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

[Bus9120UK]

182 is now parked at Central as of yesterday.

Hopefully we'll see further transfers soon. I wonder if this is preperation for next month.

184 moved back into Bustec from a storage location last Friday and will hopefully return by the end of the week. 199 we are still waiting on also.

Speaking of 182, I went to see them at Seafield not too long ago and my word... the shade of madder was very poor. It looked more purplish, perhaps like a shiny 441-465 which some look quite purple. 181 is similar but the rest of the ones that were there weren't too bad, though still not at all like the standard shade we know of on Ferrymill Motors repaints.

 

[90019]

One thing which I have read various things about but never properly found a definitive explanation for is madder. Is it true that the colour of madder Lothian used in the 20th century is a slightly different shade than the current colour, and what is the actual origin or the word 'madder' to describe it? It's one of those many things which I have always known the fundamentals of, but almost entirely from word of mouth and stories. I haven't properly considered why it is the way it is until now.

Madder the colour is named after the madder plant which the pigment is made from and was the colour traditionally used on Lothian's buses.
When the new livery to replace harlequin was designed in 2010, it did initially use madder when first applied to 649 but it looked very drab, so they looked for an alternative and settled on weinrot as being suitably close to the original.

 

[TheEastCoaster]

Replying to this with the hope the topic will remain on the service changes incoming!

Trying to imagine what the route changes will be to the other services listed above?

140? Auchindinny?

Another theory I have is the fact the 16 is not getting a route change, because if the 22 extension was going down Leith I would of thought the 16 would revert to operating via St Andrew Square, but since there’s not a change there i shall reserve judgement!

 

[FlybeDash8Q400]

Replying to this with the hope the topic will remain on the service changes incoming!

Trying to imagine what the route changes will be to the other services listed above?

140? Auchindinny?

As @Bus9120UK has just informed me, I appear to have put the 140 into the wrong section. The others should be correct though. List updated to reflect this.

Another theory I have is the fact the 16 is not getting a route change, because if the 22 extension was going down Leith I would of thought the 16 would revert to operating via St Andrew Square, but since there’s not a change there i shall reserve judgement!

The 22 should be pretty much as described previously. There’s growing rumours that it could be slightly different to the 47, such as serving parts of the 24’s route, but it’s pure speculation at the minute.

 

[LothianBusesPh]

Hopefully we'll see further transfers soon. I wonder if this is preperation for next month.

184 moved back into Bustec from a storage location last Friday and will hopefully return by the end of the week. 199 we are still waiting on also.

Speaking of 182, I went to see them at Seafield not too long ago and my word... the shade of madder was very poor. It looked more purplish, perhaps like a shiny 441-465 which some look quite purple. 181 is similar but the rest of the ones that were there weren't too bad, though still not at all like the standard shade we know of on Ferrymill Motors repaints.

182 did indeed look shocking, All of them that I saw bar 2 were not Lothian standard. I think Bustec should not repaint anymore unless they actually become good.

 

[VioletEclipse]

Madder the colour is named after the madder plant which the pigment is made from and was the colour traditionally used on Lothian's buses.
When the new livery to replace harlequin was designed in 2010, it did initially use madder when first applied to 649 but it looked very drab, so they looked for an alternative and settled on weinrot as being suitably close to the original.

thanks so much!

 

[ScotRail158725]

182 did indeed look shocking, All of them that I saw bar 2 were not Lothian standard. I think Bustec should not repaint anymore unless they actually become good.

Define a good repaint? Other than the colour looking a bit “off” to enthusiasts theres nothing wrong with them

 

[LothianBusesPh]

Define a good repaint? Other than the colour looking a bit “off” to enthusiasts theres nothing wrong with them

Either of the folowing:

Wrong Angles,
Wrong Colours (Not slightly, I mean a lot like some of these Bustec ones!)
Wrong Placements.

 

[FlybeDash8Q400]

Define a good repaint? Other than the colour looking a bit “off” to enthusiasts theres nothing wrong with them

Bustec’s repaints have been average at best. If you look at them all, you’ll see none of them are the same. The colours are all slightly off and the application appears to look much flatter. This is far less common in the Ferrymill ones. Then there’s bad angles on some of them such as 1037, something we normally only see on repairs.

From what I was told previously, Lothian won’t be using them in the future. They were given stuff purely as Ferrymill didn’t have the capacity to take on the entirety of the buses in green and cream.

 

[TheEastCoaster]

The 22 should be pretty much as described previously. There’s growing rumours that it could be slightly different to the 47, such as serving parts of the 24’s route, but it’s pure speculation at the minute.

At this point anything is possible, like running down to Stockbridge and then carry on down the current 47 route past the western general? guess we’ll see for sure! I would of thought it would of maybe ran down Bellevue also but with the addition of the 9 i remain doubtful

 

[FlybeDash8Q400]

At this point anything is possible, like running down to Stockbridge and then carry on down the current 47 route past the western general? guess we’ll see for sure! I would of thought it would of maybe ran down Bellevue also but with the addition of the 9 i remain doubtful

It surely has to remain via Crewe Road South in some capacity. The links the 47 l offers to/from the Old Town are always well used so I would be disappointed if they were completely lost, and I don’t expect them to be.

