One of the first buses to venture out of the shed, on Friday the 24th of January; the day much of Scotland came to a halt, owing to storm Eowyn.

No buses or trains operated after 10am, until around tea time when one or two started to appear. Shops, schools, many restaurants and bars, and leisure centres did not open at all on this day.

A virtually empty Volvo B9TL Wrightbus Gemini 2, number 391 (SN11 EEA) is seen on Dundas Street, having just started in service at Canonmills.

Note the new, larger font size on the destination screen, one of only a few to have been fitted to Lothian's buses, away from the newer, electric fleet.

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Wishing everyone a very Happy New Year.

All the very best for a great 2025 and lots of great photography.

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Plan A: Nice sunny day, off-work, and I see my one electric ‘to get’, number 703e (in the 700/711 batch) is on Service 24.

I wanted to try and capture this on the 24, notably at the West Granton terminus and so headed down there in plenty of time. Keeping an eye on the route map I observed that 703e had become very late in the central area of town, and Gemini 2 368 had caught up alongside it, the two of them bunching and remaining together for the rest of the journey. This of course is never a good sign for us enthusiasts, and I kept a close eye on what might happen at the Crewe Toll roundabout. It would just be my poor luck if 703e is the one to be turned round, and sure enough!

Plan B: Back into the Beetle and where to next? Ah; the Western General Hospital is always good and the sun would be in the right position in the autumn afternoon. Parked the Beetle and positioned myself in nice time for this shot. Mission accomplished, and thank-you Lord!

Volvo BZL electric, number 703e (SF74 YLZ) is back on time, on Crewe Road.

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At last! The problem has been solved and, in partnership with the Council, Lothian’s display boards at bus stops are now, gradually, starting show the actual times of arrivals.

This has been a major problem, especially during this year, as we lost the detail (as was the case on the old boards types) of actually when buses are due to arrive, with the boards merely stating what was already on the timetable. If the bus didn’t arrive on time, 1 minute later the detail would disappear! Several minutes later that bus would then arrive and the confusion was total! Now, gradually, all is being sorted, but one can only wonder why this was not done in the first place.

This is the board on Home Street, for everyone to see clearly what is happening when! What a difference and the boards are actually very good.

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Edinburgh's new fleet of thirty tour buses came in to service in September 2016, all except two of them, numbers 249 and 250 which arrived a little later. These remain unbranded specifically to any of the tour routes and so can be more versatile than the others. 250 has, in the past, had wrap-around vinyls for the Festival Fringe but at the moment is an albino.

Volvo B5TL / Wright Eclipse Gemini 3 number 250 (SJ66 LJP) is resting on Regent Road, under Calton Hill.

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