@twinspark, I can't remember now. Pretty sure there was a list of documents required which didn't mention passport, and then another one that did...
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » General Edinburgh
Bus latest
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Posted 2 years ago #
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Well it seems an expired passport is no impediment to getting free bus travel. Youngest had their application approved, card will be here sometime soon. Eldest has finally completed their application, hopefully all will be fine there too.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Thanks for the update @crowriver. - As the reason for Mini & Micro Twinspark's applications being rejected was given as this, I'll go back to Young Scot for the application to be reprocessed.
Posted 2 years ago # -
@twinspark, I did also have a copy of youngest's birth certificate. Maybe that's why they accepted it?
Posted 2 years ago # -
Hmmm @crowriver - I also used Birth Certificate (Full) for the youngest - Have raised with Young Scot and now been passed to Edinburgh Council!
Posted 2 years ago # -
@twinspark, that's weird.
Maybe they never noticed my youngest's passport had expired? Or possibly there was still a close enough resemblance in the photo to pass muster?
A shame you're having this problem!
Posted 2 years ago # -
“
She said the process had been eased by the requirements being relaxed, with out-of-date passports now being accepted as identification along with proof of address within the past year rather than the last three months.
“
Posted 2 years ago # -
Welcome, but very late in the day.
I guess "management types" with a bee in their bonnet about sEcUriTy!!?! are largely responsible for this debacle. I'm glad they've been forced to tone it down a notch.
Heavens, as if the worse thing that could happen is the taxpayer ends up paying for a free bus trip to Dunfermline...
Posted 2 years ago # -
Mini-G (with a working Young Scot card) reported chaos on the bus this afternoon, with many cards not working. By the end the driver was just letting the kids on...
Posted 2 years ago # -
It's really hard to understand the way this has been rolled out. A few months ago our kids travelled for free, taking up two seats. Now they turned five, we need passports, proof of address, special cards to scan, a huge administrative overhead. Unless the buses actually get full (a nice problem to have) then this level of paranoia seems wildly excessive.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Seems to be the same kind of thinking behind stuff like the "Think 25" approach for IDing for age-restricted items; easier to go with a wide range past the age restriction so staff don't have to deal with making calls in the field that could cause arguments. Kids who're six, or seven, or even ten aren't so much the issue as, say, a mature looking 15 year old and his big bunch of mates trying to get on a mostly empty bus in the evening - the ID system frontloads all the aggro in the admin/paperwork stage and sets a clear standard of "no pass, no free fare", so the driver doesn't have to deal with it.
Posted 2 years ago # -
“
First Aberdeen and First Glasgow will receive funding of £18.6m for 74 buses, with £9m going to Greenock-based McGill’s for 41 vehicles.
Among the others funded, Stagecoach subsidiary Western Buses will receive support for 39 buses and sister firms Fife Scottish 32, Highland Country Buses 25 and Bluebird Buses 13.
Ms Gilruth said: "We want more people to choose to travel by bus and to do so knowing they are contributing to our climate change ambitions.
“
Posted 2 years ago # -
“
"The North is retaking control": Andy Burnham leads celebration over legal win for bus reform
“For the first time in over 35-years, a bus network outside London will be integrated and planned for the benefit of local people, not distant shareholders.
“
Posted 2 years ago # -
'Pressure mounts for removal of bus lane on A8'
This overwhelming tide of drivers cannot be stopped etc
Let's build another road to airport is maybe subtext?!
https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/transport/traffic-gridlock-at-edinburgh-aiport-ahead-of-royal-highland-show-and-ingliston-concerts-3719647Posted 1 year ago # -
The queue can surely only be twice as long as it would otherwise have been, and in terms of travel time if the bus lane ends "one lights change" before the roundabout then end-to-end journey times will be largely unaffected as the rounabout throat will be used at close to maximum capacity. I'm sure officers are modelling and monitoring this sort of thing.
