Scottish Citylink

[Fundee on Tay]

From my own observations, yes. The downhill section on Wellington Road in Aberdeen which is a 30mph limit is another bad spot, particularly at night.

With that said its not exclusive to certain Citylink sub-contractors. Last month i was in a van on the A90 between Dundee and Perth sitting at 60mph (the speed limit for that type of vehicle) and an Ember coach went flying past in the outside lane so most definitely wasn't sticking to the 60mph limit.

In my experience Ember regularly reach 65mph

 

[computerSaysNo]

Are you suggesting that they were exceeding the speed limit?

In my experience it is very common for Citylink drivers to exceed the speed limit. Almost every 900 journey I've been on for example has gone over 40 on the 40 limit past the Airport, and over 30 in the 30 and over 20 in the 20 limits inside Edinburgh (observed by my phone GPS). In Dundee I've experienced speeding down the narrow roads north of the Bus Station too. That said I haven't been on Citylink for a while.

 

[PG]

In my experience Ember regularly reach 65mph

This and @Jordan Adam's previous post suggests to me that whoever is doing the tachograph analysis for these operators (if contracted out) is either lacking or the operators are not fulfilling their licence obligations.

 

[Fundee on Tay]

This and @Jordan Adam's previous post suggests to me that whoever is doing the tachograph analysis for these operators (if contracted out) is either lacking or the operators are not fulfilling their licence obligations.

To be fair Citylink also regularly exceed 60mph, I think they’re all limited to 100km/h (62mph) rather than 60. Even still you’re right about the tachographs.

 

[158756]

A bunch of hypocrites complained about the 3 coaches an hour that use Forfar Road and demanded the coaches be diverted away while completely ignoring all the trucks, vans and cars.

Is this actually a thing? On what grounds can the council force the coaches to divert, unless there's a weight limit which would also affect the trucks and local buses? And it can't be a quiet road, I see from Streetview it's actually signposted "football traffic" at the A90 junction.

 

[PG]

Is this actually a thing? On what grounds can the council force the coaches to divert, unless there's a weight limit which would also affect the trucks and local buses? And it can't be a quiet road, I see from Streetview it's actually signposted "football traffic" at the A90 junction.

This article in the local newspaper The Courier from last August seems to indicate that the council have indeed made some kind of agreement with both Citylink and Flixbus.

A spokesman for Megabus, which operates Citylink, said: “Following a request from Dundee City Council, we instructed our drivers to divert via Kingsway onto the bypass to relieve traffic pressure in the Albert Street area.

“We continue to remind our staff of the agreed route for our services.”

A FlixBus spokesperson said: “Drivers are refraining from using Albert Street unless road conditions make it unavoidable.”

 

[route101]

Not used the 922 to Troon yet but seen one leave Glasgow yesterday and it looked empty. I will try this service but connecting to the ferry might be risky.

I seen a white Scania on the 902 yesterday, who operates this? I thought the 902 was solely operated by Parks using Elites mostly.

 

[Highland050261]

Not used the 922 to Troon yet but seen one leave Glasgow yesterday and it looked empty. I will try this service but connecting to the ferry might be risky.

I seen a white Scania on the 902 yesterday, who operates this? I thought the 902 was solely operated by Parks using Elites mostly.

That will be Hairy Haggis - they recently got an ex-West Coast Motors bus.

 

[route101]

That will be Hairy Haggis - they recently got an ex-West Coast Motors bus.

Does this do particular runs?

 

[Highland050261]

Does this do particular runs?

Not too sure - it is YN14PNE, or formally P100WCM.

 

[ld0595]

Shouldn't be a problem I don't think but maybe worth a customer service email to them, they usually pretty responsive and I can't imagine that for a simple thing like a name change they would charge you in a thing if they wanted to update the system and send you a new confirmation

Thanks for the reply. Just back from my trip and thought it would be helpful for others to explain what happened.

Got to the coach and they knew I had two people travelling on my reservation. Only on the ferry did they ask for my partner's name and they simply printed out a boarding pass for her. Same with others who also booked multiple tickets on CityLink.

Can't really fault the service - clean and on time and relatively comfortable. Only gripe was not having a toilet on the coach for a 2+ hour journey but otherwise it was all grand.

 

[ian1944]

In my experience Ember regularly reach 65mph

A recent Dundee - Edinburgh journey saw me within sight of the digital speedo, which displayed a steady 65 where possible along, for example, the A90 to Perth, suggesting a speed limiter at that value. It seemed accurate at various lower values, agreeing with streetside "your speed is ... " displays in urban areas.

 

[overthewater]

The Legal limit of coaches is 70mph under 12m. There is a thread about this.

Motorway speed limit for coaches

Is the UK motorway speed limit for coaches that exceed 12 metres in length still 60 mph? The reason I ask is several expert coach drivers have told me it’s 70 mph and can therefore legally do this speed downhill. Many thanks.

www.railforums.co.uk

 

[Jordan Adam]

The Legal limit of coaches is 70mph under 12m. There is a thread about this.

Motorway speed limit for coaches

Is the UK motorway speed limit for coaches that exceed 12 metres in length still 60 mph? The reason I ask is several expert coach drivers have told me it’s 70 mph and can therefore legally do this speed downhill. Many thanks.

www.railforums.co.uk

The A90 between Dundee and Perth isn't a Motorway, additionally the vehicles in question are over 12 metres.

