Lothian Group discussion (Lothian City, Lothian Country Bus and East Coast Buses)

[Resuwen]

Presumably 291-4 and 997 will have e added to their fleet number stickers for consistency

 

[Sussexwatch]

Go Ahead London's electric buses have a small e prefix and fleet numbers on National Express West Midlands Buses all begin with E so the practice isn't unusual. It may be to help garage staff.

 

[Lothiangem22]

To confirm for those that interested, the new electric buses will enter service this Sunday.

2 are at central, 2 are pretty much ready to be moved to central and a further 11 are currently in the delivery and prep stage.

Service 8 and 9 will have the initial allocation.

 

[FlybeDash8Q400]

Go Ahead London's electric buses have a small e prefix and fleet numbers on National Express West Midlands Buses all begin with E so the practice isn't unusual. It may be to help garage staff.

I think it’s more that the fact that 291-294 and 997 don’t have it that makes it all the more surprising.

 

[DunsBus]

The "e" suffix makes them sound like they've been numbered by a Geordie.

 

[ScotRail158725]

To confirm for those that interested, the new electric buses will enter service this Sunday.

2 are at central, 2 are pretty much ready to be moved to central and a further 11 are currently in the delivery and prep stage.

Service 8 and 9 will have the initial allocation.

The 8 blessed with new buses again? Went about 20 years with the oldest stock in Central along with the 14 surprised to see Brand new buses again twice in 6 years

 

[CN04NRJ]

I can’t see any good reason for the ‘e’ at the end of the fleetnumber, it just looks like a marketing gimmick to me. I would be astounded if it was felt necessary to distinguish between EV and ICE buses, as this fact should be immediately obvious to bus staff.

There's obvious, and then blindingly obvious. Covering "all bases" so to speak isn't such a bad thing, what does it really matter other than to enthusiasts wanting purity with fleet numbers?

 

[stantheman]

What happens to 351 to 400 once all new buses in service ?

 

[LothianBusesPh]

As @Bus9120UK said to me as well, there’s also the green registration plate and the big ZERO EMISSION electric stickers all over the bus. Just seems totally unnecessary.

It’s on the front under the screen and the Lothian logo doesn’t have a roundel beside it. The sides have been teased on social media. The destination box area looks very odd on the side with white and madder going through it. The paint is a little wonky too.

 

[roadierway77]

I can’t see any good reason for the ‘e’ at the end of the fleetnumber, it just looks like a marketing gimmick to me. I would be astounded if it was felt necessary to distinguish between EV and ICE buses, as this fact should be immediately obvious to bus staff.

There's nothing wrong with ensuring staff know for sure which buses are electric. As for it being a marketing gimmick, I doubt any regular passengers ever notice the fleet number of a bus when boarding or alighting, let alone potential passengers.

I think it’s more that the fact that 291-294 and 997 don’t have it that makes it all the more surprising.

291-294 are a microfleet that stick out like a sore thumb in relation to the rest of the fleet thanks to their green colour scheme, and 997 is still technically only a demonstrator I believe? Now that electric buses are going to take up a significant proportion of the fleet, it makes sense to me to officially differentiate them from the regular diesel buses.

To confirm for those that interested, the new electric buses will enter service this Sunday.

2 are at central, 2 are pretty much ready to be moved to central and a further 11 are currently in the delivery and prep stage.

Service 8 and 9 will have the initial allocation.

Excellent news!

 

[Sussexscot]

The 8 blessed with new buses again? Went about 20 years with the oldest stock in Central along with the 14 surprised to see Brand new buses again twice in 6 years

I think that the more interesting question is what happens to those vehicles that are cascaded to other depots, particularly Musselburgh and Livingston. What improvements will we see on ECB and LC services?

 

[FlybeDash8Q400]

I think that the more interesting question is what happens to those vehicles that are cascaded to other depots, particularly Musselburgh and Livingston. What improvements will we see on ECB and LC services?

The displaced fleet should in theory be used to increase frequencies within the city fleet. I can’t see ECB gaining any extra buses as Musselburgh as far as I know is at capacity, but LC might gain a small number to increase frequencies or add new routes. Plenty of space to do it, more driver resource dependent than anything.

 

[stevenedin]

I’ve been thinking that once 701-750 arrive. Maybe some of 670-698 will move to Lothian Country as I’ve heard rumours that these batch may move west or east.

 

[Mal]

Go Ahead London's electric buses have a small e prefix and fleet numbers on National Express West Midlands Buses all begin with E so the practice isn't unusual. It may be to help garage staff.

Just because other companies do it doesn't mean that Lothian need to. Anyway, would not the 'new' livery layout be a clue to garage staff?

 

[CN04NRJ]

Just because other companies do it doesn't mean that Lothian need to. Anyway, would not the 'new' livery layout be a clue to garage staff?

Does it really matter how a company chooses to designate it's fleet?

 

[Vectron383]

‘Designate its fleet’ could technically apply to that time when Lothian motorcoaches had cherished plates directly taunting its competitors so… maybe?

The above is of course semantics and it is admittedly a very minor issue- but as with much of this forum I often focus on even the smallest of details (!) and part of me does wonder if this is being done to show that Lothian is one of ‘the big boys’ like various operators in London and beyond.

 

[scosutsut]

I expect the e is there for maintenance/schedulers to act as an reminder as they can't be maintained or scheduled like diesel's so it makes sense that you make it obvious on a computer screen/sheet of paper that the vehicle in question needs to be treated differently.

It's not going to be for the benefit of anyone stood looking at it. Sometimes you need to think beyond the visual.

 

[CN04NRJ]

I expect the e is there for maintenance/schedulers to act as an reminder as they can't be maintained or scheduled like diesel's so it makes sense that you make it obvious on a computer screen/sheet of paper that the vehicle in question needs to be treated differently.

