Dear EBUG member,
Welcome to the latest EBUG Bulletin.
- Please remember the EBUG Annual General Meeting will be on Thursday 19 June, from 6pm to 8pm at the Quaker Meeting House, 7 Victoria Terrace, Edinburgh. On the agenda:
– Approval of the draft minutes of the 2024 AGM. (linked here)
– Presentation of the Committee’s report for the year. (linked here)
– Presentation of EBUG’s accounts for the previous year. (linked here)
– Edinburgh Bus Users Group Constitution (May 2025 Draft for Approval) (linked here) with Summary of Changes to EBUG Constitution (linked here)
– Elect a Committee of up to 11 members. - After the AGM formalities, YOU can share good bus practice from elsewhere in the UK or abroad.
We invite good bus practice examples. The best will be recorded and published on our website, and may be used to lobby the Council, Lothian Buses and the Scottish Government. Come prepared! - Our collaboration with Napier students, reported in the last Members Bulletin, is now complete and a very useful report has been produced.
- Usually Lothian Buses publishes ridership figures for the past year in their Annual Report. For reasons unknown, this year’s Annual Report has not yet been published. Nevertheless, Managing Director Sarah Boyd told a Scottish Parliament Committee that ridership rose from 110 million trips (2023) to 116 million (2024). This is almost back to the pre-Covid peak. The rise may be due (among other factors) to the acquisition of routes in East and West Lothian; against this should be set at least some loss of passengers to the tram extension to Newhaven.
- Edinburgh Council’s Transport & Environment Committee ‘rationalised’ its proposed programme of transport projects from now up to the year 2035, reflecting the realities of likely future funding. Given the scale of the proposed programme, this was probably inevitable. Bus-based projects were included in the cuts, but it could have been much worse. EBUG, and other groups, presented a deputation to the Committee meeting on May 22.
- The Council is still committed to its target of reducing car mileage by 30%, despite the Scottish Government dropping its less ambitious 20% target. Edinburgh’s higher target reflected the likelihood of reducing car use in Scotland’s cities being easier than in rural areas.
- Our next Bulletin is due to be published at the end of July; by which time we hope to have seen you at the AGM. Remember; non-members are welcome to attend and contribute to the ideas-sharing session, although they can’t vote on the formal business