Some more bus changes

Great! Just when I was getting used to using the one in Princes street. It was quite close to the Waverley for the 22 which I usually use. However, it looks as if I'll be better off using the 16 instead. I take it that the 37/47 buses will no longer stop at the Waverley either. I tend to get off on the bridges but I think there are a few who hang on a bit longer. I hope they know what is happening otherwise they may be a bit miffed. Anyway, thanks for the information musicman.

Here is a list of the changes;

http://www.lothianbuses.com/news/?changes-to-your-buses-from-sunday-26-july-2009-66.html

On reading this, it looks like the 37 will no longer serve Ladywood (except a handful of runs), X47 goes off-peak only and the 47 will remain as is..

Thanks for the link to that musicman. It looks like they are cutting back the service (although they don't say that of course) with no 37s to Ladywood and no X47s during the day so that means up to 4 less buses every hour by my reckoning.
Hopefully they can make them a bit more reliable since I have often seen two buses following each other up to Ladywood or Deanburn lately, with long delays between services.
We shall wait and see how it turns out.....

See there seem to be no changes to the 22 or 26 routes so we will continue to see loads of those shiny new buses following each other round the city!

The new 37 / 47 / X47 bus timetables are available in PDF format to download now

http://www.lothianbuses.com/downloads/leaflets/r37_090726.pdf

There are still going to be 37 buses from Deanburn every 15 minutes but the 47 service from Ladywood will be every 30 minutes during the day. This means the park and ride also gets less services, the last X47 in to the city is at 8.32 and people working on Saturdays will have to allow more time as there are no X47s.
It will be interesting to see how the changes work in practice after the 27th.....any regular bus users can let us all know how good or bad the revised service is

The X47 becoming peak time only is no surprise, the one concern I have is that come public holidays time when a Saturday service is run there will no X service which tended to be well used. I think Penicuik still cannot complain about the level of service though as it means there are still 6 buses an hour via Bilston & 2 via Morningside. Is almost a slap in the face for the promotion of park & ride though to see the service level drop by 2 buses and to me an attraction of a park & ride would be a fast bus into the City. I guess only time will tell..

Cutting down the number of services passing the park and ride does seem a bit odd, especially when it has not been very successful anyway (25% max usage). Just to make things even sillier, Midlothian are still planning another P&R at Lothianburn - why they cannot spend the money on something more useful I do not know!
Quite agree about the holiday services - I used to hate that as the reduced number of buses were all packed out, especially now that the Saturday service usually applies to days when banks, shops etc are still open.

Well, there has not been much of a change as far as I'm concerned. However, it seems that the X47 that I use at night is arriving earlier than usual which means I can get home earlier.

Having travelled on all three bus routes today (37, 47 and X47) I have found that one thing which has not changed is buses following each other along the route. There did seem to be more people at the Park and Ride this afternoon as I headed in to Edinburgh, but that could just be due to them having a 30 minute wait between buses.
Anyone else care to let us know their experiences of the "revised" services??

The X47 in the morning I get was fine but there was no intended timetable change, however this evening just after 5 I reached the bus stop on George Street having just missed an X47, 47 & a 37 all following each other (those rear destination blinds can be useful!), anyway within a couple of minutes another 47 appeared and it caught up with and passed the previous 47 at Salisbury Place, the 37 at Burdiehouse and the X47 was in view for most of the journey - X47 was turning out of Park & Ride as we went in and I was home in Penicuik by about 5.55. Mondays are generally quieter though so I'd expect things to be different later in the week and of course the real test will be once schools are back.
The only thing is, Lothian can change timetables over and over again and still not get it right thanks to the unpredictable traffic conditions particularly within the City Centre. I guess only time will tell.

