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Bright Bus Airport Express service

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RomeoCharlie71

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Spsf3232 said:
It will be to improve the reimbursement they get from the under 22 entitlement cards
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I thought concessionary reimbursement rates were all based on the equivalent adult single fare? Hence why operators receive 43.6% of the fare made by 5 to 15 year olds and 81.2% for journeys made by those aged 16 to 21.
 
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Stan Drews

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RomeoCharlie71 said:
I thought concessionary reimbursement rates were all based on the equivalent adult single fare? Hence why operators receive 43.6% of the fare made by 5 to 15 year olds and 81.2% for journeys made by those aged 16 to 21.
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That is correct. Individual child fares have no impact on the reimbursement rates.
 
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EllieAquitrain

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Gaelan said:
surely the first "bus" the tourists will see is the tram!
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Coming out of the main arrivals exit, they'll see the big covered area in front of the tram stop before any buses, which are largely hidden behind concrete structures, yes. But, as long as a 100 is actually sitting at its departure stop (which hasn't been the case when I've been at the airport several times over the past few months!) they'll see that well before they see any actual trams.
 
CSB0241

CSB0241

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bobdoe said:
I have compared the McGill's AIRX timetable https://www.mcgillsscotlandeast.co.uk/services/MESC/AIRX?date=2024-01-16&direction=outbound&all=on and Lothian's 100 Airlink https://www.lothianbuses.com/timetable/?service_name=100 and every half hour, both services depart and arrive at the same time. I would have expected AIRX to depart at different times so this really is a lot of competition.
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Probably quite hard to achieve with two services being every 10 (100) & 15 (AirX) minutes respectively

Bwsbro said:
Unless the fares are considerably cheaper compared to Lothian or some deal if booked with Bright Bus Open Top buses for Traveling, I doubt how many passengers there is for the new service.
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Child fares on both services are £2.75, but the AirX is £4 for an adult compared to £5.50 on the 100

On another note, in an older post in a different thread, I may or may not have humiliated myself slightly by misphrasing a few things when I stated that I wasn’t a fan of the use of the Enviro300s (along with other factors as to why I hated this service)…

HOWEVER…
I have recently had a change of heart, & am now fairly excited to at least try it. Granted, it still has its many flaws (such as the use of E300s, the tiny singular luggage rack, etc.), but I’m fairly excited to at least see how it is being on it.


Also, the AirX has been moved from McGills Scotland East to Bright Bus on bustimes.org (see https://bustimes.org/operators/bright-bus). I’m guessing that they’re going to move the Bright Bus Vehicles from McGills Scotland East to Bright Bus then?

CN04NRJ said:
Does that "explorer" include the X38/20/63?
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Based on this paragraph on the official 2024 Bright Bus leaflet, I’m guessing no
 

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JKP

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Roger French has a write up on his blog busandtrainuser.com of the 10.30 Airport to Edinburgh on 1st January. It carried a total of 11 passengers of whom 5 travelleD from the Airport.
 
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CN04NRJ

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Does anyone know if the E300s have been upgraded to Euro 6? I heard they have been but just interested to know for sure.
 
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Volvodart

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CN04NRJ said:
Does anyone know if the E300s have been upgraded to Euro 6? I heard they have been but just interested to know for sure.
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The ones that were used to go to Glasgow should have been, but I am unaware of specific buses.
 
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RomeoCharlie71

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CN04NRJ said:
Does anyone know if the E300s have been upgraded to Euro 6? I heard they have been but just interested to know for sure.
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Out of the 10 that have been reported as repainted into the Bright Bus livery, only 8481 and 8487 are not Euro 6
 
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Observer

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Has it been confirmed that the luggage racks came out of the E400MMCs that were converted for the X36/X37 or has this just been an assumption? I only ask as I don't think there would be enough to go in them all.
 
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Baileygirl

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Observer said:
Has it been confirmed that the luggage racks came out of the E400MMCs that were converted for the X36/X37 or has this just been an assumption? I only ask as I don't think there would be enough to go in them all.
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Not all the E400MMCs branded for the 600 had luggage racks. Only the origonal 4 before the 600 was extended to Whitburn had them.
 
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Observer

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Baileygirl said:
Not all the E400MMCs branded for the 600 had luggage racks. Only the origonal 4 before the 600 was extended to Whitburn had them.
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Thanks, so looks like they must have had them fitted new or were able to source some from somewhere and get the poles repainted pink to fit the stock.

