CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » General Edinburgh

"Call for new airport bus link along A90"

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  1. chdot
    Admin

    "

    Mr Cole-Hamilton said: “A new airport bus service to the north of Corstorphine Hill would give people living in communities such as Cramond, Davidson’s Mains and Blackhall a cheaper alternative to taxis and airport parking.

    “The Queensferry Road corridor has long been overlooked in terms of public transport. Residents are sick of the gridlock and pollution they face during even short journeys on the A90, while residents in Corstorphine are fed up with holiday-makers using their community as an airport car park.”

    "

    http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/transport/call-for-new-airport-bus-link-along-a90-1-3894231

    Posted 9 years ago #

  2. PS
    Member

    A "bike link" along the A90 would be a good idea as well to reduce some of the gridlock and congestion.

    Posted 9 years ago #

  3. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    Ooh, I've got an idea, if they ever put in place a large infrastructure project from, say, the centre of Edinburgh to the airport, they could put a segregated bike lane all the way alongside it. That'd be great. I wonder if they'd do that...

    [/sarcasm]

    Not sure an airport bus there would solve the morning and evening congestion. I mean, it's a good idea, but is he suggesting that people in Cramond park in Corstorphine to go to the airport? And that the gridlock is caused by people wanting to go to the airport? Really?

    Posted 9 years ago #

  4. The Boy
    Member

    Silly idea. If he can really show a need for the bus (and he *does* have to), then extend one of the buses that serves the area.

    Frankly though, there will only ever be a handful of people travelling to the airport at any one time - the existing airport bus isn't intended to serve Corstorphine.

    Posted 9 years ago #

  5. chdot
    Admin

    "And that the gridlock is caused by people wanting to go to the airport? Really?"

    Quite.

    There may be a case for a new route along the A90, but I wonder how many people get on/off airport buses west of Haymarket.

    Bike lines (nice segregated ones) along most main roads would increase congestion - but only until people 'realised' that it's usually quicker to cycle short distances - and 'now' it's safer too.

    Meanwhile how about getting a slogan to go viral - something like "congestion is caused by people alone in their cars"...

    Posted 9 years ago #

  6. neddie
    Member

    Rerouting the 100 Airlink service via the A90 probably makes sense, since there is already a tram serving more or less the existing 100 route. Especially if they could add a bus lane the entire length of the A90.

    Would help reduce pollution on the A90 if there was only 1 lane of general traffic in each direction.

    Posted 9 years ago #

  7. PS
    Member

    I suspect the bulk of the airport traffic happens outwith rush hour congestion. The airport's at its busiest in well before 9am, so the poor sods catching the early flights will have been well through the A90 before it gets busy. Certainly when I had a fun phase of 6.30 or 7.20 flights to London the taxi driver would go via the A90 as it was always clear and there's be no hold-ups.

    Posted 9 years ago #

  8. cb
    Member

    "I wonder how many people get on/off airport buses west of Haymarket. "

    Been a while since I got the bus, but the times I did there were always plenty of people getting on west of Haymarket (I used to get on/off at Murrayfield).

    When RBS opened at Gogarburn the bus would be mobbed with bank staff at certain times.

    For a wee while one of the standard LRT buses used to connect Cramond and the Airport (the 24 or the 35?) but it was a convoluted route and I don't think many people used it.

    Cramond has always had a pretty terrible bus service. The 41 has stood the test of time, but when I was growing up there was also the 18, 40 and 82 (or was it the 80?). A couple of those only got as close as the Barnton 'roundabout'.

    The 82 used to do a U-turn at the roundabout which is why they engineered in a U-turn possibility into the new junction (and used by nobody).

    Posted 9 years ago #

  9. chdot
    Admin

    "When RBS opened at Gogarburn the bus would be mobbed with bank staff at certain times."

    I actually meant people going to/from airport, otherwise that's 'just' a local 'limited stop' service which LB really ought to have more of.

    Imagine if most routes had 50% of buses stopping at only 1 in 3 stops (roughly). That would speed up the services, making them more attractive to drivers(?). Add capacity without more drivers/buses (faster turnaround so more end-to-end trips in a day).

    THAT is exactly the tram model and why trams are theoretically faster (plus the off road sections of course).

    People could still get an 'all stops' bus or choose to walk to/from closest 'express stop' (at either end of their journey).

    Might even be 'safer' for people on bikes with fewer buses stopping at stops after cutting you up (doesn't happen that often - but it does).

    Posted 9 years ago #

  10. kaputnik
    Moderator

    RBS are currently trying to figure out how to squeeze an extra few thousand staff into Gogarburn as they close their buildings on Fettes Row / Dundas Street. How to get them there is another problem given Gogarburn was never built in the spirit of "1 employee, 1 parking space" (despite employee expectations to the contrary). Expect bus route alterations/ammendments to cope.

    Posted 9 years ago #

  11. PS
    Member

    @chdot Good plan, which would require:
    a) Separated cyclelane facilities that would mean that an express bus would not get stuck behind a cyclist in the buslane.
    b) Bus ticket transfers to help folk get to the express bus stops if they can't/won't walk the extra distance to them.

    Both of these things would be handy side effects.

    Posted 9 years ago #

  12. HankChief
    Member

    @Kappers They are posing an interesting question to affected staff...

