Welcome to the latest EBUG Bulletin
- Home news first; this month Stuart Stevenson joined the Committee. Welcome Stuart! There are now just two Committee vacancies; any EBUG members interested in joining, please contact secretary@
edinburghbususers.group. There was also a reshuffle of the Committee, with Harald Tobermann and Chris Day stepping down as Chair and Secretary, to be replaced by Mike Birch and Gail Clapton. Nevertheless, the Committee does not operate as a hierarchy!
- Councillor Stephen Jenkinson has taken over from Scott Arthur as Convenor of Transport and Environment.. At an initial informal meeting with our outgoing chair, the new Convenor made it clear that he wanted to continue with his predecessor’s pro-public transport approach; he listened carefully and supportively to EBUG’s key aims. A reshuffled Transport and Environment Committee has now the following members: Stephen Jenkinson, Danny Aston, Chas Booth, Sanne Dijkstra-Downie, Katrina Faccenda, Fiona Glasgow, Ewan Hyslop, Kevin Lang, Marie-Clair Munro, Kayleigh O’Neill and Iain Whyte.
- Congratulations are in order for Lothian’s’ new Chair, Susan Deacon and to all staff for winning Bus Operator of the Year (with Edinburgh Trams – in a considerably smaller field – garnering Tram Operator of the Year).
- The new on-street Real-Time Information screens are now displaying real-time departures for Lothian Buses. Given the protracted completion phase, we hope that aren’t any more gremlins in the system
- New contracts for supported bus service routes continue to be finalised for Lady Nairn, Service 13 (won by McGills to go live in December), Dumbiedykes (won by McGills; live from December). A proposed service from Leith to Holyrood High School depends on additional funding being made available by the Council.
- EBUG did a deputation at the Council’s Transport and Environment Committee in August (along with a number of other interested parties), mainly because what we expected to be a fairly routine update on the 7-7-7 bus lane trial (Musselburgh-Balerno) included a surprise proposal to water it down by allowing Private Hire Cars (in addition to black cabs) access to bus lanes. It seems almost all the TEC members were similarly surprised and unimpressed by the proposal, and voted it out.
- We also sent a written deputation to the full Council meeting on 26 September, supporting a motion to address the pressure on the City’s transport infrastructure during the tourist season and when there are other major events. The motion was passed, but as it was amended we won’t be absolutely sure exactly what was agreed until the minutes are published (this is not unusual).
- The Confederation of Passenger Transport published Trends in Scottish Bus Patronage, an updated version of a similar report dated 2017. It’s a goldmine of data about trends in bus use in Scotland. The full 52 page report can be seen here. Or read a media summary here.
- We had a reply from the for Agriculture and Connectivity in response to our request for a definitive answer on the legal enforcement status of onboard bus lane enforcement cameras. The upshot of the reply: the finer legal points are currently being clarified by his official with City of Edinburgh Council and Lothian Buses. How long can it take to decipher The Bus Lanes (Approved Devices) (Scotland) Order 2011?