As someone who was occasionally drives this route, the 25 can often leave Heriot watt full. The campus and the park and ride are serious money earners for lothian…
Perhaps it doesn't run during Uni/College holidays and it can be quietly withdrawn at such times as an unadvertised duplicate to a timetabled service?
The X25 return would be nice and ideally as I mentioned previously hourly 7 days a week daytime. It could potentially also go to Craigentinny like it currently does but via Waterloo Place, Regent Road, Montrose Terrace, London Road, Marionville Road to Lochend Drive and continue the along the current 25 route from there which would give people of Lochend, Restalrig and Craigentinny an express service also.
There probably won't be any as the last service changes were already in preparation for the reopening of Leith Walk.
East Coast Buses don't seem to struggle in that area from what I've seen. There are some people use them from Princes Street/Waterloo Place to Meadowbank House but not a lot, and I think that is acceptable given there is no other directly comparable service (all the Lothian buses run local whereas only the East Coast buses run express).
)That sounds like an excellent idea.
There’s loads of slack in the Tour Fleet. 230-234 are branded up for the pretty pointless Cobbles’ Tour while 229 hasn’t been used a lot since use since the Pandemic began - it was last out in September 2021. 249 and 250 remain good options for spares across the division but are still frequently used. 250 can often be found sitting on Market Street on a number of days as a standby bus.How much slack is there in the open-top fleet? I'm thinking rather than wasting resources on an X25 to Portobello all year round and on horrible days, it might be more efficient to just run route 26 duplicates on busy days to Portobello or Musselburgh? I'm mentioning the open-tops because they would be ideal for it but obviously any double decker would do.
(Idea: sell 351-400 but keep 951-960 and convert to open-tops for summer and maybe the 3 Bridges tour?
Yeah, I'm not too sure about this. On the one hand having both the 124 and 113 limited stop over the same route is good as it gives a reliable limited stop service to Musselburgh every 15 minutes. On the other hand going via Portobello is less distance and it's definitely noticeable when there's no traffic.
The Service 42 was withdrawn on September 10th 2022.
Thanks.
Nobody truly knows except Lothian really, if I were to guess, I don't think so. The Service 33 serves Millerhill, so it could possibly go inside Danderhall but Services 48/49 (along with the 33) already go outside of Danderhall. Prentice Service 111 serves Danderhall, so it's not like the estate doesn't already have a link.
There doesn’t appear to be any plans at the minute. I was always under the impression that it would be one of the routes extended to Shawfair when it was big enough. That project hasn’t quite gone to plan so far, so it will likely be some time before it could be extended I’d say.
For a spell between 2000 and 2008 Lothian ran a service into Danderhall itself, IIRC.
You do RC, that was the 49. Then they got a Midlothian contract to extend some journeys to Rosewell to replace a withdrawn First service (79?) and gradually that turned into the whole route being extended.
I think one of them could be the Service 45, because even though it's meant to be a university, college and school link, it would probably still benefit the community, especially if they go and attend Herriot Watt University.
I remember that well. The withdrawal of the First 79 left Rosewell and Bonnyrigg without a direct bus to what was then the new Royal Infirmary, which was why the 49 was extended. There was a hint of irony as Lothian had withdrawn from Rosewell a few years earlier with the 82 curtailed to Danderhall, only to go back out there with its successor after First scrapped the 79.
On the topic of service 45, one thing I have noticed multiple times is a Gemini 2 on the 45 with about 10-15 people onboard which could easily be a single deck, then the journey after, now at peak rush hour, operated by a Volvo 7900 with all the seats taken and up to 20 people standing. I understand how it happens, but I've heard many people complain about how Lothian seemingly don't line up bus types with specific journeys effectively.
I also remember a 78 replacing the 79 but via Gilmerton Road instead of Old Dalkeith Road.
I was on a Gemini 2 on my own from Abbeyhill to Musselburgh, this was on a Service 45.
I feel like the 45 can get very busy at times, I've been it full and standing at George Watson's College at times, and I'd imagine serving Heriot-Watt means it's busy at certain times. I wonder if it's one of the routes lined up for the B7RLEs once they're ready? As they have more capacity than 7900s. I think ideally though it would be permanently allocated short B9TLs.
I think that 1141-1153 would be suited to the position; they are double deckers with more capacity than singles but less than all of our other doubles. The 45 is a very busy route, especially when people start leaving and going into University & College. I think B7RLEs will all go to Central, so I doubt they will ever go on the 45.
I agree, the ex London fleet would be best suited to the 45. I think it would work with a few other single deck routes that could work as doubles, such as the 2.
I think we should still keep singles on the 2, because Marine won't have a designated Single Deck route if the 2 becomes doubles, and we would have to keep singles etc. I would like every depot to have a single allocated route ideally.