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

[computerSaysNo]

A lot of what I would call strange movements at the minute, but once it’s all pieced together in full I’m sure it will make sense.

I agree that a lot of it looks strange. I would suggest that most of the movements are for the Marathon or the concert on Tuesday, but if that was the case why didn't they move for the previous concerts at Murrayfield?

If the total vehicle requirement is roughly the same at each garage after these changes (I don't know if it is), then I don't really see the point in any major changes.

As far as I'm aware Lothian don't have any orders placed for new buses? So the movements can't be due to new stock coming in.

 

[Jordan1296]

From first observations, the 7 is now getting buses that used to work the 41 (11 plate buses) at least on a Sunday anyway.

Also, timetables on bus stops/shelters on the south side of the city have not been updated to reflect the changes.

 

[Bus9120UK]

I agree that a lot of it looks strange. I would suggest that most of the movements are for the Marathon or the concert on Tuesday

I assumed that they are switching them during these shuttles to save another run at a later date. I don't think these are movements just for the concerts as 468 & 1053 switched directly without going on any runs.

 

[Vectron383]

Reddit - Dive into anything

www.reddit.com

Saw this just now- if it’s recent one of the Gemini 2s might possibly be in for some bodywork (!)

(Link to video of a Lothian bus being rammed by a car)

 

[Bus9120UK]

Reddit - Dive into anything

www.reddit.com

Saw this just now- if it’s recent one of the G2s might possibly be in for some bodywork (!)

Judging by the rims and interior it looks like either 369, 391, 952 or 953. All have been out lately so I'm assuming it's an older video!

 

[Vectron383]

It could be from a year ago or more, to be honest! I’d be very interested to hear the story behind the incident but I doubt there’s any information available.

 

[stantheman]

Marine 631 to 650 all seem to be out of service today !

 

[Highland050261]

466-470 swapped with 1051-1055 last night. 1056-1062 are expected to transfer to Marine too, supposedly they're moving to East Coast Buses in due course.

Maybe possible renumber to 519-530.

 

[LothianBusesPh]

Marine Allocation Changes (It's a Sunday but because of movements I'll submit anyway.)

Service 19 - 639-650,
Service 21 - 401-425,
Service 45 - 42-50 (Educated Guess!)
Service 48 - 176-190, 42-50.

636 is at Longstone now.

Maybe possible renumber to 519-530.

I would have thought it would've been the opposite, renumbering these to 510-522 and the others 523-530

 

[Highland050261]

Marine Allocation Changes (It's a Sunday but because of movements I'll submit anyway.)

Service 19 - 639-650,
Service 21 - 401-425,
Service 45 - 42-50 (Educated Guess!)
Service 48 - 176-190, 42-50.

636 is at Longstone now.


I would have thought it would've been the opposite, renumbering these to 510-522 and the others 523-530

Could be I was just thinking possible options.

 

[Auld reekie]

so today I opened the app, clicked on service 9 and the app crashed. Tried it again and the same thing. It's not an issue with other services. Has anyone else had a similar experience?

The App is absolutely useless.
I emailed Lothian Buses about the App a few months ago.
The reply was was “We are aware of the issues on the App and we are looking into it.”
Blah! Blah!Blah!

 

[Bus9120UK]

The App is absolutely useless.
I emailed Lothian Buses about the App a few months ago.
The reply was was “We are aware of the issues on the App and we are looking into it.”
Blah! Blah!Blah!

I found that the issues rectified themself this morning with the changes. Edit: Nope, they're back.

 

[FlybeDash8Q400]

The App is absolutely useless.

The app (like many other things) is long overdue an upgrade. The User Interface (UI) in my opinion is poor, while certain features are particularly confusing for the non-enthusiast.

