Lothian Buses: Lothian Country Buses

English: Lothian Country Buses, formerly East Lothian Buses, is a subsidiary of Lothian Buses. Formed in June 2012 to take over services de-registered by First East Scotland, it runs routes into the rural areas around Edinburgh beyond the places previously reached by the main Lothian fleet.

fleetnumbers & registrations

Tridents No. 592 (X592 USC) - sold No. 635 (SK52 OGT) No. 636 (SK52 OGU) No. 637 (SK52 OGV) - returned to main fleet No. 638 (SK52 OGW) - returned to main fleet No. 639 (SK52 OGX) - returned to main fleet B7RLEs No. 171 (SN60 EOD) No. 172 (SN60 EOE) No. 173 (SN60 EOF) No. 174 (SN60 EOG) No. 175 (LB60 BUS) No. 195 (SN62 BNY) No. 196 (SN62 BPV) No. 197 (SN62 BTF) No. 198 (SN62 BUF) No. 199 (LB62 BUS) B9TLs No. 937 (SN10 DKE) No. 938 (SN10 DKF)

Establishment

The operation was set up with a temporary allocation of six buses drawn from the Trident / President fleet - No.s 592 and 635-9, painted allover white. It operated on a license held by Edinburgh Shuttle Ltd, a reactivation of the legal entity previously used for the Edinburgh Shuttle airport service. The 6xx buses received 'eastLothianbuses.com' fleetnames in the same style as the main fleet, while 592 was simply blank, as the spare bus. These ran the first route operated, the 113 from the Western General Hospital to Pencaitland, from 11 June 2012.

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  Trident ? in white with eastLothianbuses.com fleetname, seen on the A6903 working the 113 to Pencaitland on 21 Aug 2012

New buses & livery

In October 2012 a bath of five new 62-registered B7RLE / Eclipse Urban 2's arrived, No.s 195-199, wearing a green/cream livery in the same style as the main fleet livery, and also with eastLothianbuses.com fleetnames. In addition, they had roofline route branding for the 113, detailing the main points - Western General - Ediburgh City Centre - Meadowbank - Willowbrae - Musselburgh - Tranent - Ormiston - Pencaitland, but 195 has since had this removed. These replaced Tridents 592 and 637-9. The two remaining Tridents were retained as peak hour buses, receiving the same full livery in October 2013, but without branding.

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  B7RLE 195 on display at the Scottish Vintage Bus Museum on 18 Aug 2013 in green/cream livery with eastLothianbuses.com fleetname, and route 113 roofline branding
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  Trident 636 seen in green/cream livery with eastLothianbuses.com fleetname in Princes Street, working route 113 to Pencaitland on 3 Mar 2014

Renamed Lothian Country Buses, more new buses & new route

Mirroring the December 2013 rebranding of the main fleet as 'Lothian Buses' in the new Transport for Edinburgh style, the East Lothian fleet received the TfE style fleetname 'Lothian Country Buses'. This followed the 22 August 2013 renaming of the legal operator to Lothian Country Buses Ltd. On 7 September 2014, the second route began operation, the 104 from the West End (Melville Street) to Haddington. For this route, five 60 registered B7RLE / Eclipse Urban 2's, No.s 171-5, were repainted out of standard livery and into LCB green/cream. The first four also carry roofline branding for the 104 - Edinburgh City Centre - Meadowbank - Willowbrae - Wallyford - Tranent - Macmerry - Haddington. Due to frequency increases, in March 2015 two buses from the 10-registered B9TL / Gemini 2 batch were added to the fleet, No.s 937 & 938, being repainted from Airlink blue livery into LCB green/cream.

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  Route 113 branded 62-reg B7RLE seen in Musselburgh High Street working to Western General on 14 Sep 2014
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  No. 173 seen in Princes Street, working route 104 to Haddington on 10 Nov 2014