I'm not sure what the specific issue is, but the only major environmental difference would be the "saltier" air on the East Coast. I doubt that would cause an issue but as you say, there isn't any other factor too dissimilar to West Lothian ops.
I agree or even at Central on the 23 or 10 although it depends on if they struggled with hills.
Possibly longer running fast on the A1 if on the X6 but I agree. The X27 and X28 have fast running on the A71 and the X18 on between Broxburn and Maybury.
They seemed to be used on the 104 (X6) quite regularly, I'm vey unsure on what the problem is, but it must be something to do with East Coast Buses as these issues seemed to happen immediately.
That was cited before but a quick check on maps and the A1 stretch of the route is less than 4 miles! 3.7 to be precise from Asda The Jewel to the Wallyford turnoff.
As far as I knew most of these always had the screens. The 13 plate Eclipse2’s are in a similar situation.
That's correct. All of 1-50 had them and they were functional, although I can't remember when Lothian phased out the system. Some lost them, some didn't. If I recall correctly bus 14 has an error message stuck on it's screen, that may have changed since considering it's been a while especially with it being reserved.
I believe the system on this batch is still there; it’s just no longer used or isn’t compatible with the Hanovers or newer style Mobitec set up. 426-437 would also have had this system when new, but have now been fully converted to work on the Hanover system. Even 195-199 and 201-215 would’ve had this system too.
They were only ever fitted to 1-30.
Thanks for that - Interesting. The system itself wouldn't have been abandoned as 551-570 as mentioned have received them but wete new in 2015. The Skylink B7RLEs still had them way after 2014 and 2015 and were still in functional use for 200 operations in 2017. They lost the system as soon as the 200 moved to deckers.
Certainly. I would've liked if at one point they received them, like 426-437 (new with old system, but all upgraded with new system when being converted out of airport buses).
I would like to see all of the buses that don't have announcement systems to receive them, you could probably make exceptions, e.g. All buses Pre-2015 not to get them, which means that the following wouldn't receive them;
401-425 were new in 2015 also.
Like you say, I can’t see them fitting them to the missing 7900’s, 171-173, 591-594, or to any of the B9TL’s. I equally can’t see them being re-instated on the the later Eclipse2’s, the Enviro 400’s, or the 7900’s that had them as well. The majority of these buses I’d say are only part of the fleet in the short term now, and therefore are not probably worth doing.
401-425 I believe first entered service in November/December 2014, with the last entering service in January 2015.
I know what you mean about announcements being too low. How do they expect people to hear them especially if the bus is busy and also the fault where the screen is to the left too much and cuts off the left hand side.
They used to say “for bus connections with services…” but I don’t know when they stopped announcing them?
This was Airlink only. I don't think it occurs anymore, but it still advises local hotels and where local buses can take you. All screens continue to display bus connections however.
I’m sure it used to be on other services too but I could be wrong. I remember it reading out the list when it got near Princes Street and it was a long list.
It would've probably been the 1 or the 10 which were the EcoLothianBuses routes (generally.)
Airlink still does this at Drum Brae, Western Corner, Shandwick and Princes Street for bus connections. At Drumr Brae it lists numbers, West End / Princes Street it lists common areas buses run to.
Only Major stops I'd say, e.g. Musselburgh High Street, Portobello Town Hall (or King's Road,) Prince's Street, Gyle Centre, and the list goes on.
Sorry, wasn't meant to be a correction more of just adding a bit of info in! Also interesting to note that airlink only calls its stopping pattern when leaving the airport, not on the way out
I suppose it doesn’t need to. Announcing the next stops towards the Airport as they approach are fine for the odd user that gets off at them, whereas in the other direction more people will be getting off at the different stops.
If you ever go on a rush-hour 100, you'll find at least half the bus get off before the airport!
