Edinburgh Buses & Lathalmond 2019
Since the independent
transport videos cameras last paid a visit to the Scottish capital in
2018 even more changes have taken place with the city’s major bus operator – Lothian
Buses. The most visible is the
introduction of a fleet of 78 Volvo B8L tri-axle double-deckers, all fitted
with 13.4 metre Alexander-Dennis Enviro400XLB bodywork. 63 are 100-seater buses for city work and 15
are in the smart overall blue ‘Airlink’ livery for the express 24/7
service between Edinburgh Airport and the city centre and seating for 81
passengers. The ‘city’ buses are in the
latest livery with ‘Lothiancity’ fleet names. Bus 1125 (SJ19 OZD) is in
a special livery celebrating 100 years of buses in Edinburgh. We see this bus in detail in the Lathalmond
section of this programme and take a ride on the ‘Internal Service’ at the
Scottish Bus Museum. These buses are
really impressive, as you will see as they take command of the streets of
Edinburgh! Many more former London Volvo
B9TL double-deckers have arrived (Tower
Transit, Metroline West and Go-Ahead
London). They carry Wright Eclipse Gemini 2 bodies and
are seen in both Lothian Buses and Lothian Country livery. We also see 299 (BV19 LND), a Volvo B8RLE
single-decker demonstrator, which has MCV Evora bodywork in an all-white livery
operating in service. As you will
expect, our cameras have taken up positions at a number of locations within the
city centre. These include Shandwick
Place, Lothian Road, Princes Street, St David Street, Waterloo Place, Elm Row and
concluding at Ingliston park & ride.
Apart from ‘Lothian Buses’, ‘Lothiancountry ‘and ‘LothianEastCoastbuses’
taking centre stage on our programme we see plenty of Stagecoach vehicles operating the long distance express services
from other parts of Scotland and of course Firstbus
with their West Lothian fleet, now mostly in the latest simplified
livery with light blue branding for the 23, X23 and 24 group of services.
For the second part of
our programme we attend the 2019 Open Weekend at the Scottish Vintage Bus
Museum at Lathalmond. We begin our visit
with a look at every thing Edinburgh. Lothian Buses sent along two of their
latest Volvo B8L double-deckers, 1125 in the special celebratory livery and Airlink-liveried 1140 (SB19 GNK). A good selection of former Edinburgh Corporation buses are seen
either on display or in action around the Museum environs. Our final section on this programme looks at
all of the other buses and coaches at this superb museum. We also take two trips to nearby Dunfermline
to see some of the contemporary Stagecoach
buses in action. We return from our
second visit to the town on board RO607 (AWG 393), a Cravens bodied Guy Arab
III in the blue livery of W. Alexander
and Sons (Fife). You can marvel at
the sights and sounds of this lovely bus, quite different from the short ride
on the Volvo B8L around the Museum site!
We do hope you enjoy this nostalgic look back at bus travel as it was –
quite a step-change from the first part of this Scottish programme! Enjoy!