 

[GusB]

The A90 between Dundee and Perth isn't a Motorway, additionally the vehicles in question are over 12 metres.

Quite. The legal limit is rather moot anyway, considering that the limiters are set to 100km/h (62.5mph).

 

[Spsf3232]

A recent Dundee - Edinburgh journey saw me within sight of the digital speedo, which displayed a steady 65 where possible along, for example, the A90 to Perth, suggesting a speed limiter at that value. It seemed accurate at various lower values, agreeing with streetside "your speed is ... " displays in urban areas.

It won't be accurate. You need to look at what the tacho head says on it and it won't be above 100kph as that's what the limiter is set at.

 

[Deerfold]

A recent Dundee - Edinburgh journey saw me within sight of the digital speedo, which displayed a steady 65 where possible along, for example, the A90 to Perth, suggesting a speed limiter at that value. It seemed accurate at various lower values, agreeing with streetside "your speed is ... " displays in urban areas.

Speedos usually read a little over. That's likely to be about 60mph.

If the actual speed is 60 it's legal to show anything between 60 and 66.

 

[LiviCrazy]

Don’t know if I missed this somewhere but looks like the 902 is extending to Edinburgh City Centre from the 20th May according to Traveline?

 

[Bus9120UK]

Don’t know if I missed this somewhere but looks like the 902 is extending to Edinburgh City Centre from the 20th May according to Traveline?

Good spot. The PDF timetable is attached (pages 5 and 10, other pages shows the old and new timetables combined). It will also serve Ballieston.
Note the PDF only shows the direction towards Edinburgh. You would have to refer to one of the combined timetables for the times to Glasgow.

 

[Spsf3232]

Good spot. The PDF timetable is attached (pages 5 and 10, other pages shows the old and new timetables combined). It will also serve Ballieston

Another success story from Citylink

 

[FlybeDash8Q400]

Don’t know if I missed this somewhere but looks like the 902 is extending to Edinburgh City Centre from the 20th May according to Traveline?

A very strange choice of terminus in Edinburgh though. Stop YB is in one of the most congested parts of the city centre. It will mean that it will need to take its layover elsewhere as well as the stop cannot handle layovers due to Lothian services stopping there; which wouldn’t fit if the 902 was sat there. Leith Street probably would’ve made more sense if terminating there was a must. Even St Andrew Square itself would’ve been a better choice.

 

[cammyeaston]

Also appears to be serving Gyle Centre as well.

 

[gingerheid]

That's a fascinating route, and the history of changes to it has been even more fascinating. The first version functioned as a proper airport service. The second version still terminated there, but didn't run early or late enough to be an airport service. I wonder if v3 is a last ditch attempt, or if they've seen what the travel patterns are in re Glasgow and think they can double their success by doing the same to Edinburgh (esp with West Lothian services being in a bit of a mess)?

 

[Dfatcontroller]

That's a fascinating route, and the history of changes to it has been even more fascinating. The first version functioned as a proper airport service. The second version still terminated there, but didn't run early or late enough to be an airport service. I wonder if v3 is a last ditch attempt, or if they've seen what the travel patterns are in re Glasgow and think they can double their success by doing the same to Edinburgh (esp with West Lothian services being in a bit of a mess)?

I live on the route of the 902 and use it a couple of times a month. I certainly wouldn't call changes to the 902 "last ditch". It's certainly very popular at the Glasgow end.
Reliability could do with being improved, some of the late running past my house is mad. One day last week the westbound and eastbound working passed outside the house running 45 & 35 late respectively!
At some stage I could see a frequency increase, maybe not for the full route, but maybe a Glasgow - Chapelhall short working or something.

 

[AndrewTaylor95]

I live on the route of the 902 and use it a couple of times a month. I certainly wouldn't call changes to the 902 "last ditch". It's certainly very popular at the Glasgow end.
Reliability could do with being improved, some of the late running past my house is mad. One day last week the westbound and eastbound working passed outside the house running 45 & 35 late respectively!
At some stage I could see a frequency increase, maybe not for the full route, but maybe a Glasgow - Chapelhall short working or something.

I'm glad it's now going to be serving Baillieston, makes things so much easier.

 

[route101]

The 902 acts as the Glasgow to Livingston service. Its popular with shoppers. Strange that its a Citylink service along with the 922, could easliy be run by Stagecoach for example.

 

[LiviCrazy]

The 902 acts as the Glasgow to Livingston service. It’s popular with shoppers. Strange that it’s a Citylink service along with the 922, could easliy be run by Stagecoach for example.

In connection to this, with it barely being a motorway based service and more of a long distance bus service would they be better getting some Panther LEs to provide better low floor entry?

 

[computerSaysNo]

In connection to this, with it barely being a motorway based service and more of a long distance bus service would they be better getting some Panther LEs to provide better low floor entry?

I mean, yes, but it's not going to happen.
With that argument you could ask, why don't all the Stagecoach express services in Fife use low-entry coaches? Those are even less motorway-based.
For clarity, I think a lot more coach services should be using low-entry vehicles, it's just that operators don't like them because you can't get as many seats in them.

 

[overthewater]

It funny its Citylink that has found a gap in the market and is filling it within West Lothian and not Lothian Country.

As for the 902 it seems to be covering everyone and everywhere now? Stagecoach could have done the same but they failed spectacular when they tried to run the service before covid.

 

[route101]

I do wonder how will the extension of the 902 into Edinburgh City Centre will affect the reliability of the service.