Considering ALX400s have been the regular on the 84, a route which currently sees barely enough passengers to fill a minibus, I honestly wouldn't be surprised if they simply likewise allocated Tridents or E400s to the 88, but it would make more sense for some E200s/Solos to be transferred.
They have been given another Solo to operate 88.It does, interworking with the QA5
Yes the N55 was the night version of the X55, it ran the same route but I believe it called at all stops. As of summer 2019 there were two journeys in each direction on Friday and Saturday nights, towards Edinburgh at 0030 and 0230, and towards Dunfermline at 0130 and 0330. It was one of many losses to Covid, cut at the start of the pandemic and has sadly never returned. Unfortunately I've no idea if it was busy or not as I never used the service (I've never been one for a 'night out'). I've attached a PDF timetable from 2017 I have downloaded which shows the N55.
In my limited experience the loadings in recent years weren't especially high outwith festival weekends. Maybe in the region of 6 to 12 passengers. The old N58 was quieter and withdrawn before Covid. The later X55 could be more popular. Nowadays there's a midnight X55 departure from Edinburgh which runs every night, perhaps soaking up a lot of the Dunfermline demand.
The midnight X55 is one I've done plenty of times and it's always been busy, especially during the festival when demand is enough to easily fill up a double decker. I imagine the N55 will probably return at some point as Dunfermline continues to grow rapidly a further develop into a dormitory town for Edinburgh but it doesn't appear to be Stagecoach's top priority at the moment.
Not just the X7 that needs new coaches, the newest in the fleet are 2018, passenger numbers must surely be high enough again to justify replacements?
They would need to operate 5 years post conversion unless replaced by zero emission buses, but I do not think it would be a problem to replace them by new or newer diesel coaches given the lack of choice with electric coaches yet.
interesting little fact is that both the N55 and N58 destination boards are still programmed into the destination controllers.
There's widespread rumour internally that there will be a large order for new coaches next year. Long over due if true as the current fleet is in a an atrociously poor condition.
Does this rumour extend to if this large order is part of a ScotZEB Phase 2 bid, or just new diesel coaches?
Diesel only, as electric buses will not be confirmed until December if the evaluation runs to plan and that is only the funding award. The order for electric buses is usually announced some time after the funding announcement.
At one point I thought the Fife Express routes will go over to E400MMCs. I gather the newest coaches are 67 plates.
They've certainly made more frequent appearances in recent years but the current E400MMCs aren't that well suited to the express network. They do fine and they keep to the timetable well but the seats are a little inadequate for long distance journeys and there's no dedicated space for luggage. Double decker coaches would be the way forward in my opinion, the network is more than busy enough, especially if there are no plans to increase frequencies.
