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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.

Official notification has been sent to all members, as required by EBUG’s constitution. Non-members are welcome, but can not vote.

At the AGM:
the Committee will present a report of the work of EBUG over the year.
the Committee will present the accounts of EBUG for the previous year.
the officers and Committee for the next year will be elected. Any proposals given to the Secretary at least 14 days in advance of the meeting will be discussed.

It is helpful, but not compulsory, if you let us know if you plan to attend.

If you are interested in joining the EBUG committee and would like to discuss this before the AGM, please email chair@edinburghbususers.group.

Advance papers will be circulated to members nearer the time, including:
Provisional Agenda
1. Welcome, Apologies
2. Approve minutes of 2023 AGM
3. Committee report and accounts 2024
4. Elections to the committee
5. Guest Speaker: David Begg
6. Q&A

Welcome to the latest EBUG Bulletin.

• • The new on-street Real-Time Information screens are still displaying timetable, not real-time, timings for Lothian Buses. An update is expected at the Council’s Transport and Environment Committee on 7 March.
  • In January we took part in a ‘stakeholder discussion’ about Elm Row. This was productive and we are now looking forward to significant improvements to the bus stops there.

Continue reading “No. 14 – Edinburgh Bus Users’ Group: Members’ Bulletin February 2024”

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

Continue reading “‘Secrets of a Successful Bus Operation’ : recommended viewing”

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.

Continue reading “Bad budget for buses”

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

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.

Continue reading “Update – comments on the Edinburgh Tram extension and buses”

Dear EBUG member,

This is the eleventh of our occasional updates for members. While the previous edition also served as the official notification for our upcoming AGM, we now provide our members with the agenda and associated documents.

To remind you: the AGM is on Wednesday June 21, at 18:00 in the Augustine United Church, George IV Bridge. Our Guest Speaker is Councillor Scott Arthur, Convener of Transport and Environment at the City of Edinburgh Council.

Continue reading “No. 11 – Edinburgh Bus Users’ Group: Members’ Bulletin June 2023”

Travelling around the western edges of Edinburgh, it is difficult not to notice the housing developments springing up. Social media has been alive with commentary on some of them, but EBUG’s been looking particularly at ‘Cammo Meadows’, which may be a harbinger of more to come.

Continue reading “Cammo Meadows; planning for public transport?”

As Trams to Newhaven nears completion, there’s been much discussion in print and social media about the design/implementation of streetscape features, particularly on Leith Walk. The City of Edinburgh Council’s present and previous transport convenors made it clear that there will be a thorough review and rectification process, consistent with the Edinburgh Street Design Guidance.

Continue reading “EBUG comments on the Edinburgh Tram extension and buses”