    Do they go for

    1. SOME people having a parking space ALL the time; or

    2. ALL people having a parking space SOME of the time.

    Posted 9 years ago #

  13. crowriver
    Member

    "RBS are currently trying to figure out how to squeeze an extra few thousand staff into Gogarburn as they close their buildings on Fettes Row / Dundas Street. How to get them there is another problem given Gogarburn was never built in the spirit of "1 employee, 1 parking space" (despite employee expectations to the contrary). Expect bus route alterations/ammendments to cope."

    Er... isn't there a rather expensive light rail service from the city centre to Gogar?

    Posted 9 years ago #

  14. kaputnik
    Moderator

    @Hankchief they are also posing it to unaffected staff. I couldn't possibly say if unaffected staff are voting in a manner to upset the status quo...

    @crowriver yeah but there's a 150m walk from the tramstop and the bus stops at the front door...

    Posted 9 years ago #

  15. chdot
    Admin

    Can we have a 'getting to RBS Gogar' thread please.

    I'd like more details like no. of current/future employees/car spaces etc.

    Than look at (particularly) Nottingham and how employers reduced amount of car parking.

    Posted 9 years ago #

  16. acsimpson
    Member

    The tram also requires connections in the town centre while a lot of the affected staff probably currently live on direct routes to their place of work. Of course a decent segregated route from the old site along the A90, up over Maybury and out to Gogar wouldn't be too difficult to construct and would ensure a lot of affected staff have a direct route from old to new.

    Perhaps they should give all staff some of a space all of the time. Unless you have enough people in your car to make up a full space you aren't allowed in.

    Posted 9 years ago #

  17. wingpig
    Member

    "Perhaps they should give all staff some of a space all of the time. Unless you have enough people in your car to make up a full space you aren't allowed in."

    I've either read something about this sort of thing somewhere before or imagined I have, or imagined it, or extrapolated it from concepts like the allocation of two-thirds of a child per person. You'd need to have a financial penalty option to allow employees to park and attend the office on time even if they hadn't mustered sufficient passengers, or perhaps some leeway for drivers who usually carried four passengers who took leave concurrently. Enforcement would have to test that allocations weren't being sneaked onto more than one vehicle (perhaps by jumping out and running to the parking barrier to enter another car). Perhaps parking spaces closer to the doors could be worth more, to encourage a little walking.

    Posted 9 years ago #

  18. neddie
    Member

    two-thirds of a child per person

    Does that mean you would need to have 2 wives (or 2 husbands) in order to have 2 children?

    Posted 9 years ago #

  19. SRD
    Moderator

    "Been a while since I got the bus, but the times I did there were always plenty of people getting on west of Haymarket (I used to get on/off at Murrayfield)."

    Hmmmm...I've always been struck by how few people get on/off west of Haymarket. Maybe different at different times of the day?

    Posted 9 years ago #

  20. Klaxon
    Member

    I wonder if a change to request stops west of Haymarket is on the cards as a part of the programme to speed up the line. Out of commuter hours being able to cruise past even half of the stops would make a pretty huge difference.

    Posted 9 years ago #

  21. cb
    Member

    That would make the bus even faster than the tram, not sure they'd want to do that?

    Posted 9 years ago #

  22. cb
    Member

    "Hmmmm...I've always been struck by how few people get on/off west of Haymarket. Maybe different at different times of the day?"

    Maybe I am mis-remembering, or perhaps it's those RBS employees I'm thinking of.
    I remember you'd always get a few staff going out to the Airport Hilton too.

    When I lived out Murrayfield way I would sometimes use the Airport bus to go in/out of town rather than the 12/26/31. It had the advantage of being faster and comfier but you had to pay a premium (seem to have it in my head that it was £1 instead of 90p, or something like that).

    Posted 9 years ago #

  23. acsimpson
    Member

    I used to use it to commute into town from Maybury. It was faster to walk down the hill from East Criags and catch the airport bus than wait for the 31 to queue down to Maybury and crawl into town.

    It didn't accept city singles or regular day tickets by the end though so I used the regular express bus instead.

    The airport bus had a reasonably large number of passengers going to or from the Holiday Inn at the zoo but I don't recall any other stops with regular high usage.

    I'm sure the A90 corridor would be similar with the Premier Inn being the equivalent out of town stop. I don't what route they would suggest but going over Maybury at Rush hour could easily add 15 minutes to the journey so it wouldn't exactly be an express service.

    Posted 9 years ago #

  24. panyagua
    Member

    A beneficial side effect of more local buses along Queensferry Road would be that commuters from Cramond, D. Mains etc would have less need to use the Stagecoach Fife buses, freeing up space for those of us who want to travel to infrequently-served destinations in the Kingdom.

    Posted 9 years ago #

  25. Klaxon
    Member

    cb, I meant making the tram stops request stops outside the centre. They are all fitted with call buttons just like buses.

    Posted 9 years ago #

  26. cb
    Member

    @Klaxon, ah, got you. Good idea. Driving them a bit faster too would help.

    Posted 9 years ago #

  27. PS
    Member

    I took a tram out to the airport a couple of weeks ago. They seem to have got a little faster/braver on a few of the corners since they first started, but there are still quite a few bits (the drop from Haymarket to Haymarket Yards springs to mind) where they still seem to be going excessively slow.

    Posted 9 years ago #

  28. AKen
    Member

    What really speeds up the trams is the speed with which they can load and unload passengers.

    Posted 9 years ago #

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