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First Scotland East (Midland Bluebird and West Lothian operations)

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CN04NRJ

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So its peak time the buses are full; how about off peak? Peak is different kettle. I've seem them off peak, and no way they're full EXCEPT for one route which is the X38, again that different kettle of fish.




Its not.

First did register more/additional routes, First also don't have the drivers to cover them, so it doesn't matter what happened else where or etc.

I'm not the only one that has said First must have saved money not having to operate these extra routes. I doubt anyone would disagree the X23 was lightly used.

If that is the case with the traffic commissioner, I dare say nearly every single bus company in the UK will get Public Enquiry letter soon.

Maybe first has relished it should be focused on maintaining a reliable, quality service of its core operations.

Why would an (allegedly) well managed company register additional routes with the full knowledge that they won't have the resources to run them?
 
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overthewater

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Why would an (allegedly) well managed company register additional routes with the full knowledge that they won't have the resources to run them?
First DID have the resources when they started but they don't now, because of covid etc etc etc.
 

JurassicMan

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People in Kirkliston have had a direct link to St Johns since August on X51



Who is this other foot? Let be fair here First didn't want to operate these "Extras" Lothian forced its hand in competitions. As its been said there must be saving a pocket not running empty buses all over the place, there really is no demand to go into Edinburgh.
The X51 does not enter the Hospital and only serves the stops on Alderstone Road and it does not serve Main Street or Kirklands park estate.

See you keep saying ‘there really is no demand to go into Edinburgh’, however every bus I drive that goes ‘into Edinburgh’ I’m a near full load.
Not from West Lothian they arent.
 

stevenedin

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I always make a point of travelling on a First bus within Edinburgh if it comes first. From experience the drivers always seem very friendly and the buses not very busy. If you are lucky enough to get an Enviro 400MMC they are cosy inside. The streetlites are very uncomfortable in my opinion and very bright inside.
 

cammyeaston

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I always make a point of travelling on a First bus within Edinburgh if it comes first. From experience the drivers always seem very friendly and the buses not very busy. If you are lucky enough to get an Enviro 400MMC they are cosy inside. The streetlites are very uncomfortable in my opinion and very bright inside.

Quite. If travelling within Edinburgh, the single fare undercuts Lothian by 10p. That's not much, but it all adds up and as you say, the journey is often quieter and as a result - quicker.
 

GaryBrown156

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On the subject of the First Scotland East Enviro 400MMC's. Could anyone provide me with a figure of how many double deckers Livingston Depot currently has in its allocation, the vehicle types and the routes on which they generally operate please?.
I haven't really kept up to date with the current fleet based at Deans Road as i haven't been in the area for a while.
Last time I was out that way there where plenty of Enviro 400MMC's and B9 Geminis kicking about.
I know that around half of the Enviros got transferred to First Glasgow and branded for their service 41 but that about the extent of my knowledge.

I was in Princes Street on Tuesday and had a wee look at what was operating but didn't see many deckers. It was predominantly streetlights and a few eclipse singles.
The only deckers I spotted where one service 500 branded MMC and one two tone "Midland Blue" "West Lothian" branded MMC (unfortunately I wasn't close enough to get the fleetnumbers)

Any information would be much appreciated.
Thanks.
 

Baileygirl

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On the subject of the First Scotland East Enviro 400MMC's. Could anyone provide me with a figure of how many double deckers Livingston Depot currently has in its allocation, the vehicle types and the routes on which they generally operate please?.
I haven't really kept up to date with the current fleet based at Deans Road as i haven't been in the area for a while.
Last time I was out that way there where plenty of Enviro 400MMC's and B9 Geminis kicking about.
I know that around half of the Enviros got transferred to First Glasgow and branded for their service 41 but that about the extent of my knowledge.

I was in Princes Street on Tuesday and had a wee look at what was operating but didn't see many deckers. It was predominantly streetlights and a few eclipse singles.
The only deckers I spotted where one service 500 branded MMC and one two tone "Midland Blue" "West Lothian" branded MMC (unfortunately I wasn't close enough to get the fleetnumbers)

Any information would be much appreciated.
Thanks.
10 AMC 33436 -8, 33443-9 (33436/9 two tone blue, 33447 turquoise front, rest in 600 pink). They are not allocated to any particular routes at the moment.
 
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mb88

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Still huge number of cancelled services on a daily basis from First Scotland East. How long can this situation be allowed to go on? If they are still short of drivers surely they should be introducing emergency timetables with reduced frequencies so people can actually plan their journeys in advance rather that being at the whim of their bus being cancelled often at very short notice. Really poor show from First.
 

