Lothian Buses

I was told by an LRT staff member that there are now no printed timetables. If you don't have a smart phone to use their app on then you're out of luck. ALL STOPS should now have the services and timings shown for that bus stop. Only some of them do.

So I had to renew my bus pass as the one I used to have was ancient and no longer agreed to being topped up at P Points.
First good point, it is openned until 7pm during the week, so handy especially if like me you are working long hours or even a full time office 9 – 5 job. Despite being busy when I was in, a member of staff was manning the queue and being really helpful answering questions or providing the leaflet customers were looking for. To save people waiting he even started handing out forms that were required to be filled in in view to avoid dead time and so the new cards were handed in quicker by the time people reached the till. The layout of the shop was clear and despite my original thought ‘oh my God I’m going to be there for hour’s after seeing the length of the queue, I was pleasantly surprised I was in and out within 10mins.
I was pleased I was already in their filing system as never had to go through the process of getting my picture taken again, yeah you know the one they take of you when all other customers are looking.
Thanks LRT for making this experience as painless as possible.

Pros:
— Sooo much cheaper than buses back home and the day ticket/​ridacards just make things cheaper.
— Ridacard works on the Airlink bus too (score!)
— On schedule (usually).
— Really good network, multiple buses mean you can get anywhere.
— I can get from one part of Edinburgh to the complete other side in 45 minutes.
Cons:
— No change (though I totally get the reasoning for this, it’s still inconvenient).
— The bus stopping to keep on schedule is something I can’t stand. It makes my skin crawl with impatience.
— Getting through Princes Street at the moment is a gamble (Yes Paddy H, I deserve it for not cycling: P)
— I wish they didn’t stop so early, particularly the 38 and the 15.
–Part routes at night — a few jars, you see your number bus, you hop on all ready to be transported home and BAM, turfed out at the interchange.

Great little shop! Always has helpful staff, just feel bad for them because their air conditioner always seems to be broken. Go here if you need any help getting around the city or anything. If you need a bus pass that needs a photo go to the train station or Princes st mall if you don’t have a passport photo.

I know there is a lot of contentious talk on Unilocal about Lothian Buses. One Unilocaler *coughJoeAcough* really, really doesn’t like them. Something about a pizza incidence once?
For me, having lived in Glasgow, I can say Lothian Buses is miles ahead of the Glasgow network. First off, a set fare for any route in the city. Glasgow charges by the distance travelled. Yes, the price has succesively gone up from £1.10 to £1.20 to £1.30 and most recently £1.40 in the past two years. But that’s still cheaper than what I payed in Glasgow 5 years ago.
Edinburgh is a city of many villages. Stockbridge, Leith, Canonmills, Newington, Bruntsfield. And they’re all connected by Lothian Buses. The routes are really great, they suit pretty much any route from A to B. The buses are frequent. The app, and the on-​street electronic signs, are always accurate. The app is really pretty good.
I think at the moment, given the Tram Works interrupting the whole city, the bus routes are disrupted. This can be annoying. But it’s not the buses fault.
They also in the last year recently brought in a whole fleet of energy efficient buses. These new buses talk to you and do all sorts. Impressive.
You can’t help who uses the bus, and yes the bus may often have questionable characters on it. But I think the Lothian Bus network keeps all of Edinburgh very well, and frequently connected. Their prices are fair, the bus routes are very convenient, and when you need to get from A to B they do the job.