The 8, 14, 24 27, 29, 37 and 47 all have route changes listed here as well so it may be a major re-think of the network in North/North West Edinburgh, specifically Drylaw and Muirhouse. This alongside the addition of the 9, the rerouting of the 22 and 47, and the withdrawal of the 41. It wouldn’t be impossible for the 19 to be related to this too but I think that’s getting a bit extreme if I’m honest. A simple extension is all I’m expecting there. All of this would make sense given the fact a couple of weeks ago 1020 was driving around on routes that didn’t make any sense at the time. I do think the two are quite possibly related.

 

[Bus9120UK]

185 is now again heading for Longstone.

 

[CN04NRJ]

Going by Lothian Official New fleet list where they have marked buses as reserve, it looks like 195-199 are going back to ECB main fleet.

Fleet List Q2 2023 - Lothian Buses

Lothian Buses - Local bus services in and around Edinburgh

www.lothianbuses.com

199 is in green/white livery, saw it myself earlier on.

 

[Bus9120UK]

199 is in green/white livery, saw it myself earlier on.

Was this today or yesterday and with vinyls applied? Thanks for confirming.

 

[CN04NRJ]

Was this today or yesterday and with vinyls applied? Thanks for confirming.

Today, no vinyls.

 

[stevenedin]

1013 is on the 4 today.

 

[Bus9120UK]

1013 is on the 4 today.

Now it's just a case of waiting for 1032, whether it'll be used by Marine or join 1028/30. Of course 1031 is at Marine but that was ready earlier.

 

[TheEastCoaster]

It surely has to remain via Crewe Road South in some capacity. The links the 47 l offers to/from the Old Town are always well used so I would be disappointed if they were completely lost, and I don’t expect them to be.

The 8, 14, 24 27, 29, 37 and 47 all have route changes listed here as well so it may be a major re-think of the network in North/North West Edinburgh, specifically Drylaw and Muirhouse. This alongside the addition of the 9, the rerouting of the 22 and 47, and the withdrawal of the 41. It wouldn’t be impossible for the 19 to be related to this too but I think that’s getting a bit extreme if I’m honest. A simple extension is all I’m expecting there. All of this would make sense given the fact a couple of weeks ago 1020 was driving around on routes that didn’t make any sense at the time. I do think the two are quite possibly related.

Well guess we’ll have to wait and see, it’s hard to really say what they’ll do, both the 24/47 run to Lothian Road from Crewe Toll, so if the 22 mirrored part of the 24 route from Town it would give Stenhouse/Broomhouse a link to Stockbridge which would be a benefit and Stockbridge a link to Granton Harbour which in that case would it of not made more sense to just extend the 24 down to the waterfront?

Again maybe they won’t overcomplicate it but it’s only a matter of time! maybe these changes will be for the better!

 

[Jordan1296]

Anybody else get excited when they saw a new post om the website, but it was just May Day/bank holiday service levels?

 

[TheEastCoaster]

Anybody else get excited when they saw a new post om the website, but it was just May Day/bank holiday service levels?

It was the worst timing for click-bait!

 

[atlantean]

Will Lothian have timetables leaflets for the next service change?

 

[TheEastCoaster]

Will Lothian have timetables leaflets for the next service change?

They haven’t done them since pre-covid so I wouldn’t hold your breath, the closest we have is the network leaflets for LCB/ECB.

I’d suspect the service change to be announced tomorrow hopefully, at this point I’d be shocked if they held out much longer since they will have less than 4 weeks till they change.

 

[Bus9120UK]

They haven’t done them since pre-covid so I wouldn’t hold your breath, the closest we have is the network leaflets for LCB/ECB!

I’d suspect the service change to be announced tomorrow hopefully, at this point I’d be shocked if they held out much longer since they will have less than 4 weeks till they change!

Since tomorrow is a bank holiday I think they'll wait for at least Tuesday. I think the liklihood of it being announced this coming week is very high.

 

[TheEastCoaster]

Since tomorrow is a bank holiday I think they'll wait for at least Tuesday. I think the liklihood of it being announced this coming week is very high.

Ah yeah I forgot about that! I still don’t understand why they weren’t announced last week? i can’t recall the last service change being close to short notice!

 

[Bus9120UK]

Ah yeah I forgot about that! I still don’t understand why they weren’t announced last week? i can’t recall the last service change being close to short notice!

The previous September changes were announced August 19th, just 3 weeks before the change. If the changes are announced this week then it'll follow a very similar pattern.

 

[exeter 50044]

From what I have heard, McGill's have new contracts giving sundays off.
Would this be a good time to rethink redoing the West Lothian network to take advantage of the situation?

 

[TheEastCoaster]

From what I have heard, McGill's have new contracts giving sundays off.
Would this be a good time to rethink redoing the West Lothian network to take advantage of the situation?

Honestly doubt Lothian will think to put double resources into LCB at this time if they can’t afford to, unless it’s just putting extra buses on at the weekend then maybe.

 

[Stan Drews]

From what i am heard that mcgills have new contracts giving sundays off,
This would be a good time to rethink redoing the west lothian network to take advantage of the situation?

It’s not even been 6 months since they withdrew from a number of areas of West Lothian, so I’d be very surprised if they suddenly decided to restart any of them!

 

[Highland050261]

It’s not even been 6 months since they withdrew from a number of areas of West Lothian, so I’d be very surprised if they suddenly decided to restart any of them!

And They repainted all the extra buses back into Lothian Colours.

 

[scosutsut]

Agree with all the above re West Lothian.

I also doubt, in an area where recruitment is a big issue, they'd suddenly want to increase weekend working when their main competitor now has the USP of "work for us and Sunday is yours"

I feel the last round of changes were done with the intention of not making any more for some time.