Isn’t the whole point of the 20 Ratho-Edinburgh Park subsidy to connect with the tram to provide a city link? I wonder if the council have specified some form of integrated fare in that case. If not then I think Ratho pax that were heading to city may just opt to drive to Ingliston instead...
Ultimately the 20 and 63 will lose pax numbers because Ridacards/DayTickets can’t be used anymore. There’s no longer the integration that Lothian offered.
The 63 was awful when EMH had it pre 2014, since Lothian took it over it has become a success (offers a city wide network, increased frequency etc). It certainly won’t be as bad as when EMH had it (running rust buckets around the place) but it will carry enough pax to keep it going.
Both the 20 and the 63’s main market is to get folk to the Gyle, and that’s what keeps it going. First will do that and that’s all they need to do.
I can fully understand why the locals aren’t happy but it’s just the way tendering works, yet again the Evening News article is extremely misleading (what a surprise), suggesting that they’ve given up on both which isn’t true. They gave up on the 20 but even if they had bidded I reckon First would have won anyway, the 63 they lost - hard lines, nobody can complain about it.
I guess because it will free up 10 buses we will see the remaining 04 plates go. For Lothian to have run the 63 to Balerno it would have needed 4 or buses Every 40 mins or 3 buses at every hour. Does someone know what other changes there will be? Other than those previously mentioned.
I’m assuming First will have the buses starting from the SQ end? Something that probably is better