There’s a new vaccine centre at the former RBS building in Redheughs Avenue now, so either the 275 or 276 could serve that and terminate at Edinburgh Park Station as the 275 did before, not sure how long it’s been open but possibly worthwhile. The other route in my view would be better not serving East Mains but running direct up to Winchburgh, Kirkliston and in the long run onto the Airport (although that would take quite some time before it’d be worthwhile) OR South Queensferry - but that’s been tried quite a few times already and hasn’t worked so it probably isn’t the one to go for. Both routes could serve Pumpherston to maintain links - although I’m not sure it needs 4 per hour each way.
Whatever (if anything) changes I’m sure it’ll be changed again. The 276 change makes sense for the short term, I’m not necessarily sure once hopefully things change it will be running beyond Loganlea again.
For those wondering why the X38 was withdrawn and the existing routes kept/altered ahead of it I wonder if dead mileage with buses and driver changeovers had something to do with it? I imagine vans were used much like the ECB X7? The closest point on the route from the depot looks to have been around around 6-7 miles away but it may have been the terminus in Linlithgow Bridge that was the changeover point, I never used the route that far out so I’m not entirely sure how the system worked so may not be 100% bang on.