Back to First Principles in Edinburgh

Our Edinburgh Correspondent returns with an Edinburgh update, suggesting there will be further changes. Omnibuses welcomes contributions

Back in March, this correspondent reported on the competition between First and Lothian in the Edinburgh area of Scotland; only having to rush out an update a few days later when First announced it was closing one-and-a-half garages. This has now happened, so now seems a good point to reflect on how things turned out.

The Dalkeith garage has now closed. Some town services are now being provided by Lothian Buses, as well as the route from Penicuik to Musselburgh. It will be interesting to see how these services develop, to see whether Lothian’s apparent magic touch will turn these around.

Lothian rejigged its 3 and 33 routes to Edinburgh to compensate for the loss of the first trunk route 86. Interestingly, although there were some extensions to the 33, the 3 was cut back and there were no frequency increases, though the 33 does go up to every 10 minutes at peak times but split over two branches. Whenever I saw an old First 86 at peak time, it did have a reasonable load (though not standing room only) so Lothian hopefully has their loading calculations right here.

Musselburgh garage has now been downsized and only two First services go to the city centre from the east. Many of the country services went to independents such as Eve’s Coaches, or Edinburgh Coach Lines. But Lothian formed a new subsidiary East Lothian Buses to take over the service to Pencaitland, resurrecting the old Eastern Scottish route number 113. The 113 is currently operated with plain white Trident double decks, albeit with green advertising panels about the service. East Lothian Buses fleet names are carried and it is rumoured that five new single decks have been ordered for the service—they may carry more green. The reason for the new identity is that the 113 does not have the £1.40 flat fare seen in the rest of the network but a three zone structure: two zones are still £1.40. The route is extended westwards from the city centre to the western general Hospital, providing a really useful new link, as well as saving difficult layover arrangements in the tram-worked city centre. Apparently, some peak hour buses have been seen with standing room only so hopefully (again) the single deck loading calculations are right.

Elsewhere, Lothian has some interesting changes. The 44 (to my surprise) that had 12 buses an hour from both First and Lothian now has only six buses (albeit with a new eastern branch): Lothian has left its frequency at every 10 minutes. But some other routes did get increases: both the 5 and 35 from every 15 to 12 minutes. The 5 does shadow the 44 (and the old 86) for part of the way so that it’s a sensible inner city strengthening. The 35 doesn’t, so it is difficult to see how it helps with the displaced demand from First: maybe the loadings simply justified it. And after remarking in the first article how services to Penicuik had not suffered from the First withdrawal, well blow me if these routes have not lost one bus an hour on weekday mornings.

First did not make a glorious exit. In the last days of Dalkeith being open, the depot was short of drivers and/or vehicles and—the ignominy of it all—had to hire in both from Lothian to keep some services running for a week or two. Apparently, a lot of buses went for scrap, but some have been redeployed elsewhere in Scotland. And its website had a page announcing "First Services from 10 June" but was blank: maybe that was someone making some existentialist comment on all of this. Although updated, the page today still reads "SERVICE CHANGES FROM THE 30 JUNE 2012: this will be the last date of operation for the following services...” with nothing to follow. At the time of writing, the network map has yet to be updated, adding to the confusion of what they do or will provide.

So is the First operation in East Scotland now safe? Time will tell. Rumours abound that the remaining staff at Musselburgh and North Berwick depots have been put on 90-day notice. Certainly the operations left are not where First likes to play, being predominately rural. And a road trip that passed near Stirling saw some First vehicles even older than we had seen in Edinburgh of late (N reg). Again, rumours of another major group buying First out in this West area… but why they might do that is not immediately obvious.

I rather fear that the First East Scotland saga is not over yet.