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

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CN04NRJ

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There is a 7900 on route 2 today.

It's on the last 2 to leave the garage, that's often been a B5LH recently with the odd London B9TL as well. Think it's whatever is spare around 0630 so I wouldn't read anything significant into it.
 

GusB

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While it's understandable that new forum members may have questions that have already been covered, I would urge existing members to be courteous in their responses.

To our newer members, please also bear in mind that repetitive questions can often be a bit wearing. There is a fleet list kicking about on the interwebs somewhere. We do also have a search facility on this site that allows you to search a particular forum, a specific thread or the whole site for certain keywords. Entering a fleet number as a keyword search in this thread will indicate if it has been raised before.

You can also use Google to search the forum by entering the following into the search box:
site:railforums.co.uk <keyword>
into
 

Jordanscot

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anything except going back to what the new buses are :rolleyes:

Unless anyone is willing to share pictures then we can discuss them freely
i often read this forum but decided to join so I can break the secret! I went past seafield today and managed to see a new single deck;

The B8’s are Evora’s and it looked like it was ready to go! Had full Lothian livery and highback seats, contactless sign and fleet number on front - also looked really long compared to any singles they have just now..

didn’t seem to be many there though..hopefully the rest are hiding somewhere else or being delivered soon
 

Auld reekie

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i often read this forum but decided to join so I can break the secret! I went past seafield today and managed to see a new single deck;

The B8’s are Evora’s and it looked like it was ready to go! Had full Lothian livery and highback seats, contactless sign and fleet number on front - also looked really long compared to any singles they have just now..

didn’t seem to be many there though..hopefully the rest are hiding somewhere else or being delivered soon
I hope you haven’t signed the Official Secrets Act.
 

Bus9120UK

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i often read this forum but decided to join so I can break the secret! I went past seafield today and managed to see a new single deck;

The B8’s are Evora’s and it looked like it was ready to go! Had full Lothian livery and highback seats, contactless sign and fleet number on front - also looked really long compared to any singles they have just now..

didn’t seem to be many there though..hopefully the rest are hiding somewhere else or being delivered soon
Thanks for the info, cannot wait to see these buses!
 

CN04NRJ

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i often read this forum but decided to join so I can break the secret! I went past seafield today and managed to see a new single deck;

The B8’s are Evora’s and it looked like it was ready to go! Had full Lothian livery and highback seats, contactless sign and fleet number on front - also looked really long compared to any singles they have just now..

didn’t seem to be many there though..hopefully the rest are hiding somewhere else or being delivered soon

Hurray! At last we can talk about them :lol:

I'm told they are 13.2m.
 

Observer

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The whole secrecy about them is just ridiculous. Are people here going to be upset that the supposed ADL build never happened or something? The whole thing sounded so complicated.

Even if the MCV demonstrator they had before wasn't great, they could have fed back their issues and as part of an order, made sure said issues would not be present in their order.
 

Jordanscot

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In

Hurray! At last we can talk about them :lol:

I'm told they are 13.2m.
They looked big but didn’t realise 13.2m - I’ve just looked up the XLB’s for comparison and they are 13.4m so these things are total beasts for single deck city buses!
 

OmniCity999

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The whole secrecy about them is just ridiculous. Are people here going to be upset that the supposed ADL build never happened or something? The whole thing sounded so complicated.

Even if the MCV demonstrator they had before wasn't great, they could have fed back their issues and as part of an order, made sure said issues would not be present in their order.

Indeed, i've driven said vehicle around engineering and im reliably informed they are among some of the highest spec single deck vehicles around. They've had a bit of extra work done regarding build quality.

They looked big but didn’t realise 13.2m - I’ve just looked up the XLB’s for comparison and they are 13.4m so these things are total beasts for single deck city buses!
The newish East Coast eclipses (10051-10065) are 13.2m too!
 

Jordanscot

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Is it common for only a few to arrive ahead of the 30 or are they being held elsewhere until launch?

I know omni said it gives a chance for engineers and drivers to become familiar but for them being built in Egypt, surely you’d send them all together no?
 

