FlybeDash8Q400
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Yep as below. Looks as if 602 has freed it up.
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Lothian Group discussion (Lothian City, Lothian Country Bus and East Coast Buses)
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Resuwen
Member
Saw two of the repowered open toppers having a run out on the A1 in East Lothian this morning.
Will these ever enter service?
Will these ever enter service?
I think we need to give Lothian a bit of slack here, recent experience has taught them to be cautious with Wright Electric products and they obviously have the slack in the fleet to keep them off a bit longer. We'd be complaining if they threw them into service and they immediately broke down.
As it is a new type of conversion, I seem to remember that the First repowers took some time to start to be certified (or whatever it is called) post their electric conversion.
Resuwen
Member
It's not a criticism, just a question.
Be interesting to see if they start repowering any of the regular service fleet.
LothianLover88
Member
I spotted 242 on the Royal Mile around 14:10 for anyone interested.
Something also happened to 356 at Gilmerton Road with a tow truck on scene - incident happened around 16:00 - but I have no idea what actually done it.
Something also happened to 356 at Gilmerton Road with a tow truck on scene - incident happened around 16:00 - but I have no idea what actually done it.
I think the range is quite low on them, so my gut feel is no, that said if the Tourbuses are seen as a success who knows?
ScotRail158725
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A basic breakdown nothing more than that
Blindtraveler
Established Member
I suspect from a purely practical point of view that the only ones they will repower for the moment would be the tours fleet, if the range is extended at a later point for either the wrights or if someone offers a higher mileage option for the Volvo mmc I could see them exercising it
Northumberland! More expansion for Lothian?
Resuwen
Member
no, it’s there for refurb
ScotRail158725
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tongue in cheek comment (hopefully)
Grumpyscot
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What is happening on the 26 route just now - Friday afternoon - 3 buses parked up at Seton Sands, one just left (at Cockenzie Harbour) and another heading for Seton Sands at Lidls Prestonpans. Seems a regular event now with 2 buses parked up at Seton Sands. Maybe they could have rerouted them to Tranent? Many people complaining about the half hourly service to Musselburgh (124 only now) from top Pans.
buslad1988
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That’s regular for the 26 - whenever the weather is nice, and particularly on Friday afternoons after the schools finish and any events at Murrayfield. It’s purely traffic/overcrowding related, buses running late/catching each other up etc. No different to before the service change - it’s regularly like this at the Clerwood end, and will probably be more noticeable now at the Seton Sands end now they all terminate there.
It’s what you get for a main route that serves a city centre, beach, zoo etc.
(this may have been discussed before - I'm not wading through 500 pages to see!)
I'm quite frustrated with Lothian's reliability (as are many other people on social media) - today's example was waiting for a bus which only has half-hourly intervals on a sunday. I was at the stop 8 minutes before it was due, but the bus just didn't turn up. After about 15 minutes after it was due I cut my losses, walked round the corner and got the tram. I don't think Lothian help themselves by implying that the Bus & Tram app shows live bus times, when the "8 minutes" to the departure was just the timetabled time (despite apparently the buses having GPS trackers).
Maybe I'm unlucky (and other people on social media), but this seems to be a not uncommon occurrence. How can people rely on buses for getting to work on time / getting to the station / airport etc when this is an experience reported by many?
Are Lothian particularly bad relative to other operators?
I'm quite frustrated with Lothian's reliability (as are many other people on social media) - today's example was waiting for a bus which only has half-hourly intervals on a sunday. I was at the stop 8 minutes before it was due, but the bus just didn't turn up. After about 15 minutes after it was due I cut my losses, walked round the corner and got the tram. I don't think Lothian help themselves by implying that the Bus & Tram app shows live bus times, when the "8 minutes" to the departure was just the timetabled time (despite apparently the buses having GPS trackers).
Maybe I'm unlucky (and other people on social media), but this seems to be a not uncommon occurrence. How can people rely on buses for getting to work on time / getting to the station / airport etc when this is an experience reported by many?
Are Lothian particularly bad relative to other operators?
buslad1988
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I wouldn’t say it’s Lothians fault - it’s Edinburghs awful roads and lack of bus priority; which is something they’ve been actively campaigning about and trying to get the council to combat for years!
If you press on the time a map should show up displaying where the bus is and its movements. I always would use that to help judge the accuracy of the information provided.
If it showed as 8 minutes, it would've been live I believe. It'd have shown in 24 hour format (e.g 12:30) if it was a scheduled time. There is a singular exception though. 'Fake buses' as I call which show as if they are live but they are actually a computer placing a bus where it would be based on the timetable because no tracking data is being received. The bus was allocated to that board by the control room so it makes the assumption that the bus must be on the route. The problem with this is that it is impossible to account for any delays, or if the set bus is completely wrong. Thankfully this isn't common now but it does still happen.
the 8 minutes was from clicking on the stop in the App and showing the list of "leaving soon".
