Author: EBUG chair

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Second Open Letter to the City of Edinburgh Council: Next Steps for Edinburgh’s Public Transport Recovery Post-Debenham Fire

Dear Councillors and Council Officials

One month after the Debenham fire, Edinburgh’s public transport network continues to face unprecedented challenges due to the ongoing Princes Street disruption.

In your response to our first open letter on 13 July, you stated your three primary objectives:

  • Ensuring public safety
  • Protecting important built heritage impacted by the fire
  • Keeping the city moving during its busiest period

We recognise the enormous resources required to achieve these objectives and fully support them, provided they are pursued in parallel.

Everyone will be grateful that public safety has been maintained over the last five weeks and it is welcome news that building stabilisation is expected to be achieved roughly nine weeks post-fire.

Continue reading “Second Open Letter to the City of Edinburgh Council: Next Steps for Edinburgh’s Public Transport Recovery Post-Debenham Fire”

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An Open Letter to the City of Edinburgh Council: Urgent Temporary Bus Priority Needed Following Princes Street Fire

The recent devastating fire at the former Debenhams building on Princes Street has presented Edinburgh with an unprecedented transport challenge. With the Princes Street public transport corridor disrupted by a complete closure to all vehicle traffic between Frederick Street and Castle Street—possibly lasting for some time—public transport in the city centre is under severe strain.

While Edinburgh Trams are terminating at the West End, the overwhelming burden of moving residents, workers, and visitors has fallen back onto our bus network. Tens of thousands of passengers are being diverted daily via George Street and surrounding First New Town corridors.

The Edinburgh Bus Users’ Group (EBUG) is calling on the City of Edinburgh Council to implement immediate, temporary bus priority measures in the First New Town to prevent total gridlock.

Gridlock on Diversion Routes and the Summertime Streets Impact

George Street and the surrounding New Town grid are already busy corridors. Forcing hundreds of diverted bus services into a standard traffic layout without intervention will lead to severe network delays and bus bunching. Continue reading “An Open Letter to the City of Edinburgh Council: Urgent Temporary Bus Priority Needed Following Princes Street Fire”

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No. 26 – Members’ Bulletin June 2026

  • Summer events: EBUG will be at the Leith Festival Gala Day on Leith Links (10:00 to 17:00) on Saturday 13 June, and the Edinburgh Climate Festival at the Meadows on Saturday 27 June (12:00 to 19:00). Come along to say hello, chat about buses, and pick up some (non-edible) goodies.
  • With the Scottish Parliament elections over, the next Scottish Government is a minority administration again and will rely on support from other parties for any new policies and the budget. Transport did not feature significantly in the elections, despite being so important in daily life. All the more reason for EBUG members to get key messages across to the newly MSPs:
    👉    when building new housing encourage non- (or less) car lifestyles from the outset
    👉  reduce bus journey times
    👉  adapt to changed work patterns
    👉  improve bus infrastructure (bus lanes, bus stops, priority signalling)
    👉  improve geographic coverage, frequency and cost of public transport networksWe do welcome the £45 million for zero emission buses that has been made available by the (previous) Scottish Government. We understand, that Lothian Buses will be able to enhance their fleet further with a good chunk of this fund.Meanwhile, the next Council election is less than a year away (6 May 2027). And with four Edinburgh councillors alone having been elected to Holyrood, there will be by-elections in some wards. So, EBUG’s lobbying role will be vital to keep our messages on the agenda.
  • EBUG recently attended a stakeholder workshop on the Council’s Waverley Valley Strategy. We are quite clear that Princes Street’s role as the public transport corridor must be respected and improved, not least the interchange between buses, trams, rail and long-distance coaches.
  • EBUGs’ views on public transport were stated in the recently concluded consultation on the North-South Tram
    👉    buses and interchanges must be planned in from the outset, not as an afterthought
    👉  bus priority lanes must be provided where buses are displaced to parallel corridors; this is particularly relevant for South Bridge
    👉  the costs for the preparation of the Strategic Business Case must not impact on maintenance and overdue improvement of bus infrastructure; this is particularly critical in the context of the urgent engineering assessment of the existing defects of all South Bridge spans.
  • Remember to complete the Bus Stop survey on our website if you’re affected by bus stops near you being closed by roadworks for extended periods or even permanently, please fill in this short form.
  • A date for your diary: EBUG’s Annual General Meeting will be on Thursday 24 September at 6pm (online only). Plenty of notice and reminders to come!
  • EBUG has an instagram account but lacks the bandwidth – and skills 🙂 – to operate it: are there any adept EBUG members out there who are willing to help? Please get in touch here. We also like to say thanks to Bob Moseley – one of EBUG’s founding members and Treasurer (twice!) – for his exceptional services. He recently retired from the EBUG Committee and we wish him all the best for the future.
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No. 25 – Members’ Bulletin March 2026

