First Scotland East (T/A Bright Bus Tours) DAF SB250LF/Plaxton President
The buses of Scotland - Bright Bus Tours
Bright Bus Tours, a trading name of First Scotland East, is a tour operator running sightseeing tours in Edinburgh. But it owes its existence to Lothian Buses and that company’s decision to move into West Lothian. Following First’s decision to sell its operations in East Lothian and in the Scottish Borders to Lothian Buses and West Coast Motors, this left what was left of First Scotland East’s (FSE) focusing on its operations in Livingston - a new town just west of Edinburgh - and the rest of West Lothian.
Now what then in turn prompted Lothian Buses to decide to go into West Lothian and compete with FSE is up for debate. Some say a change in management and the desire to extend Lothian Buses award-winning standards to the surrounding areas. After all, it should be recalled that although Lothian Buses is majority owned by the City of Edinburgh Council, East Lothian, Midlothian and West Lothian Councils have a stake in it too. Others say that they spotted an opportunity with a weakened company with First going through their own troubles. Whatever the case Lothian decided it was going into West Lothian. And going in hard.
Lothian’s first steps into West Lothian proper - it did run a few services that could technically be counted as running into West Lothian at the extreme city limits - were tentative. It transplanted it’s Lothian Country business and trading name from East Lothian to West Lothian following the formation of East Coast Buses.
Lothian took on services to South Queensferry on the banks of the River Forth, west of Edinburgh. These had been services originally run by FSE but had in turn been given up by them when it closed its Linlithgow depot but in turn then struggled to run them from the Livingston depot they’d been moved to. Stagecoach in Fife then ran them for a while but even they struggled to make the numbers add up, suggesting they weren’t the most profitable services. Lothian Country began running them and this seems to be the catalyst for its expansion into West Lothian.
In early 2018, services began in West Lothian and they grew and grew. A depot in Livingston was then opened so it was clear for all to see that Lothian was in for the long haul here. It was then left to see what FSE would do. Initially it seemed very little would happen. FSE made some service changes to consolidate its position and began plans to speed up the repainting of the fleet into the newer First Urban blue-based livery. Various Streetlites began to arrive from First Bristol to modernise the fleet. But on top of that behind the scenes at FSE, plans were afoot....
In a bold move, FSE decided to hit back at Lothian by hitting one of its most profitable aspects, its city tours business. To do this it scoured the country to secure decent open-top vehicles such as 35013 (MXZ3386) seen here, which was new to Arriva London North as a closed top-bus as its DLP13 (T213XBV). Some of the vehicles FSE acquired to run its tours were actually new to Lothian Buses but then sold off by them.
The livery selected was a bright orange livery and is marketed as Bright Bus Tours. It uses a bright colour scheme - the orange colour is actually Strathclyde’s Buses orange - or Strathclyde Red to be strictly accurate. It also features pictures of Edinburgh land marks and tour prices but no mention of First on the branding. That’s a deliberate policy as it’s was felt the First brand wasn’t the right one to use. The only clue to them being FSE buses are the fleetnumbers and legal lettering. The buses run into Edinburgh from FSE’s Livingston depot and run daily. They compete with Lothian’s more established tours but offer a slightly cheaper tour covering all the major sights.
It’s an interesting move here by First. The tour itself will probably not make much money - if any - but it will impact Lothian and cause it to lose money it would have expected to receive. Whether First will extend the Bright Bus concept to other cities is questionable. But with Lothian’s incursions into West Lothian apparently proving not to be as lucrative as it expected, whether it’ll agree to withdraw from parts of West Lothian in return for FSE removing Bright Bus may be the preferred option to suit both parties. But it explains why an offshoot of FSE runs tours in Edinburgh but owes its existence to Lothian Buses.
First Scotland East (T/A Bright Bus Tours) DAF SB250LF/Plaxton President
The buses of Scotland - Bright Bus Tours
Bright Bus Tours, a trading name of First Scotland East, is a tour operator running sightseeing tours in Edinburgh. But it owes its existence to Lothian Buses and that company’s decision to move into West Lothian. Following First’s decision to sell its operations in East Lothian and in the Scottish Borders to Lothian Buses and West Coast Motors, this left what was left of First Scotland East’s (FSE) focusing on its operations in Livingston - a new town just west of Edinburgh - and the rest of West Lothian.
Now what then in turn prompted Lothian Buses to decide to go into West Lothian and compete with FSE is up for debate. Some say a change in management and the desire to extend Lothian Buses award-winning standards to the surrounding areas. After all, it should be recalled that although Lothian Buses is majority owned by the City of Edinburgh Council, East Lothian, Midlothian and West Lothian Councils have a stake in it too. Others say that they spotted an opportunity with a weakened company with First going through their own troubles. Whatever the case Lothian decided it was going into West Lothian. And going in hard.
Lothian’s first steps into West Lothian proper - it did run a few services that could technically be counted as running into West Lothian at the extreme city limits - were tentative. It transplanted it’s Lothian Country business and trading name from East Lothian to West Lothian following the formation of East Coast Buses.
Lothian took on services to South Queensferry on the banks of the River Forth, west of Edinburgh. These had been services originally run by FSE but had in turn been given up by them when it closed its Linlithgow depot but in turn then struggled to run them from the Livingston depot they’d been moved to. Stagecoach in Fife then ran them for a while but even they struggled to make the numbers add up, suggesting they weren’t the most profitable services. Lothian Country began running them and this seems to be the catalyst for its expansion into West Lothian.
In early 2018, services began in West Lothian and they grew and grew. A depot in Livingston was then opened so it was clear for all to see that Lothian was in for the long haul here. It was then left to see what FSE would do. Initially it seemed very little would happen. FSE made some service changes to consolidate its position and began plans to speed up the repainting of the fleet into the newer First Urban blue-based livery. Various Streetlites began to arrive from First Bristol to modernise the fleet. But on top of that behind the scenes at FSE, plans were afoot....
In a bold move, FSE decided to hit back at Lothian by hitting one of its most profitable aspects, its city tours business. To do this it scoured the country to secure decent open-top vehicles such as 35013 (MXZ3386) seen here, which was new to Arriva London North as a closed top-bus as its DLP13 (T213XBV). Some of the vehicles FSE acquired to run its tours were actually new to Lothian Buses but then sold off by them.
The livery selected was a bright orange livery and is marketed as Bright Bus Tours. It uses a bright colour scheme - the orange colour is actually Strathclyde’s Buses orange - or Strathclyde Red to be strictly accurate. It also features pictures of Edinburgh land marks and tour prices but no mention of First on the branding. That’s a deliberate policy as it’s was felt the First brand wasn’t the right one to use. The only clue to them being FSE buses are the fleetnumbers and legal lettering. The buses run into Edinburgh from FSE’s Livingston depot and run daily. They compete with Lothian’s more established tours but offer a slightly cheaper tour covering all the major sights.
It’s an interesting move here by First. The tour itself will probably not make much money - if any - but it will impact Lothian and cause it to lose money it would have expected to receive. Whether First will extend the Bright Bus concept to other cities is questionable. But with Lothian’s incursions into West Lothian apparently proving not to be as lucrative as it expected, whether it’ll agree to withdraw from parts of West Lothian in return for FSE removing Bright Bus may be the preferred option to suit both parties. But it explains why an offshoot of FSE runs tours in Edinburgh but owes its existence to Lothian Buses.