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Lothian Buses and ECB Discussion

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Lothian_Bus

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Bus 1126 on service 25 this morning. An XLB not based at Central?

I doubt it but thought worth checking.
 

Driver362

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First and Stagecoach are national companies. They buy in bulk. The majority of their operating area's use the same ticketing unit, so they can buy large quantities. It's also the same software on every single unit, it's a plug and play affair, any updates can be done and every unit can be updated wirelessly and quickly.

What's also different about Lothian is the ticketing system is on a completely separate wireless network, meaning there's now three networks on every bus (ticketing, WiFi 1 and WiFi 2), this has taken time to install and test too. having a separate network allows everything to be standalone meaning if theres an issue with WiFi, the ticketing network is still up and vice versa.

Lothian wanted to be sure they had the right product. Re-Coverage etc. We don't want to be at a point where we're turning people away because the ticket machines cant get a signal, it has to be perfect from day one.

if you've used one of the contactless units on Skylin, Airlink, ECB or LCB you'll notice that transactions are very close. Alot of time has been spent on making it quicker, making the whole system seamless, right down to fare caping etc.

If people arent happy, they can goto their councillor and complain however, contactless payments arent a human right, they are not imminently required. The services where they are most likely to need them, Air/Skylink (tourists) ECB/LCB (to win over or keep customers), EBB (not so much contactless, but card payments) (tourists again) already have them and have been used as a testbed for the entire fleet.

When it arrives, it will be perfect, because all the tests have been done and all the possibilities have been tried. The company even had to hire in specialists and create a new department for ongoing maintenance and use, its taken time for a reason.

Costs have been kept down by using a familiar system for drivers, so training costs are down. The only cost is infrastructure, and its a big one.

Not to mention the data base buying built. Their building a database in a room at one of the depots i believe which will be the brain of the system.
Fantastic answer ominicity999 thanks for the detail. I use it as a driver with LC and its rarely down etc and have had next to no issues with it other than selling group tickets it needs several button pushes to ring up a group ticket. But like everything else I suppose is subjective
 

OmniCity999

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Heard they could be going west to Lothian Country

I'd heard 10 for Lothian Country 43's and the rest for East Coast, allowing their B7's to go. All getting booked in for paint today. Dont know if theres any truth in it, though.

Plans change at a seconds notice around here. Wouldnt be surprised if they painted them all blue and cream and started to target Fife.
 
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SpeedbirdA350

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I would have thought that they'd repaint 7 of them to replace 431-437 skylink 15 plate so skylink would be a mix of 17 and 67 plate buses then send those 7 with the rest of skylink to replace the B7s at ECB and LCB
 

OmniCity999

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I would have thought that they'd repaint 7 of them to replace 431-437 skylink 15 plate so skylink would be a mix of 17 and 67 plate buses then send those 7 with the rest of skylink to replace the B7s at ECB and LCB

We'll see...

You may joke but I have always wondered why Lothian have never went to the Ferytoll park and ride.

Because it's pointless really, Stagey have loads of services to and from there and theres the train station close by. Stagey are also in a better position than first in the UK as a whole. Lothian dont need that competition. They need to start making friends really. Their only real acquaintance would probably be Prentice and even then they compete on a route already.
 

ScotRail158725

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I would have thought that they'd repaint 7 of them to replace 431-437 skylink 15 plate so skylink would be a mix of 17 and 67 plate buses then send those 7 with the rest of skylink to replace the B7s at ECB and LCB
The ex-airlink skylinks are an absolite state internally, smell awful and they need a good refurb
 

SpeedbirdA350

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We'll see...
Because it's pointless really, Stagey have loads of services to and from there and theres the train station close by. Stagey are also in a better position than first in the UK as a whole. Lothian dont need that competition. They need to start making friends really. Their only real acquaintance would probably be Prentice and even then they compete on a route already.
Lothian are sort of friends with Stagecoach anyway as they have a partnership with CityLink, and Stagecoach own 35% of CityLink.
 

Driver362

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Heard they could be going west to Lothian Country
Me too. But to replace what? Hopefully the single deck eclipses. The B9's have settled down a bit and breakdown no more or less than any other bus tbh some of them are a treat to drive. But with the exception of a few of ours, Lothian's own B9's are nicer to drive!. Voith or zf. Prefer the whine of the voith tbh. But I digress
 

Darklord8899

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431-7 certainly do need a refurb... the blue-gray colour is just god awful and the floors always look filthy and have tide marks.
When you compare them to the "fleet of the future" spec'ed examples, their floors always look cleaner (I'm not saying they are cleaner, but they certainly look much cleaner), not sure if the darker coloured fake wood just hides the marks better....
 

ScotRail158725

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Me too. But to replace what? Hopefully the single deck eclipses. The B9's have settled down a bit and breakdown no more or less than any other bus tbh some of them are a treat to drive. But with the exception of a few of ours, Lothian's own B9's are nicer to drive!. Voith or zf. Prefer the whine of the voith tbh. But I digress
i think the ex Metroline B9s sound the best of the B9s at Lothian, better than any of the new to Lothian ones
 

OmniCity999

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where would they then go? only 11 years old next year wich is a bit young to be withdrawn

Mainfleet to plump up numbers, it could do with it. Or either kept at LCB or split between LCB and ECB for schools.

Either way their on the agenda for a freshen up, maybe Motorcoaches for school work? :p
 

90019

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I'd have thought they'd just get a repaint and chucked back into the main fleet, since the paint is the only difference on the green B9s on the 43.
 
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Lothian_Bus

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I'd have thought they'd just get a repaint and chucked back into the main fleet, since the paint is the only difference on those ones.
Marine could do with a few more in my opinion. Only the 26 gets the B5TL'S in service and even then there aren't enough to fully satisfy it's PVR.
 

OmniCity999

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Marine could do with a few more in my opinion. Only the 26 gets the B5TL'S in service and even then there aren't enough to fully satisfy it's PVR.

There is enough for PVR, issue comes when they get put on X26's or X31's etc.

All 30 of them are also on different maintenance schedules. So it's likely that there's always atleast 1 out of service. Then you have the ones that come off for refueling but get sent back out later on.
 

Lothian_Bus

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There is enough for PVR, issue comes when they get put on X26's or X31's etc.

All 30 of them are also on different maintenance schedules. So it's likely that there's always atleast 1 out of service. Then you have the ones that come off for refueling but get sent back out later on.

Thanks. I see what you mean.

I guess my point is when you compare it to the batch that service 22 has (441-465) it seems a bit tight.

Service 22 tends to never have more than 20 buses out at a time and there are spares that go onto other routes. The 26 has at least 30 out on a weekday giving no spare buses unlike the 22.
 

OmniCity999

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Thanks. I see what you mean.

I guess my point is when you compare it to the batch that service 22 has (441-465) it seems a bit tight.

Service 22 tends to never have more than 20 buses out at a time and there are spares that go onto other routes. The 26 has at least 30 out on a weekday giving no spare buses unlike the 22.

Pretty sure in the peak on Friday just passed there were 5 zoo branded buses sitting in Marine whilst it was non branded examples running the 26. Which is fine they arent actually branded for the 26 their branded to advertise the zoo, there are 30 in the batch though.
 
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