PaulMc7

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Still huge number of cancelled services on a daily basis from First Scotland East. How long can this situation be allowed to go on? If they are still short of drivers surely they should be introducing emergency timetables with reduced frequencies so people can actually plan their journeys in advance rather that being at the whim of their bus being cancelled often at very short notice. Really poor show from First.
If they're gonna always be as short as it looks from the Twitter account they're actually probably worth pulling out to be honest because it's beyond awful at this point. I don't even think Twitter get notified of all of the cancellations either going by the replies to the tweets.
 

mb88

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If they're gonna always be as short as it looks from the Twitter account they're actually probably worth pulling out to be honest because it's beyond awful at this point. I don't even think Twitter get notified of all of the cancellations either going by the replies to the tweets.
Yes I agree. It’s beyond ridiculous now. To begin with it seemed to be all Livingston services that were affected, then Bannockburn, and now back to Livingston. As you say I’m not convinced that the lists on Twitter are even complete. And they’re assuming all their customers use Twitter. I’ve noticed a marked increase in passengers on the X28 and 276 to and from Craigshill now that First have completely abandoned that area of Livingston.
 

PaulMc7

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Yes I agree. It’s beyond ridiculous now. To begin with it seemed to be all Livingston services that were affected, then Bannockburn, and now back to Livingston. As you say I’m not convinced that the lists on Twitter are even complete. And they’re assuming all their customers use Twitter. I’ve noticed a marked increase in passengers on the X28 and 276 to and from Craigshill now that First have completely abandoned that area of Livingston.
I'm not local to the area but Bannockburn etc have been bad for years apparently although I wouldn't really know. I've only really used the X36/X37 and 38 out of everything and the F16 once in Stirling and Falkirk.

It's horrendous territory and I wonder how long First will give it before leaving it to die.

I've never used the bus in Livingston either but it looks like a mess even pre driver shortage.

The only thing that saves First's blushes in a sense is that the shortage is UK wide and affecting good bus territory as well as the bad areas.
 

mb88

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The only thing that saves First's blushes in a sense is that the shortage is UK wide and affecting good bus territory as well as the bad areas.
It is UK wide and affecting the whole industry, but it’s how operators adapt and respond to the issue that is telling. Do they look at how many drivers they have available to them and build schedules around that availability that may result in reduced frequencies but at least will provide a reliable service, or do you keep your existing schedules and just cancel services on a day-by-day basis based on what duties aren’t able to be covered? FSE seem to be doing the latter, and it’s a massive headache for their customers.
 
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If they're gonna always be as short as it looks from the Twitter account they're actually probably worth pulling out to be honest because it's beyond awful at this point. I don't even think Twitter get notified of all of the cancellations either going by the replies to the tweets.
I've seen a couple of drivers from First Bus now working at Lothian Country. So there could be the issue of lower pay or bad working environment which are veering people away from working there.

One service that was always cut was the Saturday 19:26 X24 from Edinburgh, this one usually seen a lot of passengers ( I'm basing this from when I was on it ), this would have continued from the 17:12 X25 from Blackridge (now the 17:13 from Armadale). These would never get put up on twitter as it was after their sign off time for the weekend.

Lothian Country will probably suffer from this issue too but how often are services cancelled? I don't think any of them have been (from my recollection).

First Bus do have a chance of getting out of this if the do an emergency timetable approach but if they don't, Lothian Country will become the dominant operator and possibly the favoured.

I think now after the Coronavirus lockdown WLC should look at passenger usage and ask themselves, is there room for two large operators in West Lothian?

Anyways thats my two cents on the issue :lol:
 

GusB

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I've seen a couple of drivers from First Bus now working at Lothian Country. So there could be the issue of lower pay or bad working environment which are veering people away from working there.

One service that was always cut was the Saturday 19:26 X24 from Edinburgh, this one usually seen a lot of passengers ( I'm basing this from when I was on it ), this would have continued from the 17:12 X25 from Blackridge (now the 17:13 from Armadale). These would never get put up on twitter as it was after their sign off time for the weekend.

Lothian Country will probably suffer from this issue too but how often are services cancelled? I don't think any of them have been (from my recollection).

First Bus do have a chance of getting out of this if the do an emergency timetable approach but if they don't, Lothian Country will become the dominant operator and possibly the favoured.

I think now after the Coronavirus lockdown WLC should look at passenger usage and ask themselves, is there room for two large operators in West Lothian?
I'm guessing that "WLC" in this context is supposed to mean West Lothian Council*, in which case why would they have to ask themselves that question? They've got no say in who runs what unless it's a council tendered service.

* This should be defined in your post and not left to others to figure out.
 

