Members’ Bulletin 2

Dear EBUG member,

This is the second of our occasional updates for members on recent developments of particular interest.

  • The City of Edinburgh Council’s Transport and Environment Committee has approved a consultation on bus lane operating hours. This is expected to start in late October.
  • Bus stop ‘rationalisation’ (i.e. reducing the number of stops); it’s still not clear what form this will take or when (link to TFE report)
  • Bus priority measures on the A90; Transport and Environment Committee considered a report on this in June and decided it was inadequate. Officials were told to return with something better within 2 committee cycles (link to TFE report)
  • ‘Superbus’ design and access; Lothian Buses has received feedback from users on problems with the interior layout of these. It is hoped there will be more definite news in the near future.
  • Edinburgh City Centre Transformation has now been approved. The final version moves some way towards EBUG’s comments during consultation. Transformation is likely to be implemented through a series of projects like the George Street – Meadows scheme. Bus speeds are intended to be improved by traffic signal priorities and rationalising stops. The strategy claims not to promote overall removal of cross-city bus services, but selected services will stop at interchanges around the centre (we believe this is not well thought out).The hopper service, which didn’t impress a number of respondents, is now proposed to be a trial using 76 seat electric vehicles on a 10 minute frequency. The second cross-city tram route is downgraded to a long-term aspiration. EBUG and others will be engaged in the Project Delivery Plan.
  • EBUG featured on STV news coverage of Transformation. We also got a lot of coverage for our call for plans to prevent buses getting caught in congestion in the 2020 tourist season. There was quite a response when we tweeted a bus station story. No arguments were advanced for changing the management (i.e. CEC) arrangements. One or two commented that the bus station is too small when busy. The main criticisms are that it is too low-profile, if not invisible.
  • We have established a good connection with the Edinburgh Association of Community Councils.
  • We’re still working on getting a website into action.
Your EBUG Committee

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