Bits such as only two buses showing at a terminus stop rather than four, the character limit on the destinations, only one direction working at bus stops where the services go in both directions (eg QMU), the straight lines between stops rather than a geographically accurate routing (this never used to be a problem) and arguably the most bizarre glitch where the app things the bus has cleared the starting stop when in fact it hasn’t. As a result the timings are way out (apart from the starting stop) and you need to do a bit of maths to work out which bus it actually is. An annoying problem I’ve found over the years is when it changes day (this occurs around 02:30-03:30) and then the app shows duplicate departures on night buses for around an hour or so, of which one works. In addition to that the previous day’s night buses suddenly reappear and think they’re on what the app thinks is a third journey sometimes.

There’s way more issues than that, but that’s the ones that first come to mind.

 

[ScotRail158725]

Judging by the rims and interior it looks like either 369, 391, 952 or 953. All have been out lately so I'm assuming it's an older video!

It's not an older video; there are current adverts on the buses in the video.

The app (like many other things) is long overdue an upgrade. The User Interface (UI) in my opinion is poor, while certain features are particularly confusing for the non-enthusiast.

Yeah it's been poor for ages and it always seems to be breaking now, so it's time for a major upgrade at least.

 

[CN04NRJ]

It's not an older video; there are current adverts on the buses in the video.


Yeah it's been poor for ages and it always seems to be breaking now, so it's time for a major upgrade at least.

Hi-vis vests were only issued to drivers recently (2-3 months ish) so definitely recent.

 

[LothianBusesPh]

Hi-vis vests were only issued to drivers recently (2-3 months ish) so definitely recent.

Marine drivers started getting them just after Christmas.

640 looks to be at Longstone now.

 

[paul47B]

By the sounds of it I think the transfer of 466-470 to Central is probably temporary. I’d expect some of 1051-1062 to be in Seafield fairly shortly for repaint prep if the transfer is indeed happening, as I don’t think Marine needs all of them.

A lot of what I would call strange movements at the minute, but once it’s all pieced together in full I’m sure it will make sense.

Marine appears to be losing almost half of its E400mmc B5TL’s, which at the minute appears to mean that 21 has lost them. Early days though so shall have to wait and see on that part.

Those buses have been disappearing from the 21s for a couple of weeks now

 

[FlybeDash8Q400]

Those buses have been disappearing from the 21s for a couple of weeks now

Just had a look at the last week and it was overwhelmingly mostly E400mmc’s pretty much every day. A handful of other buses thrown in but that’s been the case on the 21 for months.

 

[LothianBusesPh]

Just had a look at the last week and it was overwhelmingly mostly E400mmc’s pretty much every day. A handful of other buses thrown in but that’s been the case on the 21 for months.

There are normally 1 or 2 other types of buses at most, even on Sundays. Today was pretty much fully 401-425, meaning it has changed pretty much. The MMC's seem to be used on the 19, well the ones that still remain at Marine. 640 and 642 also moved to Longstone so we will have to play it by year to see what ones end up where!

I may post obvious allocation changes tomorrow, where we'll see the Saturday timetables in operation.

 

[Bus9120UK]

I may post obvious allocation changes tomorrow, where we'll see the Monday to Friday timetables in operation.

Not until Tuesday, there's a bank holiday tomorrow so a Saturday service is in operation.

 

[LothianBusesPh]

Not until Tuesday, there's a bank holiday tomorrow so a Saturday service is in operation.

I forgot about the bank holiday, thanks for the correction. Saturday allocations tend to be the same as Mon-Fri allocations, so if there is an obvious allocation for tomorrow we can sort of get an idea for whats to come!

 

[CN04NRJ]

I forgot about the bank holiday, thanks for the correction. Saturday allocations tend to be the same as Mon-Fri allocations, so if there is an obvious allocation for tomorrow we can sort of get an idea for whats to come!