I see the old buses that are being used on the 15's are now few and far between, indeed the last of the madder and white buses are now only used on the 15 & 32 services so not many left in service. Be a shame to see them go, but I guess thats modernisation..

http://news.scotsman.com/scotland/Lothian-Buses-post-first-ever.5523085.jp

Not looking good for Lothian Buses and with the number of pretty much empty buses I have noticed lately we might get some more cutbacks or fare increases. One possibility being mentioned is abolishing the single £1.20 fare as this puts off people making short journeys. I shall wait and see how things look once the schools go back later this month

I'm beginning to feel the odd one out at times getting on the bus, espcially in the evenings and today (Saturday). The reason is simple, I have a pass but unlike most of the other passengers I have to renew mine once a month and pay for it
It is great for the over 60's to have this freedom I guess, compared with some of the interesting specimens of humanity who also have concession passes for whatever reason particularly in Edinburgh.

http://lothianbuses.com/PrincesStReopens091129.php

The buses (allegedly) will return to using Princes Street again from this coming Sunday. Look forward to hearing how it all works in practice since there still seemed to be lots of "tramworks" going on at the weekend at both ends of the street.

http://www.lothianbuses.com/news/?bus-service-changes-from-14-february-2010-115.html

Some more changes to services by Lothian Buses. Hopefully the bit about reliablility will be true - fed up waiting ages for a bus then three arrive together!!!

Its a tradition that you wait for 1 and 3 appear, always amazes me that they have the buses equally spaced out (on paper anyway) between Straiton & the City which means from Penicuik you get 2 or 3 buses within 10 mins then nothing for another 10!

New Timetables for the 15 and 37 / 47 / X47 are available to download as PDF files now at:

http://www.lothianbuses.com/downloads/timetables/r15_100214.pdf

http://www.lothianbuses.com/downloads/timetables/r37_100214.pdf

Don't seem to be any major changes, though as usual you have to remember that they are approximate, especially travelling back from Edinburgh!

I complained to Lothian Buses recently about the extreme unreliability of the 37 / 47 services (ie: no buses for 20 minutes plus then 3 or 4 come along at once) and they are aware of the problems so we can expect changes to the service in the autumn. With a bit of luck this will mean an end to the silly practice of the 37 and 47 arriving at the same time both heading in to Edinburgh and coming back to Penicuik.
Heres hoping.......

Heres hoping its a timetable revision and not the removal of journeys from the timetable...

Seems that Lothian Buses are in trouble with the authorities about poor timekeeping - see story in the Evening News today here:

http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/topstories/Lothian-Buses-faced-fine-for.6374168.jp

Of course, the reason for much of the problem is parked in Princes Street, causing more hold-ups by narrowing it to one lane westbound!

The tramworks are certainly part of the problem but Lothian's insistence on running cross-city services doesn't help and the new system for reading bus passes, as opposed to simply flashing them at the driver, hasn't made things any easier.
Even if it only takes an extra second to read the card, try multiplying that by the number of pass-holders over the course of a route and it soon adds four or five minutes per trip. Add the inevitable delays during morning rush hour and it is surprising that as many buses manage to keep to time as do!

As I was coming back up from Penicuik this morning I saw the now fairly standard sight of four Lothian Buses following each other in to the town (37, 37, 15, 47)
Surely it is time they stopped almost every service from using the bottleneck of Princes Street which usually resembles a bus station.

In case anyone uses the night buses there are some changes in the offing http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/topstories/New-times-released-for-Edinburgh39s.6496290.jp.

As far as Penicuik is concerned

Quote :

The N37 between Silverknowes and Penicuik will also be reduced to an hourly service during the week from its current half-hourly rate.

Very odd as there is no mention of changes to the 37 / 47 / X47 to get them running to some kind of schedule, rather than the "none for ages, then several at once" thing we have at the moment. I did not even realise they ran a half hourly night service - no wonder they are cutting back on it!

New timetables for Lothian Buses are on the website now at:

http://www.lothianbuses.com/images/stories/pdf_downloads/service_timetables/r37_101010.pdf

It seems that they are allowing a lot more time for journeys (eg. 47 leaves Penicuik at 1020 and gets to the West end at 1117) and have put more of a gap between the 37 and 47 services. We shall have to wait and see how it works out in practice after 10th October.......

New timetables......but the same old service on the buses. Just missed a 37 going in to Penicuik today then the next two turned up together 30 minutes later.
Oh well, I should have known it would never work!!!