An open letter to Edinburgh’s next Transport Convener

Dear Councillor Jenkinson,

Congratulations on your new appointment as Transport Convener. We are sure you will be aware that this can be a challenging role, and we thought that some of our observations may prove helpful.

At Full Council in September 2022, our deputation acknowledged how Edinburgh’s bus network is successful, but often taken for granted. In the 1980s and 1990s, there was a successful partnership between the Council and bus operators. At that time, Lothian Buses operated a successful service, grew passenger numbers and returned a dividend to its share-owning Councils.

In parallel, the City of Edinburgh Council used its extensive powers as highway authority to assist and where appropriate prioritise bus operations.

Latterly, Edinburgh Council lost sight of this but while Scott Arthur was Transport Convener, a lot of ground was regained. We hope you will progress with his legacy.

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Begg – Edinburgh must future-proof its buses

This article first appeared in ‘Passenger Transport’ issue 315, and is reproduced here with the editor’s kind permission.

Out now: Issue 315 of Passenger Transport

Professor David Begg has warned his home city to respond to an increase in bus journey times by extending bus lane hours and vociferous campaigning

David Begg (right) with Edinburgh Bus Users Group chair Harald Tobermann and his dog Buster

It’s a warning that could be applied to cities across the United Kingdom, but on this occasion Professor David Begg was talking about his home city of Edinburgh: future-proof your bus network against further increases in journey times or risk decline.

Begg, former chair of the Commission for Integrated Transport, spoke at a meeting of the Edinburgh Bus Users Group in the Scottish capital last week.

While hailing Edinburgh’s transport system as “one of the best in the UK”, the former Edinburgh councillor urged the group to mobilise bus users and hold politicians to account on bus speeds. He also called on the city’s council-owned bus operator, Lothian Buses, to be more forceful in speaking up for bus users.

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EBUG Annual General Meeting 2024

Our Annual General Meeting is on Thursday 6 June 2024, at 18:00 in the Augustine United Church, George IV Bridge, Edinburgh.

Our Guest Speaker will be Professor David Begg. He is the former political transport lead at Lothian Region and the City of Edinburgh councils, chaired the Government’s Commission for Integrated Transport, was on the board of the Strategic Rail Authority and First Group Ltd. He publishes the Transport Times.

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‘Secrets of a Successful Bus Operation’ : recommended viewing

Click on these links to see slides and a recording of the recent and utterly excellent webinar Secrets of a Successful Bus Operation organised and published by the Foundation for Integrated Transport.  A brilliant exposition of how to do buses!

With Roger French, who was Managing Director Brighton & Hove Buses in some of its most successful years.

Roger says reliability should be a given, and identifies five other key areas:

    • Frequency, reliability, consistency
    • Price, value, simplicity
    • Legendary customer service
    • Information, promotion, publicity
    • Regular investment in new buses

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Bad budget for buses

The Scottish Government has ‘paused’ the Bus Partnership Fund. The Fund is ‘a long-term investment of over £500m to deliver targeted bus priority measures…to reduce the negative impacts of congestion on bus services and address the decline in bus patronage’ https://www.transport.gov.scot/public-transport/buses/bus-partnership-fund/

When it was launched in 2019, it was the biggest investment in buses for years. Edinburgh and surrounding Councils planned to use it to finance major bus priority programmes, including on nine of Edinburgh’s busiest road corridors.

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Updated Bus Lanes and Patronage Graph

We’ve updated one of our key graphs. It now shows:

  • The impact of the Covid19 pandemic
  • The reallocation of bus lane space during the pandemic, now largely reinstated
  • The reduction in bus lane hours in 2015

No 12. Edinburgh Bus Users Group: Members’ Bulletin October 2023

The EBUG Committee has decided to increase the frequency of members’ bulletins. We’re aiming for 6 a year, roughly once every two months. Due to the temporary unavailability of our usual method of posting the bulletin to EBUG members, October’s bulletin comes to you direct from our email account.

Here’s the ‘highlights’ since our previous bulletin in June:

Our AGM took place on June 21. Once the formal business was complete, Councillor Scott Arthur, Convenor of Transport at the City of Edinburgh, spoke about the role of bus services in the Council’s future transport plans. We were particularly pleased to note:

  • his reservations about the concept of ‘to not through’ the city centre with regard to buses.
  • that Councillors have not approved a blanket policy of removing bus stops.

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Update – comments on the Edinburgh Tram extension and buses

In December 2022, EBUG published an initial commentary on the Tram extension to Newhaven and buses https://edinburghbususers.group/ebug-comments-on-the-edinburgh-tram-extension-and-buses. At the time, construction was not complete, particularly at bus stops.

The Tram route has now been operating since June, so we revisited the sites previously inspected for an update. To recap, we had surveyed only the most southerly bus stops on Leith Walk, and the updated survey covered the same ground.

NB as previously, we did not carry out a full bus stop audit.

At Elm Row northbound, the bus stop appears acceptable. The shelter is long, and therefore spacious. It is perhaps disappointing that the opportunity was not taken to install wider end panels for better weather protection; this would have required moving the shelter onto the cycle path.

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Guest Contribution No 1

EBUG is now occasionally posting contributions by ‘guest writers’ on our website. EBUG may, or may not, agree in full with their content, but believes they are interesting contributions to discussions on the future of buses in and around Edinburgh.

In the first post, Stacey O’Flaherty of the Ratho Bus Working Group reflects on a year of campaigning for better bus services for Ratho.

As well as leading the Working Group, Stacey led the ‘lovemybus’ youth programme, engaging with over 10,000 young people across Scotland in 22 Council areas, working with nine bus operators visiting nurseries, Outdoor Forest Schools, Primary and High and ASN Schools, Scouting and GirlGuiding groups.

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Edinburgh Bus Users Group; response to call for evidence by the Cross-Party Group on Sustainable Transport inquiry into cutting public transport emissions

Edinburgh Bus Users’ Group (EBUG) is a campaign which aims to provide a voice for bus users; to protect and improve Edinburgh’s bus network. EBUG is concerned with bus services within the City of Edinburgh Council area and those which cross its boundary. It is user/supporter led, independent of any operator, local or national authority, political party or trade union.

Whilst our response is concerned with buses, some issues are shared with, for example, rail and ferries (and even freight), and the text of our response highlights this where particularly relevant.

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