23 Facts About Lothian Buses

Lothian Buses is a major bus operator based in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Lothian Buses have won several awards for their services to the Lothian region including Bus Operator of the Year in the 2007 UK Bus Awards, and has subsequently been voted Public Transport Operator of the Year at the 2008 National Transport Awards.

Lothian Buses was voted Best UK Bus Company in 2002 and 2003, and vehicles previously carried the wording Voted Scotland's Best Bus Company 2006 in a laurel wreath type logo near the fleetname.

Lothian Buses 'Ridacard' bus pass is a pre-paid plastic smartcard giving unlimited travel on regular daytime and night bus services, as well as Edinburgh Trams services.

Lothian Buses launched contactless payment on their normal day network in 2019.

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Regular Lothian Bus services running within Edinburgh and the west of East Lothian operate a flat fare, but from Longniddry, Macmerry and Ormiston there is a zonal system with East Coast Buses having six zones.

Traditionally, Edinburgh Corporation, LRT and Lothian Buses had been generally painted in a madder and cream livery.

Lothian Buses began to phase out the harlequin livery in May 2010, replacing it with a version of the traditional madder and white colour scheme.

The angular shape and style of this livery was a complete departure from anything Lothian Buses had designed before, and as of 2021 is the standard livery for all new vehicles.

Lothian Buses directly operates three services to Edinburgh Airport; Airlink 100, Skylink 200 and Skylink 400.

East Lothian Buses services were initially operated by existing Lothian vehicles.

In June 2017, a new subsidiary named Lothian Buses Country commenced operating route 43 to South Queensferry after the previous operator Stagecoach East Scotland deemed the service not economically viable.

On 19 August 2018, three new routes to West Lothian Buses commenced creating new links between Edinburgh and Bathgate, and Edinburgh Park station and Whitburn.

Lothian Buses have operated city tours using white liveried coaches.

Lothian Buses operated open top tours in Oxford and Cambridge under the Classic Tour identity.

In June 2018, Lothian Buses returned to the coach charter market after a 19-year absence through a new subsidiary named Lothian Buses Motorcoaches that commenced with five Plaxton Panther bodied Volvo B11Rs and three-second-hand Van Hool bodied Volvo B12MTs.

The design of the livery used by Lothian Buses Motorcoaches was not related to the other brands of the group, being entirely dark grey with silver lettering, although the Airlink service is operated with dark-blue Enviro400 XLBs, in a font similar to the Motorcoaches brand.

From 5 November 2016, East Coast Lothian Buses introduced its own nightbus service under the NightHawk brand, to North Berwick and Dunbar.

Lothian Buses' services have been integrated with Edinburgh Trams, since the trams commenced operation in 2014 – both are managed by Transport for Edinburgh, with Lothian Buses serving interchange with the trams at various locations.

Edinburgh Corporation and Lothian Buses have historically employed a high degree of standardisation of their service bus fleet, including the use of low-floor buses to facilitate maintenance savings.

In 2017, Lothian Buses introduced six Wright StreetAir battery electric buses for route 1, replacing the Volvo 7900Hs.

Historically Lothian has purchased new buses for its regular services across Edinburgh, however in 2018, the company purchased 50 Wright Eclipse Gemini 2 bodied Volvo B9TLs from Tower Transit and Metroline, which were heavily refurbished before the first of the batch entered service in April.

Lothian Buses are active members of the Bustracker system and are responsible for the funding of it as well as being partly responsible for the operation of it.