Lothian Buses & First Scotland East

[DunsBus]

RE: Lothian Buses & First Scotland East

(15/02/2014 21:59)Metroline1511 Wrote:  Given that route 43 is a throwback to when First had a depot in Westfield Avenue in Edinburgh, it does seem to be an out-of-date route. It does not connect with any of the Livingston or Falkirk (or Borders) network so is a bit out of place for First now.

Some hot news (well for me anyway!) is that I am spending a few days in Edinburgh at the end of July, and can ride buses and trams there then! I have deliberately arranged it to coincide with part of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, where there may be some extra bus services of interest.

Things will also have changed as I last went to Edinburgh in May 2012, just before First pulled out of Dalkeith and Lothian Buses enhanced their servies to compensate.

The reason the 43 doesn't connect with any other route is down to Queensferry Road, which can get congested at peak times and knock running times out of kilter. Lothian found this out when they ran to South Queensferry in the early 90s as their service was a cross-city one which would get caught up in the city centre and again on Queensferry Road, which meant that there was no time for layover at the Scotstoun terminus with buses coming in, turning and heading back to Edinburgh in an attempt to make up time on the inbound journey. At deregulation SMT created a South Queensferry-Penicuik through service by linking the 43 and 64/65, but this didn't work out and soon reverted to being two separate services. Later, in the First era, another attempt was made with the introduction of the 88 between South Queensferry and Rosewell only for it to revert to revert to the status quo three months later. The 88 failed was worked by Dalkeith and Westfield; Dalkeith's buses didn't have South Queensferry on their blinds, while Westfield's did but they didn't have Rosewell on their blinds, while Dalkeith's did!

Speaking of Dalkeith the former depot has been cleared since your last visit and a Morrisons supermarket is currently being built on it its site. Musselburgh depot has also been put up for sale which is currently resulting in a lot of speculation about its future.