We recently met with senior representatives of First Bus to discuss the 38/x38 service running through Kirkliston.
This was on the back of our work to help secure the new Lothian Country service in Queensferry and our commitment to push for a direct Lothians service between Kirkliston and Edinburgh. First Bus were keen to discuss their existing service.
From our own experiences of using the service and comments from other local residents, we were able to explain that for the majority of travellers the service performs well, with friendly drivers and wifi as standard. There is also much improved reliability from where we were even a few years ago with missing buses and times way off schedule.
However the fundamental issue for residents in Kirkliston is that they still pay more for a single journey into Edinburgh than their neighbours just a couple of miles along the road to get into Edinbirgh. More importantly, there’s no through-ticket option to change buses once in the city centre to complete a journey to work or elsewhere in the north and south of the city.
There is a real need for a single ticket/pass that would allow these staggered journeys – no more than people in Queensferry can do from Lothian Country to Lothian.
We had very encouraging discussions with the First Bus team around the introduction of a ‘one ticket’ system. This could see the main bus companies sign up to a ticket that could be used across Lothian, First and Stagecoach. While this would cost a little more, the day ticket is expected to be only £1 more than the price of a single provider day ticket.
The initiative has seen a successful launch in Glasgow and we are hopeful of seeing this idea develop here in early 2018. Both of us have asked for careful consideration to be given to reasonable pricing for a monthly ticket so as to support those with a daily commute into Edinburgh who have to depend on more that one bus company to get to work (or indeed other appointments).
We will keep Kirkliston residents informed as the idea develops.