JumpinTrainz
Established Member
- Joined
- 30 Jul 2018
- Messages
- 1,658
Last week while in Edinburgh I can’t help but be impressed by Lothian Buses’ fleet. Lots of new fancy new Streetdecks and Volvo examples. Even their older stock is still in pretty good nick considering. Nowhere during this did I see anything older than an 04 plate.
So my questions started here...
What is wrong with First Scotland East?
Firstly it’s obvious Lothian are the bigger and more dominant of the 2 (FSE). But I can’t help but think... even by Glasgow’s standard Lothian excell far more. Why is this? Their buses look cleaner, they have an extremely up to date fleet, their buses are branded and smart looking. Compare this with both FIG and FSE which have older buses running on main stream routes. Their newest buses range from 68 plates down to the oldest as Y plates (but very recently T plates in FSE). Their buses are dirty.
Why do Lothian do it so much better? They order stock to what looks like the highest specks. First seem to always cheap out and go with the lesser ADL stock.
Even out with Edinburgh city and into routes from Falkirk to Glasgow etc.. these are operated by older Scania Solar Exclipses. There seems to be no push to have the fleet fully upgraded and it all seems very half hearted. I get new E400MMCs have made their way to the east however this is very sparing.
Why don’t FSE just cut their losses and leave Lothian to it unless they’re planning to fight back and start providing a proper service. Then they can focus on Glasgow and Aberdeen.
This is purely my opinion but it is very evident that FSE isn’t to the standard it should be.
So my questions started here...
What is wrong with First Scotland East?
Firstly it’s obvious Lothian are the bigger and more dominant of the 2 (FSE). But I can’t help but think... even by Glasgow’s standard Lothian excell far more. Why is this? Their buses look cleaner, they have an extremely up to date fleet, their buses are branded and smart looking. Compare this with both FIG and FSE which have older buses running on main stream routes. Their newest buses range from 68 plates down to the oldest as Y plates (but very recently T plates in FSE). Their buses are dirty.
Why do Lothian do it so much better? They order stock to what looks like the highest specks. First seem to always cheap out and go with the lesser ADL stock.
Even out with Edinburgh city and into routes from Falkirk to Glasgow etc.. these are operated by older Scania Solar Exclipses. There seems to be no push to have the fleet fully upgraded and it all seems very half hearted. I get new E400MMCs have made their way to the east however this is very sparing.
Why don’t FSE just cut their losses and leave Lothian to it unless they’re planning to fight back and start providing a proper service. Then they can focus on Glasgow and Aberdeen.
This is purely my opinion but it is very evident that FSE isn’t to the standard it should be.