Baileygirl

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I've seen a couple of drivers from First Bus now working at Lothian Country. So there could be the issue of lower pay or bad working environment which are veering people away from working there.

One service that was always cut was the Saturday 19:26 X24 from Edinburgh, this one usually seen a lot of passengers ( I'm basing this from when I was on it ), this would have continued from the 17:12 X25 from Blackridge (now the 17:13 from Armadale). These would never get put up on twitter as it was after their sign off time for the weekend.

Lothian Country will probably suffer from this issue too but how often are services cancelled? I don't think any of them have been (from my recollection).

First Bus do have a chance of getting out of this if the do an emergency timetable approach but if they don't, Lothian Country will become the dominant operator and possibly the favoured.

I think now after the Coronavirus lockdown WLC should look at passenger usage and ask themselves, is there room for two large operators in West Lothian?

Anyways thats my two cents on the issue :lol:
Emergency timetables already running. 16 buses off road. It doesn't help when drivers dont turn up due to illness/isolating. Lothian Country also running reduced services with no buses to Fauldhouse.
 
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I'm guessing that "WLC" in this context is supposed to mean West Lothian Council*, in which case why would they have to ask themselves that question? They've got no say in who runs what unless it's a council tendered service.

* This should be defined in your post and not left to others to figure out.
Apologies, I had thought that West Lothian was the one that awarded funding for all services and not just tendered services :)

Emergency timetables already running. 16 buses off road. It doesn't help when drivers dont turn up due to illness/isolating. Lothian Country also running reduced services with no buses to Fauldhouse.
I was referring back to during the initial lockdown but have higher frequencies on the Edinburgh routes (e.g. X22 and X24) would remain at every 30 mins but the rest would be hourly (the 26 and 26A combined would provide a 30min frequency between the Loganlea sections).
 

PaulMc7

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With the cancellations being constant do they even have the drivers to run many if any services in West Lothian better than 1 an hour?

With the Twitter account being in overdrive with how many they've been told about recently it's probably a bit close even on that low a frequency.

I could see frequencies in Stirling and Falkirk going the same way though.
 

Baileygirl

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Apologies, I had thought that West Lothian was the one that awarded funding for all services and not just tendered services :)


I was referring back to during the initial lockdown but have higher frequencies on the Edinburgh routes (e.g. X22 and X24) would remain at every 30 mins but the rest would be hourly (the 26 and 26A combined would provide a 30min frequency between the Loganlea sections).
Would you still keep 7 buses an hour between Livingston and Armadale on almost on same route (First X25 /LCB 280)
 

adrock1976

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What's it called? It's called Cumbernauld
What has happened to the X37 Glasgow - Cumbernauld - Falkirk?

This seems to have totally disappeared off the First Bus website, and I could not find anything in the planned changes or service updates sections.

The X36 Glasgow - Cumbernauld - Stirling and the 35 Falkirk - Condorrat are still showing on the timetables pages.
 

stevenedin

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Service Changes from 10th January
6 Dec 2021Midland Bluebird

Selected Services will change from Monday 10th January.​

Please see below for services which will operate revised timetables, and to view the details of these changes.
Services not listed below will continue to operate their current service level.
ServiceClick to view Timetable Detail of change
Service 54Service 54 timetableReduced to hourly. Additional trips retained for morning trips with first trips to and from Stirling University. Evening service is mostly unchanged.
Service 57Service 57 timetableReduced to hourly. Changes to timing points at Raploch and St Ninians to improve punctuality. At St Ninians terminus, the loop was brought forward to Coxithill Road to improve ticket issuing - please note there is no change to the route.
Service X53Suspended until further notice. Route between Stirling and Dollar is covered by services 52 and H2.
Further to the suspension of service X53 from 10 Jan 2022, Perth and Kinross Council have advised that service 202 will be introduced as part replacement for this service. Click here for the new timetable that will be in service from January 10th 2022.
 
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68-plate Optare Solo currently sat at Caledonia’s paint shop just now with red seat interior, branded for Midland.

Im guessing this is new for either larbert or Bannockburn?
 

cnjb8

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68-plate Optare Solo currently sat at Caledonia’s paint shop just now with red seat interior, branded for Midland.

Im guessing this is new for either larbert or Bannockburn?
Previously with First in Cornwall (hence the WK68 Truro plates) , they were ordered with the red seats
 
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68-plate Optare Solo currently sat at Caledonia’s paint shop just now with red seat interior, branded for Midland.

Im guessing this is new for either larbert or Bannockburn?
I think Bannockburn is getting two, Larbert is getting one, and Livingston is getting one.

Livingston already has theirs and Bannockburn has one already, I'm unsure if Larbert already has their one.
 
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