I did actually look at the map eventually! I think there was a ghost bus (and/or a bug). Unless you have seen this or know it happens this might sound weird, and you might not believe me, but I did click on the closest bus icon on the route. Its arrow was (very definitely) pointing westbound, and I was at a stop between it and its terminus. However, its pop-up label said it was a bus going to the east-end terminus - I assumed this was the timetabled bus I was waiting for but it was very delayed. I didn't understand how the icon on the map could show it was going to the terminus in the opposite direction to the way it was travelling
computerSaysNo
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I've had a quick look through bustimes.org and most buses seem to be roughly on time, although a lot are allocated to a route but not a precise service so I can't easily tell how late they are. I'll try and see if I can write an Excel sheet later on to automatically calculate the delays.
Out of curiosity do you remember the fleet number of the vehicle? Or even the route/time of day?
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You should be able to, because the trip updates around 5 minutes before it is due to start, even if the bus is running late. If the bus arrived at the terminus on time, it may briefly have gone blank. It may be more challenging on a more frequent service.
I use this to judge if a bus is late because you can look at whether the bus was still heading towards its previous destination when the new trip started tracking.
Example: https://bustimes.org/vehicles/loth-662?date=2025-05-16#journeys/725946711 - The bus ran late that it started tracking on the trip to Clovenstone while it was still en-route to Mayfield. It then caught up time through a deadrun. It changed to the Clovenstone trip around 13:06, suggesting the bus was probably meant to be the 13:12 departure from Mayfield.
This is why I am not a fan of this tracking system. As its a computer system in house adding these times, it has no idea if a bus is running late. The change of trip sometimes makes the bus stop information inaccurate because it thinks the bus has already passed some stops. This is not a problem on the bus stop screens which use a different system.
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it was this trip
2 – Lothian Buses – bustimes.org
I can't work out how to show the actual times of that service though?
Looks like there was a problem with the bus leaving the depot. The 11:38 is the first trip of the day on that board.it was this trip
2 – Lothian Buses – bustimes.org
bustimes.org
I can't work out how to show the actual times of that service though?
Bus 689 ended up leaving the garage late and picking up the route at Stenhouse. I presume an expected 7900 had an issue and was not able to be used (perhaps failing pre-service check). As it was already set to the board it was tracking as the 2 to The Jewel whilst running light towards Stenhouse.
well deduced!Bus 689 ended up leaving the garage late and picking up the route at Stenhouse. As it was already set to the board it was tracking as the 2 to The Jewel whilst running light towards Stenhouse.
although as a customer, that feels very frustrating that there's no way for them to tell us that a given service is cancelled - the stop I was at didn't have one of the new fancy screens, and Lothian seem to push everyone towards the new app implying it's accurate - when this shows that it isn't... </mild rant>
FlybeDash8Q400
Established Member
The new app is so much weaker than the old. Yes it has a few nice additional features but the layout of what we had was so much better.well deduced!
The biggest issue (and @Bus9120UK was mentioning this before) is that it’s a manual system. All the tracking has to be set up manually at the start of each individual vehicles’ leaving the depot. Clearly when swaps happen, it’s forgotten and this is a bit of a problem. Late running or part routes aren’t very clear either, but to be fair that never has been.
I have to say, as someone who used to enjoy the lothian system, and has had to move to the Stagecoch northeast / goahead / first cluster**** that is the Newcastle bus system. Please count your lucky stars that Lothian I soo good.
Multiple times in the last few weeks I have been late to work because the every 10min number 1 service (one of stagecoach’s best routes) simply didn’t show up for over 30mins
This never happened to me during all 6 years I lived in Edinburgh, not once.
Now Lothian does need to improve their reliability but to call them unreliable is a step to far
Blindtraveler
Established Member
I think it would be fair to say that some parts of the network are genuinely unreliable, whilst others have room for improvement but aren't terrible. Probably a subject for another thread, but there's an awful lot of things that could be done to improve reliability of all Edinburgh's bus and coach services, not just those operated by Lothian group.
computerSaysNo
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Will there be duplicate 26s ran during the festival on Sundays? The 26 is already very busy on Sundays, through the Edinburgh City section anyway.
Blindtraveler
Established Member
I guess it depends on driver availability and if they've got the vehicles
computerSaysNo
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Do they have the vehicles? It would only be on Sundays, I'm not sure how much the double deck PVR goes down at Marine on a Sunday compared to a weekday, and whether the X99 for the cruises would take up all the spare double deckers.