by dave2 » Sun Aug 06, 2006 12:13 pm
Without being able to find a specific link, the main thrust of the Edinburgh Evening News Articles indicates that teh funding came from lothian Buses themselves as pasrt of their renewals. I think that they now have all buses under 7/8 years old, and all new ones are accesible to wheelchairs, have CCTV (5 or 6 cameras) etc.
Lothian Buses are benefited by only having to pay a dividend of £2million per year to their (council) shareholders, so can invest most of the remaining profits in low fares, and better buses.
Their night bus network is niot as extensive, but the work put in by them and City of Edinburgh to sort out several large PArk n Rides (hermiston, Ingliston, to the west and soon to be Todhills and Straiton to the South) has improved some fo teh traffic chaos. Of course at festival times it grinds to a halt again because vistors dont know about / want to use Park n Ride!
Having not been in Gl;asgow that long, was any attempt made to convert the Corporation Buses into a Council owned privately run company, as Lothian became, or where they just sold to private companies which First Bus then gobbled up?
First Bus do exist in Edinburgh, linking to West Lothian, South Queensferry, East Lothian and Mid Lothian, but their buses are by comparison older, dirtier and more expensive.
I am not saying that Edinburgh have got it sussed, but most of tehir buses are newer, cleaner and more pleasant than most of the Gl;asgow First Bus ones - although the new buses First have introducedn on the 44 route and 187 routes are nice, but few, and seem to still eb plagued by rubbish.
The CCTV also seems to make the Edinburgh Bus Drivers more confident to tackle anti-social behaviour, even coming out of their cab to do so. The Police are also often involved in such incidents called via the Bus-Depot radio link. Drivers also has spit kits to collect a sample if a customer spits at them, this can then be DNA tested and used with CCTV evidence to convict a person in court. The Drivers also have intercoms so can make announcements such as "would the customers smoking on the top deck please stop now". Shame seems to be very effective!