I know you said tend to be, but there's some really odd ones like the 47 - Tri axles Mon-Fri and Sundays but for some reason 600s on a Saturday

 

[roadierway77]

Now that the service changes have come into effect, I've put together a table comparing the daytime requirements of each city route before and after the changes. I hope I've not made any errors - apologies if so. Blue text indicates the vehicle requirement has increased, while red indicates that requirements have decreased.

Route	Daytime PVR May 2023	Daytime PVR June 2023
1	8 required	11 required
2	8 required	8 required
3	18 required	18 required
4	8 required	9 required
5	8 required	8 required
7	8 required	8 required
8	7 required	7 required
9	N/A	6 required
10	7 required	7 required
11	14 required	14 required
12	6 required	6 required
14	9 required	9 required
15	2 required	2 required
16	16 required	16 required
19	8 required	10 required
21	14 required	15 required
22	5 required	6 required
23	6 required	6 required
24	8 required	8 required
25	16 required	13 required
26	24 required	24 required
27	7 required	7 required
29	10 required	10 required
30	21 required	18 required
31	12 required	12 required
33	9 required	9 required
34	9 required	9 required
35	8 required	8 required
36	6 required	6 required
37	14 required	14 required
38	5 required	5 required
41	7 required	withdrawn
44	18 required	18 required
45	6 required	5 required
46	N/A	6 required
47	10 required	11 required
48	5 required	7 required
49	13 required	9 required
100	9 required	9 required
200	4 required	4 required
400	6 required	6 required

Total vehicle requirements have increased slightly from 379 to 384.

Fingers crossed that extra bus for the 21 helps with reliability - it's a route I use often and it very much struggled to keep to time prior to these changes, especially during peaks.

 

[LothianBusesPh]

Second day running of 401-425 being used on the 21. We can almost certainly say that the Enviro400 MMC days are long gone. I realise Marine have less but with not a single MMC on, it's not looking too healthy!

1093 of all buses on the Three Bridges Tour! Why is Central even operating it?

 

[InOban]

I forgot about the bank holiday, thanks for the correction. Saturday allocations tend to be the same as Mon-Fri allocations, so if there is an obvious allocation for tomorrow we can sort of get an idea for whats to come!

In Scotland Bank Holidays are just that - Holidays for banks. The public holiday was last Monday (Victoria Day). Different cities have holidays on different weekends - today is the Glasgow holiday.

 

[Porty]

In Scotland Bank Holidays are just that - Holidays for banks. The public holiday was last Monday (Victoria Day). Different cities have holidays on different weekends - today is the Glasgow holiday.

Yes, but Lothian buses website specifies a Saturday service (and other minor changes) for today - and which they designate as a holiday day. I think last Monday was a normal M-F service - though not 100 per cent sure about that. It is confusing!

 

[Lothian_Bus]

668-671 appear to now be at Central. Looks like service 44 has gone fully back to Longstone as well - assuming 631,637 and 638 are now based at Longstone.

 

[Bus9120UK]

668-671 appear to now be at Central. Looks like service 44 has gone fully back to Longstone as well - assuming 631,637 and 638 are now based at Longstone.

Yes, 631-638 are at Longstone. I can't remember if Central had Saturday 44s previously though?

1093 of all buses on the Three Bridges Tour! Why is Central even operating it?

It's on Cruiselink X99. The 3 bridges tour doesn't start will around 5 past 10.

 

[LothianBusesPh]

Yes, 631-638 are at Longstone. I can't remember if Central had Saturday 44s previously though?


It's on Cruiselink X99. The 3 bridges tour doesn't start will around 5 past 10.

It was tracking as the 3 Bridges Tour on bustimes.org, that's why I was confused. I knew the X99 was on though. I know bustimes.org isn't 100% accurate but it's a good baseline!

 

[Lothian_Bus]

Yes, 631-638 are at Longstone. I can't remember if Central had Saturday 44s previously though?

It was 6 M-F and 3 on a Saturday so will be interesting to see where they go, especially as there are now more at Central. They are on service 9 today but tomorrow will give us a better idea.