Lothian Group discussion (Lothian City, Lothian Country Bus and East Coast Buses)

[Siemens Trains]

Cust cutting has starting, in this instance it IS A GOOD IDEA.. I think Omni is right we will see wider restructuring taking place soon, again this could be bad but not all of it, and I bet some good will come out of it.

I don't know if this saves a lot of money but merging several different sites into just one area is probably easier to manage and navigate so it makes sense. Perhaps you could say the same about depots. Will they be next to merge?
It's only Edinburgh Trams that are treated differently now from a website perspective. Most folk thought the tram and bus honeymoon was over prior to coronavirus but maybe we'll see a closer relationship in the future - perhaps it would be more efficient. Did the airport buses have their own site before?

 

[FlybeDash8Q400]

Did the airport buses have their own site before?

Airport routes have always just had the section on the LB website rather than a separate one altogether. The short lived Ford Transit shuttle (if anyone remembers that) used to have its own website I think.

Some costcutting can actually be beneficial, for example combining two shorter routes into one big route will usually save time on layovers and require 1 or 2 less buses. It saves the company money whilst offering more connections to the passengers. Just because the amount spent is less doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a bad thing. Interworking is another common example.

 

[OmniCity999]

I don't know if this saves a lot of money but merging several different sites into just one area is probably easier to manage and navigate so it makes sense. Perhaps you could say the same about depots. Will they be next to merge?
It's only Edinburgh Trams that are treated differently now from a website perspective. Most folk thought the tram and bus honeymoon was over prior to coronavirus but maybe we'll see a closer relationship in the future - perhaps it would be more efficient. Did the airport buses have their own site before?

Skylink has always run from Longstone, except when it started, it ran from Central for a while, Skylink has never (to my knowledge) had its own website.

Airlink has largely spent its time at Central but has been at Marine and Longstone before, Airlink did for a while have its own website too.

Merging websites allows everything to be in one place, everything about each subsidiary was always on Lothians website anyway. They had their own websites set up as part of the subsidiaries setting up, going by my previous statement, these are now not needed. Everything is on Lothians website anyway. EastCoastBuses.co.uk / LothianCountry.co.uk will still be used in branding etc as customers specifically from those brands can navigate via these links directly to the space on Lothians website where everything on that particular brand is held, instead of searching.

East Coast buses wont be losing Musselburgh or North Berwick. Theres already a lot of dead mileage in the operation so moving services to Marine or Central would not be beneficial. There was talk of another depot in either Haddington or Macmerry, but it was dropped when Hall left.

Ideally, some services should start/end from Central (early am/late PM), but everything is based in Musselburgh and out stationed to NB. It would be a logistical nightmare for Drivers and shift patterns.

If the DriverHub at Shandwick Place goes ahead as planned, a lot would change, but ill not go into it at risk of going too far into detail.

Not going to bother mentioning LCB as its pretty similar in regards to ECB, although ECB will survive, at this point LCB is hit or miss.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

im not sure whats not good about cost cutting?

Lower overheads so more can be invested into the front line service?

 

[ScotRail158725]

Lower overheads so more can be invested into the front line service?

Aye, as i say whats bad about that?

 

[overthewater]

im not sure whats not good about cost cutting?

Sometimes, some people go too far, we have seen this happen a few times across certain companies. Like one Certain over the top young manager at Stagecoach he has bounced around a lot of areas

 

[ScotRail158725]

Sometimes, some people go too far, we have seen this happen a few times across certain companies.

what i’m saying is though is if the right cuts are made in the right places then its only good. cutting the heritage fleet, selling those open top scanias/tridents that have sat doing nothing for ages are steps in the right direction for it to work properly

 

[overthewater]

what i’m saying is though is if the right cuts are made in the right places then its only good. cutting the heritage fleet, selling those open top scanias/tridents that have sat doing nothing for ages are steps in the right direction for it to work properly

Yes we all want the right cuts to be made, however its not impossible bad cuts could happen.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Yes we all want the right cuts to be made, however its not impossible bad cuts could happen.

No one goes out to make a bad cut. Everyone is fallible

 

[oldman]

I saw a 35 today with Heriot-Watt on the front and all the timetables say Heriot-Watt. Is this new - Riccarton no more? The University will be happy.

 

[ScotRail158725]

I saw a 35 today with Heriot-Watt on the front and all the timetables say Heriot-Watt. Is this new - Riccarton no more? The University will be happy.

same with the 34s, never payed attention to any 25s i seen today but would assume they’re the same

 

[CN04NRJ]

same with the 34s, never payed attention to any 25s i seen today but would assume they’re the same

All the 25s I saw today had rollers, so Riccarton on them.

 

[Bus9120UK]

Appears bus "5005" appears outside of Central on the Transport Visualizer, does anybody know what bus this could be?

 

[computerSaysNo]

same with the 34s, never payed attention to any 25s i seen today but would assume they’re the same

All the 25s I saw today had rollers, so Riccarton on them.

I saw a 25 at around lunchtime with an LED board which said Heriot Watt on it.

 

[CN04NRJ]

I saw a 25 at around lunchtime with an LED board which said Heriot Watt on it.

I should have said those ones, but yes I thought they'd update the 25 too.