clean and convenient…
Around the city we go…
Always on time… Ha…

i was actually at the travel shop on hanover street, but this doesn’t appear to have a page on Unilocal :(however customer service and available items are the same across all lothian bus travel shop sites! so here goes the review…
monday night, exhausted after a long non stop day at work where my to do pile literally grew by the hour, i arrived at the lothian bus travel shop to renew my bus pass for another 4 weeks. as i approached the shop i could not believe it but the queue was almost literally out the door!!! this actually almost made me turn away but since i need a bus pass to get to and from work i grumpily joined the queue and started immediately twittering my annoyance…
however, no rant was actually needed. there were only two women that were working behind the counter, but thanks to some amazing customer service it was probably less than ten minutes til i was the front of the queue! i happily jumped up to the counter, handed my pass over (another 4 weeks please) and paid and then marched myself out the door.
seriously though, the queue kept growing as i was waiting and was just as long when i left as when i came in and these two women behind the counter never stopped being friendly, polite, and smiling. they did their best to keep the queue moving and to keep everyone happy. i was very impressed and grateful that my wait time was kept to a minimum. in fact i even heard the woman apologise to a customer for the long wait, nice touch!
it’s good to know that even at a bus shop where people have to go to get or renew their bus passes, customer service is still a high priority. well done lothian buses, i ride you with pride and customer satisfaction!

After using this shower even walking through the worst of Scottish winters seems more apealling.
I’ve witnessed a driver at the Gyle refuse to let a gay couple on the bus simply because they were holding hands, complaints were made but that driver is still to be seen on the buses large as life and twice as nasty.
The seating is often awful, so crampt that I have to sit angled with my knees poking into the walkway. How hard is it to apply some fabric freshener to the upholstry? I smelt nicer odours when our spetic tank backed up!
I do wish the drivers would tak the care they are meant to and not speed off when a number of people are still climbing the stairs. On one occassion this happened and several of us got knocked flying and I received most colourful bruising as a result.
Even as you try to escape one of their vehicles you are not safe. On one occassion the doors were closed without checking resulting in my arm getting trapped and the contents of my bags being smashed. This was caught on their cameras but I did not even get an apology.

If you’re coming from Princes Street, the shop can be a little hard to spot, but there aren’t many places on the bridge it could be so you’re bound to find it eventually. It’s well-​stocked with timetables of all Lothian routes and well-​staffed with friendly, courteous employees ready to assist you.
I bought a four-​week Ridacard and it was a very quick and painless procedure. Fill out form, take picture, pay while the card prints and voila — you’re good to ride! Very efficient. I’m almost looking forward to returning in four weeks to top up.

One of my favourite things about Edinburgh is Lothian Buses. The bus services that they run across the city are unmatched, and it is one of the best bus providers that I have come across in the UK. They have three city centre travel shops, which provide information about all of the services that they offer, and I visited the one on Waverley Bridge.
I went in as I needed to purchase a Ridacard — a card which you can pay for a period of time, whether it is a week, month, or year and get unlimited travel on their buses during this period. Staff were quick and efficient in providing me with the form I needed to fill, taking a photo for the card there and then, and producing the card itself. All in all, the process must have taken around 10 minutes.
The shop is well stocked with timetables and all of the information you could possibly need for bus travel in and around Edinburgh. There was also a selection of information for tourists, and during the time I was there, a number of tourists came in asking for directions, which the staff were happy to provide.
This travel shop is a great reflection of a superb bus company. Once the trams are up and running, they will be able to add another string to what is already a pretty large bow.

The only thing I can say against the place is that they need better signage to direct the tourists from Waverley Station. Or if they have a kiosk located in the station, it needs to be better posted.
Once you find the place, expect to be extremely pleased. Courteous service from a clerk who probably deals with tourists like me (unlikely they can be even more clueless than me) all day but was patient in explaining the day ticket deal (£3 all day) and how the tickets work (just scratch off today’s date and go) and providing me with a map of the bus routes. Five minutes later, I was at the bus stop. And five minutes later than that, I was taking a front row seat in the double-​decker that brought me to the hotel.
The day pass is probably the best method if you’re planning on riding at least three buses in a day, otherwise you can pay on board. Exact change only. Or if you’re in Edinburgh for more than a few days, consider one of the weekly/​monthly/​annual passes.
Yes, they accept credit cards. Even the swipe and sign ones we Americans carry. And yes, they spoke English that was clear enough for me, a Yank, to understand. :)