Category: bus stops

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Bus Stop Audit Report: Dalry Road, from Haymarket to Ardmillan Terrace

  1. Introduction

In the context of ongoing concerns about the variable quality of design, location and/or maintenance of bus stops across Edinburgh, Edinburgh Bus Users Group (EBUG) undertook a pilot ‘audit’ of a busy city corridor.

The audit was undertaken by four EBUG Committee members on the morning of Friday 22 October, between Haymarket and Ardmillan Terrace, including also Henderson Terrace, comprising 11 stops (6 ‘outbound’ and 5 ‘city-bound’). 8 criteria were assessed for each stop, encompassing location, pavement widths (in relation to the Edinburgh Street Design Guidance, see Appendix 1), shelter condition, signage and line marking etc.

An additional aim of the exercise was to take the opportunity to re-evaluate EBUG’s audit template itself, and amend or add any further criteria that seemed relevant and that would be useful for future audits.

We have not incorporated within this report our generic findings on the design of the JC Decaux bus shelters, which we view as being driven by advertising and financial considerations rather than by bus user comfort and convenience. Continue reading “Bus Stop Audit Report: Dalry Road, from Haymarket to Ardmillan Terrace”

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Missed opportunity to improve city buses

As we all know, money is tight among Councils. In Edinburgh and elsewhere, aspirations to improve bus services compete for funding with other worthwhile services. Bus routes, of course, operate on a commercial basis. But the infrastructure they use, the roads, the bus stops, almost everything that doesn’t move, is the Council’s responsibility; as is providing socially necessary services which can’t break even.

So how can the Council maximise funding for improvements?

One source is ‘Section 75’ funding. Section 75 payments are funds secured from developers to pay for facilities needed because of the development; such as improved transport, school buildings etc. So if a developer builds new houses, or offices, the Council can secure payments to cover the cost of public transport improvements needed to serve the development.

We wondered how the City of Edinburgh Council uses this mechanism. So we lodged a Freedom of Information request with the Council, asking how much Section 75 money it had secured to improve bus services.

The FOI request revealed that, between 2015 and 2022, CEC secured a total of £84,230,232 in Section 75 payments.

Continue reading “Missed opportunity to improve city buses”

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No.7 – Members’ Bulletin February 2022

Dear EBUG member,
This is the seventh of our occasional updates for members.
Council Elections

Our main news, and the reason for circulating this bulletin now, is that we’ve completed our first ‘Council election event’. In the last Bulletin we reported that with Council elections due in May, the Committee was thinking of running hustings/a review of party manifestos. Covid-Omicron put a stop to that, so instead we:

  • Published an ‘EBUG manifesto’ on our website
  • Invited written questions from EBUG members, and by social media
  • Submitted the questions to the 5 political parties currently on Edinburgh Council
  • We’re now ABOUT TO publish the parties’ responses on our website, so keep an eye on edinburghbususers.group

Continue reading “No.7 – Members’ Bulletin February 2022”