I could not find what the £1.80 is going up to. £2?
That happened in 2023!
New fares are here: https://www.lothianbuses.com/news/2025/03/fares-revision-2025/ (click the red "Lothian Buses" banner half way down)
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » General Edinburgh
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Posted 1 month ago #
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Yes it is £2 up to £2.20
I found it and also that I hve been paying £2 when I thought I was paying £1.80 for TWO years
Still great value
I could not get the red banner to work earlier but have found it by going arouond the houses on a £5 day ticket. Next you wil be telling me a pint of milk is not £0.66
Posted 1 month ago # -
Depending on how many pints you're buying at a time, that could either be very cheap or very expensive milk.
Posted 1 month ago # -
one pint so. It is VEM but delivered to my window
Posted 1 month ago # -
79p for 500mls in fact
I couldnt stop this it would break the milkman’s heart
Posted 1 month ago # -
“
From Sunday 6 April, a service change will take effect across the Lothian network to improve reliability and enhance capacity where required.
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https://www.lothianbuses.com/news/2025/03/changes-to-network/
Posted 1 month ago # -
Posted on BlueSky our odd 4 bus journey from Highlands to Edinburgh.
We always arrive in Perth around 9.40 after getting school bus and connection in Blairgowrie.
Normally we have a return train ticket to use on the train, eg LNER (but that has congestion charging). ScotRail via Fife cheaper.
But as no train tickets we thought we'd try and intercept an Ember e-bus heading to Edinburgh dropping into Bridge of Earn.
We weren't alone but the only ones using a bus to get to the stop beside M90.
Ember has users that drive up and ferry family with cases etc as stops at airport.
So in one way it's low carbon as clearly saves people driving further- also free for under 22 year old of course. But not that green as makes air travel easy!
Windswept stop at BoE not a problem as they sit in cars watching the tracker on Ember site. Very easy as they only have 12 buses!
Booking takes two clicks and you can select a bike too.
This is what the railway is competing with. Suburban inter-city buses which don't enter the city, connecting with suburbanites with cars (or maybe on foot).
I'm not saying it's a bad thing or unique but Citylink or Flix don't have same ease of use and location. Broxden is normal transport hub for Perth but very congested.
Finally the Ember got to Haymarket on time at 11.40 taking one hour on route.
Train via Fife would arrive 5 mins later.
LNER fastest arriving by 11.20 but expensive / not available to ScotRail Club 50 users.
Posted 1 month ago # -
“This is what the railway is competing with.”
In the scenario you outline, maybe.
But most people who use cars seldom look at ‘the alternatives’ - especially bus ones.
Sadly (as you know) they are competing with the ‘conventional wisdom’ that rail users should pay and roads must be free…
Posted 1 month ago # -
@chdot - Bridge of Allan should be Bridge of Earn of course! BoA = BoE.
If you could change.ADMIN EDIT
Changes made.
BoA would have given you more rail options!
(And a longer journey.)
Posted 1 month ago # -
Ember is principals who are not from traditional bus industry, and as express coach services they don't get fuel subsidy available to registered bus services
Plus point is with 100% electric coaches the economics of operating 24/7 means that they do this, aided by using online data to book & track coaches
By law you MUST have seat on a coach, and on one occasion there were enough passengers booked to run a DUPlicatE coach direct Dundee-Edinburgh taking 50 minutes
The smarter use of technology allowed Ember to add a stop at Bridge of Earn, where the coach just drives down the off slip, loops through village centre, & drives back up on to M90, when the driver gets notified to stop with manifest displayed in cab
This has huge gains per EA2010 & more, as drivers will know to expect wheelchair users & others who require assistance, & not miss a booked passenger. This can also connect with local taxis &c
One detail to sort out windswept bus stops is to arrange for warm & comfy places to wait with beer/coffee available. Broxden is good as it has 24 hr convenience store at petrol station on site, plus P&R shuttle to Perth centre
Posted 1 month ago # -
@Tulyar - they are almost like a big shared taxi in concept. They even send you a text if running late. Wikipedia entry is interesting.
With new buses they run every half hour between Edinburgh and Dundee - hourly to Aberdeen.
They are slower than some trains but cheaper and easier to book.
Vehicle weight is high of course and quite rattly on some roads. Energy wise the power used per passenger must be quite lean once bus is full - in comparison to private EVs.Posted 1 month ago # -
Ember run as an express coach service, and thus don't get any subsidy like a registered bus service does, but this also means that they're not required to deliver to a registered timetable (-0 min to +5 min is the limit, outside which they can be penalised by Traffic Commissioner (currently Claire Gilmour for Scottish TAO), but this rarely happens)
Their booking system means that coaches only stop when the driver receives a notification, displayed in the cab (instrument binnacle). Fastest time Dundee-Edinburgh 50 minutes, and with few boarding at intermediates this has to be way faster than trains (especially via Ladybank)
Flixbus (McGill's has in livery contract for Scotland) also operate as express coaches, and thus can cancel a service without same consequences as some Scottish Citylink routes, which are registered as bus services.
The failings in delivery of a coherent and integrated transport system are highlighted in your experience of boarding at Bridge of Earn. Only where a 'local' initiative has developed do we see as commercially beneficial link-up which needs to be more widely facilitated, and where I really want to get out there in the media to deliver a Mobility Makeover. I'm appealing for help to get this out as a podcast or a TV programme>
One example that could be delivered for Bridge of Earn is to get the local pub or shop set up as the place to wait for the coach, or wait to get collected on the way back. This delivers footfall to the shop or pub and enables the concept of trip chaining, which delivered the highest revenues per till at the Safeway supermarket in Byres Road, as people called in as part of their daily commuting or other trips, to get milk/bread/&c. It can also enable delivering kids to school/nursery, and other functions, which can be far more efficient & less damaging than doing this by car
This needs to be highlighted with local examples
My favourite is the Commercial Inn at Tarbolton in Ayrshire (famous for The Batchelors Club in C18th) which is where people wait for the local village bus service, and as bus drivers go past in to the village they sound the horn, so that passengers know to step outside 2 minutes later, and get the bus going out from the village...
I know a few others too, eg When the 37 turns in to Loanhead from A 702 at Straiton, it comes out at the bypass with time to ride the Brompton to the other end of the village....
Posted 1 month ago # -
@Tulyar - good overview of the Ember / Flix / CityLink approaches to Express Coaching.
Fastest time Dundee-Edinburgh 50 minutes
I think you mean Bridge of Earn to Edinburgh Haymarket? I can't find any bus that can do that in less than 67 mins.
Dundee to Edinburgh around 95 mins fastest.
We often get 11.50 bus from Haymarket to Dundee and that arrives 13.45. 115 minsPosted 4 weeks ago # -
“
from next week, the number of daily direct buses travelling between Macmerry and Edinburgh will be cut from 35 to just three, with no service on the weekends. This is down from buses running every half hour on Mondays to Saturdays and hourly on Sundays currently.
It’s a decision that the operator, East Coast Buses, says was based on “data and travel patterns,” but it has left the community rocked — and, one would imagine, property developers revising their brochures.
The dramatic scaling-back of the X6 service between Haddington and Edinburgh’s West End is also a bitter pill to swallow for bus users in the neighbouring village of Gladsmuir, which while being much smaller than Macmerry is set to see its population double if a proposed 26 new homes are approved.
“
Posted 3 weeks ago # -
“
Stagecoach to launch new bus service between St Andrews and Edinburgh Airport
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Posted 1 week ago #
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