 

[computerSaysNo]

For the vehicles which have a roller on the front and an LED on the back, I wonder if the front would say Riccarton and the back would say Heriot Watt?

 

[ScotRail158725]

For the vehicles which have a roller on the front and an LED on the back, I wonder if the front would say Riccarton and the back would say Heriot Watt?

tbh those are a rare sight, only about 25 of those left now

 

[OmniCity999]

Appears bus "5005" appears outside of Central on the Transport Visualizer, does anybody know what bus this could be?

it's a test tracker, it isnt actually fitted to a vehicle. Where it is shown on the map is where the tracker workshop is. It's probably a few meters out, none of the trackers are bang on.

5005 is typically used for demonstrators.

 

[CN04NRJ]

For the vehicles which have a roller on the front and an LED on the back, I wonder if the front would say Riccarton and the back would say Heriot Watt?

I don't think there's any at Longstone anyway.

 

[Auld reekie]

same with the 34s, never payed attention to any 25s i seen today but would assume they’re the same

The 45's will also have Herriot Watt.

 

[scosutsut]

Apologies if this has been asked and I've missed it, but do we know if the former Motorcoach B9s with ECB are temporary or permanent replacements for the B7s that have left?

 

[FlybeDash8Q400]

Apologies if this has been asked and I've missed it, but do we know if the former Motorcoach B9s with ECB are temporary or permanent replacements for the B7s that have left?

I think it’s permanent. Although my feeling is that 844 may return to West Lothian if and when 942 does finally return.

 

[OmniCity999]

I think it’s permanent. Although my feeling is that 844 may return to West Lothian if and when 942 does finally return.

heard 20942 was an early casualty in the current clearout.

 

[FlybeDash8Q400]

heard 20942 was an early casualty in the current clearout.

Doesn’t surprise me given how ruthless they’ve been up until now, Although I thought the rebuild had been completed?

 

[scosutsut]

I think it’s permanent. Although my feeling is that 844 may return to West Lothian if and when 942 does finally return.

Cheers, will keep an eye out for one of them appearing in full ECB colours then, which will be a shame as they suit the Motorcoaches colours so much more!

 

[OmniCity999]

Doesn’t surprise me given how ruthless they’ve been up until now, Although I thought the rebuild had been completed?

dont know if its entirely true, but it was near enough complete

 

[Graham Alexand]

If it is true does anyone know when we might see 20942 (SN10 DKO) on the road again.

Also does the first 2 numbers in th East Coast Buses fleeting mean if the bus is a single deck or a double deck.
E.g.
10051 SF17 VLX, Wright Eclipse 3 VolvoB8RLE
A image from flickr by - Robin Dickson

East Coast Buses Volvo B8RLE Wright Eclipse 3 SF17VLX 10051 operating service 113 to West Granton at Princes Street, Edinburgh, on 3 September 2020.

Explore Robin Dickson 1's 48872 photos on Flickr!

www.flickr.com

20950 LB10 BUS, Wright Eclipse Gemini 2 VolvoB9TL
A image from flickr by - Robin Dickson

East Coast Buses Volvo B9TL Wright Eclipse Gemini 2 LB10BUS 20950, formerly Lothian 947, operating service 104 to Edinburgh leaving Wallyford on 9 September 2020.

Explore Robin Dickson 1's 48872 photos on Flickr!

www.flickr.com

 

[OmniCity999]

If it is true does anyone know when we might see 20942 (SN10 DKO) on the road again.

Also does the first 2 numbers in th East Coast Buses fleeting mean if the bus is a single deck or a double deck.
E.g.
10051 SF17 VLX, Wright Eclipse 3 VolvoB8RLE
A image from flickr by - Robin Dickson

East Coast Buses Volvo B8RLE Wright Eclipse 3 SF17VLX 10051 operating service 113 to West Granton at Princes Street, Edinburgh, on 3 September 2020.

Explore Robin Dickson 1's 48872 photos on Flickr!

www.flickr.com

20950 LB10 BUS, Wright Eclipse Gemini 2 VolvoB9TL
A image from flickr by - Robin Dickson

East Coast Buses Volvo B9TL Wright Eclipse Gemini 2 LB10BUS 20950, formerly Lothian 947, operating service 104 to Edinburgh leaving Wallyford on 9 September 2020.

Explore Robin Dickson 1's 48872 photos on Flickr!

www.flickr.com

20's are double decks
10's are single decks

Internally vehicles in the ECB fleet are referred to with their full number e.g 20950 and not by the shortened, wider fleet numbering system of 950 - as many enthusiasts would have you believe.

 

[computerSaysNo]

Apologies if this has been asked and I've missed it, but do we know if the former Motorcoach B9s with ECB are temporary or permanent replacements for the B7s that have left?

What were these vehicles used for between 2018 and now? The Lothian Vehicle Finder has no records for any of them between May 2018 and August 2020, except for a single date in 2019.

 

[OmniCity999]

What were these vehicles used for between 2018 and now? The Lothian Vehicle Finder has no records for any of them between May 2018 and August 2020, except for a single date in 2019.

Their intended use was private hires. As such, with the rest of the coaching fleet, their trackers werent made public.