Anyway will need to see how the service goes. A lot of people seem to have berated the idea of it yet if it actually takes off (no pun intended) it will make you wonder what else could they pull off.
 
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megabusser

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JKP said:
Roger French has a write up on his blog busandtrainuser.com of the 10.30 Airport to Edinburgh on 1st January. It carried a total of 11 passengers of whom 5 travelleD from the Airport.
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Interesting read. One thing I didn’t realise before reading the blog is that the tram is more expensive than the Airlink bus - I don’t think that was the case a few years ago?

Anyway, I can see the McGill’s venture doing alright for them, but do wonder if there are more of private companies (ie not Lothian) competing with Lothian on their profitable routes that it’ll just speed up moves towards regulation of services.

Profits from the airport and open top bus tours subsidising less profitable routes is a good thing and Lothian’s owners (mostly Edinburgh Council!) won’t want the status quo being rocked too much. Interesting times ahead potentially.
 
WestCoast

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I am not normally in favour of direct competition like this however I do believe the premium fares charged by the tram and airlink are too high. The £5.50 premium for the tram especially. Airports should be encouraging passengers to arrive by public transport and it’s absolutely shocking that passengers coming from say Dundee or Aberdeen need to pay £7.50 on top of their rail fare to get from Gateway. Not that the new service will help with that but in this specific case I would say fair game for McGill’s to give Lothian a bit of competition. I wish they’d do the same in Glasgow to challenge the First 500!
 
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cammyeaston

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megabusser said:
Interesting read. One thing I didn’t realise before reading the blog is that the tram is more expensive than the Airlink bus - I don’t think that was the case a few years ago?

Anyway, I can see the McGill’s venture doing alright for them, but do wonder if there are more of private companies (ie not Lothian) competing with Lothian on their profitable routes that it’ll just speed up moves towards regulation of services.

Profits from the airport and open top bus tours subsidising less profitable routes is a good thing and Lothian’s owners (mostly Edinburgh Council!) won’t want the status quo being rocked too much. Interesting times ahead potentially.
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From day one the tram has been more expensive than the Airlink 100 and has also taken longer.
 
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Bus9120UK

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From observations today, no more than two/three people on the buses heading towards the Airport and nobody on the buses out. I noticed a member of staff coming into the terminal to see when the the next arrival from International Arrivals 1 would be (the arrivals area just next to their stand), and there were none for a good while given only flights from Ireland where using this area. Nobody has been walking from Domestic Arrivals or International Arrivals 2 on the other side of the Airport to Stand E for the new service with most people going for the tram and Airlink. Stand E continues to be branded for Fly only and there is a large Airlink poster at the exit there as well which may direct people away. At this time, I really can't see this working unless Bright Bus push hard.
 
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Andyh82

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It’s a funny time of year to start this new service. I’m guessing it’s pretty much Edinburgh’s quietest time for tourists.
 
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VioletEclipse

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Andyh82 said:
It’s a funny time of year to start thos new service, I’m guessing it’s pretty much Edinburgh’s quietest time for tourists
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I was thinking that too, although hogmanay is a pretty big event, even if tiny compared to August.
Can't think of any other examples of a very frequent bus service starting on the 1st of January.

Despite the buses mostly carrying fresh air so far (from what I've seen/heard) I wouldn't be surprised if Airlink, trams and Bright Bus express are all running absolutely packed for the festival come August.
 
markymark2000

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I may be speculating a bit but could it be that they wanted the service in place before it gets to busy season so that they can iron out any issues? Also, could it be that with the reduction of the Livingston network, there would be no work left for the drivers and so they were kind of forced to start the service earlier to keep the drivers in employment. They couldn't just tell all of the drivers 'there is no work today' and either have drivers accept less/no wages or offer them redundancy and then expect drivers to flock back in a few months time when they set up the service.
 
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Vectron383

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I can’t help but wonder what image this projects to those in West Lothian who just a few short months ago were worried their links in to town would vanish, had it not been for Lothian stepping in. McGills launching a new service which has clearly had a decent amount of money spent on it is sure to rub some people up the wrong way.
 
Auld reekie

Auld reekie

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Vectron383 said:
I can’t help but wonder what image this projects to those in West Lothian who just a few short months ago were worried their links in to town would vanish, had it not been for Lothian stepping in. McGills launching a new service which has clearly had a decent amount of money spent on it is sure to rub some people up the wrong way.
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They were well and truly shafted.
Hope this service fails.
 
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