OmniCity999

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Is it common for only a few to arrive ahead of the 30 or are they being held elsewhere until launch?
Yes! there are 1 or 2 kicking about just now - this allows familiarity training for Engineering etc.

There are others in store but not within Lothian, we havent officially accepted any yet - their here on training.
 

CN04NRJ

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They looked big but didn’t realise 13.2m - I’ve just looked up the XLB’s for comparison and they are 13.4m so these things are total beasts for single deck city buses!

Longest two axle rigid bus/coach I've driven is 12m so I'm really looking forward to driving these. They'll be incredibly welcome on the 30 which is approaching pre-covid loadings on some journeys even with the increased frequency.

I'm wondering if there'll be driver familiarisation beforehand for the extra length? Although with the newest drivers having passed their tests in February I can't see it being much of an issue.
 

GusB

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The whole secrecy about them is just ridiculous. Are people here going to be upset that the supposed ADL build never happened or something? The whole thing sounded so complicated.

Even if the MCV demonstrator they had before wasn't great, they could have fed back their issues and as part of an order, made sure said issues would not be present in their order.
It's not that ridiculous, really. If Lothian want to keep a new batch of vehicles under wraps until such time as they're ready to announce an order, it's up to them. I think what annoys some people here is the fact that staff weren't able to talk about them, as is the case with many other companies who are about to introduce something new. Like it or not, we do have to respect that.

Anyhow, I'm glad the cat's finally out of the bag and thank you to @Jordanscot for putting everyone out of their misery! Welcome to the forum too :)
 

Daniel740

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Is there a reason why Lothian haven't introduced a a season ticket for their country services? Last year when staying in North Berwick it was only possible to buy a pack of day tickets.
 
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The newish East Coast eclipses (10051-10065) are 13.2m too!
Will the new buses have a smaller engine than the ECB examples? (Ie were the ECB ones ordered with a more powerful engine, knowing that they'd be blasting down the A1 at 62mph a lot of the time, as opposed to the new ones which are for pottering round the city at 20/30mph?)
 

CN04NRJ

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Will the new buses have a smaller engine than the ECB examples? (Ie were the ECB ones ordered with a more powerful engine, knowing that they'd be blasting down the A1 at 62mph a lot of the time, as opposed to the new ones which are for pottering round the city at 20/30mph?)

B8RLE chassis all have the same 7.7l engines - power output might be different though and I'd imagine they'd be limited to 50 rather than 56 (I believe that's the limit for buses without seatbelts).
 

OmniCity999

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Will the new buses have a smaller engine than the ECB examples? (Ie were the ECB ones ordered with a more powerful engine, knowing that they'd be blasting down the A1 at 62mph a lot of the time, as opposed to the new ones which are for pottering round the city at 20/30mph?)
B8RLE chassis all have the same 7.7l engines - power output might be different though and I'd imagine they'd be limited to 50 rather than 56 (I believe that's the limit for buses without seatbelts).
All of our B8RLE's will be the same mechanically.

Any pictures of the Evora's (B8RLE's) yet?
Nobody has shared one yet, head down to Seafield mid-week for a look, there's usually one outside.
 
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CN04NRJ

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Do they smoke like a chimney too? :lol:

(link to a Twitter post where smoke can be seen billowing out of the engine cubicle at the rear of a B5LH whilst performing an exhaust regen)

Haven't seen that myself, the B5LH Geminis aren't so bad when they're doing a regen but the engines are so downrated in the 7900s the performance drop is abysmal.

That smoke into the saloon does look a bit concerning!
 

RomeoCharlie71

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Haven't seen that myself, the B5LH Geminis aren't so bad when they're doing a regen but the engines are so downrated in the 7900s the performance drop is abysmal.

That smoke into the saloon does look a bit concerning!
Fair enough, ours have a habit of going through every gear too and revving high as well. They do a good job at filling the city centre with smoke... Someone did tell the driver about the smoke but just told them to open windows/move upstairs (control had told him to carry on as it's "normal").

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Finally, someone has taken one for the team and said the new B8s are MCV bodied... I had known for a wee while now. Although, I hadn't signed the Lothian Secrecy Act 2020, I did find it quite amusing reading the conspiracy theories ;) :lol:
 
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