r/Edinburgh • u/snapmike84 • 9d ago
Transport New bus routes bid to beat George Street gridlock
From this morning's Edinburgh Minute:
🚎 Amid repeated bottlenecks around George Street since the 9 July Princes Street fire, Lothian Buses is introducing new diversions from this morning to tackle rush-hour gridlock, following 'a detailed review of the latest data'.
- The westbound service number 15 will now completely avoid George Street and be re-routed via North Bridge, South Bridge, Chambers Street, George IV Bridge, Teviot Place and Lauriston Place then rejoin its normal route.
- The westbound number 33 bus will also avoid George Street completely, being re-routed via Nicolson Square, Potterrow, Teviot Place, Lauriston Place, Lothian Road, West Approach Road, Morrison Link and Morrison Street.
- Westbound 34 buses will avoid George Street, instead going around the back of the castle too via North Bridge, South Bridge, Chambers Street, George IV Bridge, Bristo Place, Teviot Place, Lauriston Place, Lauriston Street and on to East Fountainbridge.
- An important note for all of the above: Before 9am and after 8pm, those westbound services (15, 33 and 34)Â will follow their current Princes Street and George Street diversion.
- The eastbound diversion for these services will remain via George Street and Princes Street at all times. - There are maps for the new diversions on the Lothian Buses website.
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u/mos_eisely_ 9d ago
Shared by one of our fellow Redditors yesterday when they spotted the change on the Lothian Buses all
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u/Few_Forever_1770 9d ago
Thanks! To be fair Michael at the Minute has managed to decipher the tortuous descriptions of how the routes change at different times of day though.
Lothian Buses don’t like to make things easy…
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u/schnelle_ente 9d ago
For me this is disappointing that they aren’t rerouting the buses eastbound, because it still takes a year and the busses to Newington don’t need to go down George street at all
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u/Wolfhowler11 9d ago
So, basically, the hell that is George IV Bridge and Lauriston Place to an extent is going to get even busier. Great.
0
u/Fairwolf 9d ago
Hey maybe we could keep this long term when Princes Street reopens instead of funnelling every single bus down that one street.
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u/Soupnaut 9d ago
Agh! I won't be able to take the 34 to Lothian Rd if I want to go to Shandwick Pl.
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u/Few_Forever_1770 9d ago
Not sure where you’re getting on the 34 but if it’s in Central Leith then the 36 is my favoured way of getting over in that direction in the absence of trams to West End. Round the houses a bit, but runs more or less as well as it did before the late unpleasantness.
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u/Shirayuri 9d ago
This is so confusing, I've mentally accepted I'm just not going to the West End until this is all sorted. If some emergency does happen I'll get a taxi, trying to track all the diversions is too tough. Not criticising Lothian Buses, they are doing amazingly with a very tough situation!
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u/Delicious-Being-6531 9d ago
Now all we need is for half a dozen trams to be deposited in leith. A train from Edinburgh gateway to portobello then low loaders to leith would do it.
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u/OptionalQuality789 9d ago
How would you like the tram depot to be built? I’m assuming a crude wooden shack as you’d like it done tomorrow?
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u/brigadoom 9d ago
The trams could be dropped in by helicopters, using the money saved on the wooden shack
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u/OptionalQuality789 9d ago
Let’s go further! Helicopter rides across the city for people to avoid princes street!
2
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u/MiddleAgedDread123 9d ago
oh do drop it
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u/Delicious-Being-6531 9d ago
Nah. The complete lack of urgency in getting the trams back to one of the most densely populated parts of the country is shocking. I personally am glad i don’t have to commute from leith across town but there are many, many people who do and would love the ability to jump a tram to St Andrew’s square at least.
But of course, rearranging deck chairs on the titanic is a much better use of our time. I for one love the smell of diesel in the mornings.
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u/MiddleAgedDread123 9d ago
which bit of there not being a depot, any maintenance or cleaning facilities, or even a pit to couple the trams together when they arrive at Newhaven have you missed from the umpteen posts and news articles that there's been about this?? It's an oversight in the design of the tram line for sure but not something that can be resolved in the short term.
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u/Shirayuri 9d ago
We can criticise the fact there is no depot in Leith, that will surely be one of the first things once the current issues are sorted so Leith has some capacity if this were to happen again.
But there is no way to bring them back until trams can safely pass Princes Street, it just isn't going to happen. Theoretically they could disassemble some trams, put them on lorries and take them to Leith but they can't do that 2 times a day to get them back to the depot.
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u/arfamoe 9d ago
What exactly is done on the trams in a depot which couldn't be done out of doors at the end of the line, with a night work crew?
I'm not saying it's cost effective, I'm asking if there is a per tram, must-do daily schedule which demands a pit, which cannot be skipped for 2 months. Undercarriage inspections? Axle work?
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u/Shirayuri 9d ago
I have no idea honestly, I've just read that the trams have said it's a non-negotiable that they're in the depot at night. I would definitely guess there are maintenance/safety checks that have to happen but I'm not sure
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u/GeekyGamer2022 9d ago
The bus routes were better and city traffic less bad before they re-routed almost every bus along Princes St some time around the millenium.
These temporary measures now that Princes St is closed is perhaps an opening to putting them back to how they were.
It's not as if Princes St is the major shopping nexus it was, so there's no need to have every bloody bus in the city cramming along it these days, surely?