluebird logo decal split along one of the panel lines, resulting in the bluebird splitting in twain, not particularly cleanly.
Photo sourced from my own Flickr:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/196267965@N07/52381447349/in/dateposted-public/
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To be fair it was always expected there would be surplus McGill's buses going to the new subsidiaries. It's seriously needed, these won't be the only things going east no doubt.
First always used Scotland East as their dumping ground, a whole load of the fleet is going to need replaced as they are not in good condition.
If there's surplus stock lying around due to introduction of electrics, surplus to requirements due to loss of work, etc, of course they're going to go there.
You would hope in the coming years they will order new vehicles rather than be the same old place to be cascaded. But that obviously takes time.
First always used Scotland East as their dumping ground, a whole load of the fleet is going to need replaced as they are not in good condition.
If there's surplus stock lying around due to introduction of electrics, surplus to requirements due to loss of work, etc, of course they're going to go there.
You would hope in the coming years they will order new vehicles rather than be the same old place to be cascaded. But that obviously takes time.
Absolutely not! Anyone can tell it's not a copy as it says Midland Bluebird on the side, the rest of the livery doesn't count. Totally original!
90019
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They've left the light clusters cream rather than painting them blue, so it's definitely a totally different livery...
Trnsprt4Sctlnd
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overthewater
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Has anyone else been disappointed with this weeks events? It's like everything is just limping along as before expect for a new App and website. I expected maybe 10 newer buses in the new livery to hit the road running while the rest of the fleet to have stickers on the outside of the buses to say McGills have taken over, plus every bus to have a new fleet number.
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LothianBusesPh
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Sorry! I completely forgot about the branding and the Cream light surrounds! Very different!
Graham Alexand
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Absolutely not!
I would say McGill's are making brilliant progress with what they have. They have already introduced 2 new liveries.
The cancellations have certainly had a decrease, even if not by much. The app seems good enough, it works. The website is easy enough to use.
This negativity and the amount of impatience that people have towards McGill's baffles me. It will take time, possibly a very long time, to fully sort out things with the take over.
In other news, I've noticed a few drivers in the new McGill's uniform which is nice to see.
There are quite a few cascades coming in from McGill's West Scotland, these being the VDL Pulsar 2's. I presume these are to replace the Scania Solars?
I think most buses have fleet numbers, if not, a fair few. However, since First Scotland East had around 400ish buses in their fleet (please correct me if I'm wrong) it will take some time for them all to be done.
May have thought that they'd have sent Euro 6 vehicles that go into Edinburgh's LEZ, but i've seen more older B7RLEs than newer stuff recently.
RomeoCharlie71
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I guess you haven't been affected by the masses of unannounced cancellations in the Falkirk & Stirling area like I have on the two days I've visited this week...
McGills promised a 19:15 update with the next days cancellations, and an 07:15 update the next morning if required. This hasn't happened any day this week. I knew it wouldn't be possible for updates to be given bang on those times, this has given customers false hope. There were no cancellations posted for Midland yesterday, and none for Midland or Eastern today - there are definitely cancellations at Midland today; the Unilink didn't run all morning!
I wonder how company management would feel if they turned up to a train station to find their train was cancelled, but with no communication? The same principle applies.
With respect, I don't think passengers care what livery their bus arrives in at the moment - they want to have confidence that it'll turn up in the first place, and to be told if it won't. The Livingston E400MMC I had on Thursday lunchtime felt like it hadn't been cleaned in days, with sticky residue over the seats, floor and plastic mouldings. It might well have been like this with First, but McGill's are now in charge, they're now accountable.
I feel this Twitter thread sums it up quite well: https://twitter.com/rgp250716/status/1574000866604027905?s=46&t=c5Smh55JtZHfLaWh_xfOKg
The app and website, on the other hand, are a big step up from First's offering. It's great being able to track your bus on the map, but there were at least 10 buses at Livingston which didn't track at all on Friday, presumably related to having no GPRS signal on the Ticketer machine, which could do with being fixed.
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Graham Alexand
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Apologies, I completely neglected the Midland Bluebird operations in terms of cancellations.
I was noticing how naive people who had never used Mcgills before seemed to be when the sale was announced and I guess people just thought it could never be worse than First. I think they could be very wrong and Mcgills could be even worse than First ever were.
I like going to Stirling and Falkirk but the train is definitely looking a bit more attractive than Mcgills at this point which is a shame because the X10/X10A route is a personal favourite after trying it a few weeks ago for nice scenery. I don't mind the X36 and X37 either to be fair but the X36 especially is very prone to cancellations now.
I like going to Stirling and Falkirk but the train is definitely looking a bit more attractive than Mcgills at this point which is a shame because the X10/X10A route is a personal favourite after trying it a few weeks ago for nice scenery. I don't mind the X36 and X37 either to be fair but the X36 especially is very prone to cancellations now.
When McGills took over Xplore Dundee they only stuck on stickers on buses that were in the new colours, the Geminis here (especially in old National Express livery I think there is 2 or 3?), have where the labels for part of National Express taped over but no updated stickers either (far from defending McGills here but like others it will take time), I’m being on topic in terms of fleet decoration/numbers etc.
Yes, the X10 is a different way to get to Stirling. Train is my usual way to Falkirk or Stirling; I remember buying a multi zone day ticket on First for these routes from Glasgow. It will be easier with the app these days.
Looking at this thread I would say things are moving very quickly. In my area where Diamond bus has taken over Midland Classic just under 2 months ago there is still very little that has changed (not that I am complaining!) with 2 Diamond branded vehicles in use and everything else branded for Midland Classic.
Whiteway215
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I am no expert so please correct if wrong but I would estimate the number of First vehicles acquired by McGill’s as around 290-300. That includes operational and not currently on the road vehicles.
Very happy to be corrected on that figure though!
overthewater
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I think most people were expecting some sort of big grand gesture, to say We're here and things are going to be different.
Graham Alexand
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I think there are around 400 buses. However, you may be correct.
True, I think there was a lot of anticipation of their takeover. Too many theories were made, some suspecting buses would come in from the west (which has in fact become true with the VDL Pulsar 2's).
Stan Drews
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I think it was 285 buses acquired, with around 100 less than that required to be operational, based on the current service levels.
Whiteway215
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Sounds like a lot of the acquired First vehicles will have to be disposed of then!
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