It's not going to be for the benefit of anyone stood looking at it. Sometimes you need to think beyond the visual.

This, Newport Bus also departed from their traditional numbering system with electrics numbered Z01-Z55 purely to differentiate them for operational reasons.

For many staff at all companies 'a bus is a bus', when working/reading off a list of printed or displayed fleet numbers the e/Z (or whatever) can prevent a bus from being misallocated or treated differently than it should be (bus wash procedure, parking, maintenance etc etc).

There's no big conspiracy behind it (like trying to look like 'one of the big boys'), it's really just very mundane.

 

[LothianLover88]

Just to confirm, the BZLs will be entering service on Sunday on the 8/9? Are the timetable changes with the 23, 24 and 27 going to take place with the spares that would be on the 8/9?

 

[FlybeDash8Q400]

Just to confirm, the BZLs will be entering service on Sunday on the 8/9? Are the timetable changes with the 23, 24 and 27 going to take place with the spares that would be on the 8/9?

Sort of. My guess is the displaced E400mmc’s from the 8/9 will move onto the 7. Just my thought, this could very well be wrong. These displaced 11 plates in theory move onto the 10 and 24.

I’m only suggesting this as I think it’s likely Central will lose some or all of 466-468, 926-928, 1000 and 1002-1003. Central will probably also lose a small number of E400mmc’s to Longstone for the 44 increase and we all know that 426-437 are already going with the 22. 1001 hopefully moves from Longstone to Marine if the aforementioned moves happen too.

The 23 and 27 won’t gain anything extra as the weekday frequencies stay the same.

 

[ScotRail158725]

Just to confirm, the BZLs will be entering service on Sunday on the 8/9? Are the timetable changes with the 23, 24 and 27 going to take place with the spares that would be on the 8/9?

The PVR will only increase by about 4 or 5 at the most between the 3 routes

 

[Lothianbus703]

Sort of. My guess is the displaced E400mmc’s from the 8/9 will move onto the 7. Just my thought, this could very well be wrong. These displaced 11 plates in theory move onto the 10 and 24.

I’m only suggesting this as I think it’s likely Central will lose some or all of 466-468, 926-928, 1000 and 1002-1003. Central will probably also lose a small number of E400mmc’s to Longstone for the 44 increase and we all know that 426-437 are already going with the 22. 1001 hopefully moves from Longstone to Marine if the aforementioned moves happen too.

The 23 and 27 won’t gain anything extra as the weekday frequencies stay the same.

The 10 and 24 already have 11 plates.

 

[FlybeDash8Q400]

The 10 and 24 already have 11 plates.

They do, but the 10 only gets an allocation of about 50%; usually the rest being 926-928 and the ex London’s. If they’re not there then something will need to plug the gap. The 24 is getting a frequency increase so will need more buses.

 

[Lothianbus703]

They do, but the 10 only gets an allocation of about 50%; usually the rest being 926-928 and the ex London’s. If they’re not there then something will need to plug the gap. The 24 is getting a frequency increase so will need more buses.

I forgot, thanks for explaining.

 

[stevenedin]

I can see 926-928, 1000 & 1002-1003 moving to Lothian Country but no repaint (like what happened before the big cuts a while back). If anything, 1000, 1002 & 1003 will get repainted, either that or some other buses move. I have heard that some of Volvo B5TL E400MMCs are to move but it could just be a rumour.

 

[FlybeDash8Q400]

I can see 926-928, 1000 & 1002-1003 moving to Lothian Country but no repaint (like what happened before the big cuts a while back). If anything, 1000, 1002 & 1003 will get repainted, either that or some other buses move. I have heard that some of Volvo B5TL E400MMCs are to move but it could just be a rumour.

I can’t see any scenario in which the first thing happens. The second will, but I don’t think yet.

 

[ScotRail158725]

I can see 926-928, 1000 & 1002-1003 moving to Lothian Country but no repaint (like what happened before the big cuts a while back). If anything, 1000, 1002 & 1003 will get repainted, either that or some other buses move.

Why can you see that?

I have heard that some of Volvo B5TL E400MMCs are to move but it could just be a rumour.

Yeah its rumor until anything comes to fruition

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 5 Sep 2024 ==

I can’t see any scenario in which the first thing happens. The second will, but I don’t think yet.

Lothian Country doesn’t need much more buses other than a handful in the case of any frequency increases

 

[CN04NRJ]

Sort of. My guess is the displaced E400mmc’s from the 8/9 will move onto the 7. Just my thought, this could very well be wrong. These displaced 11 plates in theory move onto the 10 and 24.

I’m only suggesting this as I think it’s likely Central will lose some or all of 466-468, 926-928, 1000 and 1002-1003. Central will probably also lose a small number of E400mmc’s to Longstone for the 44 increase and we all know that 426-437 are already going with the 22. 1001 hopefully moves from Longstone to Marine if the aforementioned moves happen too.

The 23 and 27 won’t gain anything extra as the weekday frequencies stay the same.

I've been told all the 400s are earmarked to be transferred out of Central as electrification progresses.

 

[stevenedin]

Why can you see that?

Yeah its rumor until anything comes to fruition

They already have 929-931, 933-936 and 1033-1050 which are similar buses so it would make sense until they get more new buses. I guess we will need to wait and see.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 5 Sep 2024 ==

I've been told all the 400s are earmarked to be transferred out of Central as electrification progresses.

466-468 will probably go to Marine and 426-437 Longstone.

 

[Lothiangem22]

Realistically, there will be around 4-8 electrics for Sunday at most. Fleet movements to other depots will be slow to start until the rest of the batch arrive.
I haven’t seen the full allocations for next week in entirety, though the 8/9 will definitely be “electrified” first.