Question about the new 32 route.
With the fare zones set out by Lothian Country, surely this is blurring the lines massively to what would be a City West zone in Balerno?
Lothian Country provides several services for the communities of Queensferry and West Lothian. Service 43 From Queensferry to Edinburgh city centre. View timetable. Service 72 From Livingston to Kirkliston via St. John’s Hospital. View timetable. Service 73 From Fauldhouse to Kirkliston. View...
www.lothianbuses.com
To me it seems like this will be a Lothian City fare, which makes things a bit unfair for those in Ratho paying the City West zone fares.
Balerno has been established being in the City Zone, with the West of Balerno (A70) being on the border of the CityWest Zone, despite no Lothian Country route running that direction (I'm going by an old network map). While I do get your logic it is how it is established, otherwise the 44 would probably be split and the Balerno end would of been Lothian Country territory.
The CityWest zone has been established for 7 years now, and when Lothian City lost the 20/63 back in 2020 to First it was going to be inevitable that any bus service beyond Ingilston would be Green, otherwise it would break the established fare continuity Lothian have.
To be absolutely fair (pardon the pun), The CityWest zone isn't that much more expensive, (£1 extra for a single, 50p extra for a Dayticket that covers the whole city, and free with the Ridacard). If you make the most of your journey and get the best travel options it works out the better deal, even the £22 weekly tap tap cap covers the CityWest zone.
I think it’s more likely they will just have buses doing the 70/71. Something like Queensferry to Gyle, Gyle to Ratho, Ratho to Gyle, Gyle to Queensferry. Driver change overs could easily take place at Newbridge or Scotstoun terminus.
I think they could even do driver changeovers at Ratho terminus if they really wanted to. It goes with my theory of the services being split at that end, especially to keep the fare zones from going. City-CityWEST-City.