Recent content by smtglasgow

Given their age the 09 plates must be a temporary fix – even with a refurb, a 15 year old ex-London E200 is still a 15 year old ex-London bus – so hopefully more electrics will allow something more modern to reach Overtown sooner rather than later. I always thought the Lanarkshire locals did...

Vaguely related….is there not an outstanding phase of the Scottish Zero Emissions Bus Fund due soon? No doubt First will have bid for something – hopefully double deckers – but perhaps in due course First Glasgow will look to cascade out some of the electric single-deckers. If driver shortages...

There must be some scope to increase frequencies. Buses are very busy – although frequencies have never been so low (did anyone have the 75 running every 13 minutes on their bingo card?). First must be making decent money in Glasgow at the moment. Even if peak travel/season ticket revenue is...

Tend to agree. It’s pretty obvious cherry-picking, but it’s a very busy route, especially in the peak tourist season. McGills are only every going to take small share of the overall market, but with their lower costs that might be enough to turn a profit. It’s not big or clever and they might be...

The new timetables are on Traveline…and they’re a bit of a mess. Looks like the new scheduling system that has produced some of the weird timetables down south has arrived in Glasgow. Only really looked at the 38, but it looks like they’ve added more running time, but kept the same number of...

Has any company, anywhere in the UK, been pulled up by the traffic commissioners in the last few years because of cancellations caused by driver shortages? First Glasgow were a mess last summer and autumn and there were no consequences. If McGills drop any routes, it’ll be on their own terms...

Do McGills have enough drivers for this? The short notice cancellations tab on the website (last updated on Wednesday) has a lot of missing journeys. If they can resource the night buses AND run their daytime journeys, fair enough, but taking on extra work when they can’t cover the day to day...

I’m not saying Lothian would have entertained an approach, but McGills history is full of acquisitions – they bought out countless operators in Inverclyde, Renfrewshire and Monklands to become the dominant player. It’s what they do. And saying Lothian won’t give up territory is a moot point. Up...

I wouldn’t normally disagree with DunsBus, but if McGills did pull out (still seems unlikely), Lothian would be mad not to cherrypick the best corridors. There’s still money to be made in West Lothian. The real danger though is that with unreliable daytime services and no late evening/Sunday...

Always thought cutting back the 38s was odd. Forcing through passengers to change bus is never going to grow numbers and it looks as if use has continued to decline. At the time I wondered if this was a cunning ploy from McGills – make it easy to cut evening and Sundays and get SPT to pay. Maybe...

Yes, my main takeaway is that the railway has actually come up with some innovative thinking to keep people moving. I’ll be doing a couple of work trips during the works and my first thought was at least I won’t have to catch a coach to Carlisle. There’s no getting away from the fact that the...

I struggle to see First having any big changes for a while yet. *If* the driver situation improves I guess we’ll see incremental changes – one service at a time – with frequencies boosted. But when you think of the routes that need extra capacity – I’m thinking 3, 6, 18 and 75 at least – that’s...

A bit before my time, but was part of the reasoning for the break up to align more closely with the (then) regions. Eastern in 1986 would have been a good fit with Lothian, while Strathtay seems to map onto Tayside.

I think the 'traditional' route up Royston Rd can be discounted - the current service level suggests its pretty poor bus territory. I know it's all speculation, but extending either the 57a or the 87 to the big Asda could probably be done with just 1 extra bus, so not outrageous.

I understand the reasons why First pulled out, but at the same time I still think that there was scope for them to do more to try and serve Robroyston. It must be the fastest growing part of the city, but the newest parts have terrible public transport options – even the new station is quite a...