  • As candidates get ready for the Scottish parliamentary elections in May, now is a good time for EBUG members to write to them with some or all of EBUG’s ‘election asks’. You can find names and contact details here for both constituency and regional list candidates  – please share any responses you receive with us.
  • We also encourage members to attend any or all of the following hustings events – each with their own focus; but questions about public transport in general and buses specifically, will be relevant. If you’re wondering about good questions to ask candidates about buses, here’s a couple!
    • 26 March: ICE Scotland hustings (with national candidates)
    • 31 March: The Scotsman and Scotland 2050 Holyrood election hustings (with national candidates)
    • 1 April: ICAS hustings (with national candidates)
    • 8 April: Living Rent Edinburgh hustings (with Edinburgh candidates)
    • 9 April: Grassmarket Residents’ Association hustings (with Edinburgh Central candidates)
    • 16 April: Broughton Spurtle hustings (with Edinburgh North Eastern & Leith candidates)
  • In January we commented on the Scottish Government’s 2026/27 budget: Scottish Budget 2026; what’s in it for buses?. The budget was agreed in Parliament in February. It includes £60m for ‘bus infrastructure’, but details are lacking. The allocation for ‘Concessionary Fares and ‘Bus Services’ in 2026/27 is essentially the status quo plus inflation.
  • Many bus stops across Edinburgh are being closed by roadworks and other development, sometimes for extended periods or even permanently. There’s a lack of data about these closures, so we’ve published a Bus Stop survey on our website to gather more information. Please tell us about bus stop closures near you using this short form.
  • From 22 February, Lothian Buses made a number of service changes affecting west Edinburgh and Midlothian, intended to improve connectivity for new housing developments and local communities.
    Bus and tram fares also increased by around 9% for most tickets and passes. This is well above the current inflation rate. Further details can be found on the Lothian website.
  • We made two deputations to Edinburgh’s January 2026 Transport and Environment Committee meeting about:
    • the lack of any allocation of visitor levy funding to improving bus services
    • a motion seeking action to address deteriorating bus journey times.
      Further details of our deputations and the subsequent debate and decisions can be found here.
  • For “people who live in or regularly travel within or through Midlothian for work, study or leisure” here’s a survey (until March 22nd), which will feed into Midlothian Council’s bus plans.
  • We agreed the date for EBUG’s Annual General Meeting; Thursday 24 September 6pm (online only, like last year). Plenty of notice and reminders will be sent!
  • With some ‘retirements’ pending, we are looking for members to join the EBUG Committee. If you’d like to know what’s involved, members are welcome to attend our next Committee meeting informally (4 June at 6pm in central Edinburgh) – please contact our chair Harald Tobermann by email for details.

Your EBUG Committee

w. edinburghbususers.group

To become a member, click here.

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Scottish Budget 2026; what’s in it for buses?

On 13th January the Scottish Government published its 2026/27 budget proposals.

Under revenue, £528.3m was announced for Concessionary Fares and Bus Services in 2026/27.

As EBUG often has to point out, free bus travel is a personal benefit, like prescriptions, not an investment in buses. Operators are reimbursed at an annually adjusted rate, currently some 55p in the £. The legislation requires that they be neither better nor worse off for participating in the scheme. Scottish Government documents invariably suggest the scheme subsidises buses. It does not, but we have to live with this spin. Continue reading “Scottish Budget 2026; what’s in it for buses?”

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A warning at West Maitland Street?

In early September, eastbound Lothian Buses stopped serving the bus stops on West Maitland Street; they are now served only by East Coast Buses, express and NightBus services.

Local residents, workers and Murrayfield Community Council told EBUG of the inconvenience this has caused; it’s over 600m between the stops at Haymarket and Shandwick Place, well over the limit for a dense urban area just west of the city centre. The stops on Shandwick Place are also further spread out and have no shelters.

Community representatives heard that Lothian Buses withdrew from the stops because delays incurred were not counterbalanced by heavy passenger use. EBUG visited the sites twice. It was clear that West Maitland Street illustrates many of the problems on which we campaign throughout Edinburgh. Continue reading “A warning at West Maitland Street?”