I've noticed that drivers insist on queueing in the outside lane rather than 'zip merging' at the start of the lane. While this probably benefits buses using the full length of the road it has the effect of lengthening the queue back from the lane at very busy times back to the Airport junction. Perhaps signage to ask them to stop, or the left lane could be marked as only for the airport off-slip at peak times? A lot cheaper than building a new road or holding up the buses!
Of course none of this matters - to many drivers it's always going to be the most recent thing the Council did that's causing the problem and not the dozens of vehicles in front of them (and around them).
Posted 1 year ago # -
I've noticed that drivers insist on queueing in the outside lane rather than 'zip merging' at the start of the lane.
I don't know if this is a driver thing or a British queuing thing, but the idea of "merge in turn" is of course essential to using a road to its capacity, yet is anathema to many people. I remember drivers on the M1, during the interminable roadworks in the 1990s, actively blocking an adjacent otherwise empty lane to prevent other people from 'stealing' an advantage, literally as though it were jumping the queue. It's anathema enough that we have to erect signs instructing drivers to merge in turn, and indeed, Tom Vanderbilt explores it in his Traffic book.
Posted 1 year ago # -
The recently completed A9 dualling works had 'when queueing use both lanes' and 'merge in turn' signs. They were relatively well observed but at busy times compliance would usually result in passing at least a dozen cars.
Taking the airport authorities claim that the queues are disrupting the airport junction at face value (perhaps foolishly) this would be a perfect example of refusal to use both lanes halving the capacity of the road and causing unnecessary trouble upstream.
The less said about the drivers I saw causing both lanes of the citybound A90 to lock up by desperately trying to avoid the Cramond peak-time bus lane at the last minute - on a Saturday - the better.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Cllr Arthur’s first action appears to be removing a bus lane.
https://twitter.com/cllrscottarthur/status/1533846836821237760
“ I don't think that we should be ripping out bus lanes, but Council Officers (in consultation with Lothian Buses) have concluded that this temporary lane should be removed ahead of the Highland Show.
I will share a full briefing when I get it.”
Posted 1 year ago # -
This morning:
The city council’s newly-appointed transport convener Scott Arthur told the Evening News: “It’s really important that we protect and improve public transport links into the city but if this particular arrangement is causing problems I’m happy to speak to both Lothian Buses and the airport to see if they can be addressed.”
This evening:
"I don't think that we should be ripping out bus lanes, but Council Officers (in consultation with Lothian Buses) have concluded that this temporary lane should be removed ahead of the Highland Show."
Join the dots...
A craven, cowardly individual
Posted 1 year ago # -
Good tweet from Frank Ross in that thread, and I've been critical of him before. Suppose the political boot is on the other foot now.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Cllr Arthur appears to have transformed into a caped crusader for "legitimate concerns". Maybe his new moniker should be Captain Cave-In.
Posted 1 year ago # -
The whole thing is bizarre. The Chipwrapper aerial photo shows the drivers being good bad little motons and queueing slavishly in the outside lane at the airport junction in anticipation of a bus lane that doesn't start until a few hundred metres after the airport junction. You'd think the airport chief executive would be delighted that his customers, whether arriving by bus, taxi or car, had a clear lane to his facility unimpeded by the driving addiction of the combined populations of Edinburgh and West Lothian. But no, rip out the bus lane cos y'know, cars.
Posted 1 year ago # -
The bus lane is in operation for 3.5 hours a day, Monday to Friday - that is just 10.4% of the hours in a week. Given this, what proportion of trips on this 2.3 mile stretch of road are actually taking the claimed 28 minutes? How does this compare with pre-pandemic congestion? It's not like this stretch of road has never experienced delays before.
When will some councillors see this as prioritising bus passengers, rather than "inconveniencing" drivers. I worry that some simply don't have the necessary mindset to deal with climate change.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Pre-pandemic the evening rush hour could easily stretch all the way from Gogar to the airport junction. I can't imagine it would have been any shorter in the mornings.
Posted 1 year ago #
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