Eastern Scottish Limited Alexander Dennis Enviro 400
A day of rest….or a date of infamy…
Another view of 8962 (YX62BCK) showing its new livery. These will be the first buses to bear the new Eastern Scottish livery and will hopefully mark the start of the rebirth of the company.
However my attention was drawn to one of the recruitment posters on the rear of the bus which is promising ‘no Sunday shifts’. That may surprise you….well it shouldn’t. And that’s because from May 8th there will be no Sunday services on any Eastern Scottish services.
New owners McGill’s have announced a ‘network review’ which is corporate speak for service changes. However this review is brutal. Indeed the infamous and much unfairly derided Dr Beeching would probably think this review was a touch harsh.
It’s clear that Eastern Scottish isn’t a company with its problems to seek. Driver recruitment and retention is a major problem and even Lothian is struggling there too.
So to stem the losses and improve reliability, it’s taken the drastic step to cease services on Sunday. Although there are some operators that don’t run on Sundays for various reasons it’s unusual for an operator to cease to run services on a Sunday that had been running them before.
Of course this has enraged the good people of West Lothian and their elected representatives who are now facing the prospect of no public transport running in various communities. As you can imagine, they’ve been very angrily denouncing the move which they will say hit the most vulnerable hardest.
McGill’s argue - and with some justification - that not enough people were travelling on a Sunday and as a result the services were incurring considerable losses. It’s odd though as Sunday services in other parts of Scotland, particularly in the cities can be quite busy. Livingston is after all quite a busy shopping destination. However by consolidating their staff on other days they can improve performance on those days. It may also help recruiting too as it may make it more attractive if new recruits can get every Sunday off.
Of course the detractors point out that the reason folk may not have been travelling is that the services were so unreliable that folk were making alternative arrangements. And there’s a suggestion this could be a move to force the local authority into subsidising services.
However although West Lothian Council has stumped up some funds for services on other days it’s shown no real want or desire to provide funds for Sunday services, or even offer tenders for alternative operators. So an impasse has been reached.
It’s a tricky one this. I can see both sides but the current situation helps no one. I’m not sure how you encourage folk to use the bus by taking them off en masse but at the same time, if not enough folk are travelling then it’s unsustainable. But either way, a large swathe of east central Scotland is facing limited public transport options this coming Sunday (14/5/2023). I hope it can be resolved,
Eastern Scottish Limited Alexander Dennis Enviro 400
A day of rest….or a date of infamy…
Another view of 8962 (YX62BCK) showing its new livery. These will be the first buses to bear the new Eastern Scottish livery and will hopefully mark the start of the rebirth of the company.
However my attention was drawn to one of the recruitment posters on the rear of the bus which is promising ‘no Sunday shifts’. That may surprise you….well it shouldn’t. And that’s because from May 8th there will be no Sunday services on any Eastern Scottish services.
New owners McGill’s have announced a ‘network review’ which is corporate speak for service changes. However this review is brutal. Indeed the infamous and much unfairly derided Dr Beeching would probably think this review was a touch harsh.
It’s clear that Eastern Scottish isn’t a company with its problems to seek. Driver recruitment and retention is a major problem and even Lothian is struggling there too.
So to stem the losses and improve reliability, it’s taken the drastic step to cease services on Sunday. Although there are some operators that don’t run on Sundays for various reasons it’s unusual for an operator to cease to run services on a Sunday that had been running them before.
Of course this has enraged the good people of West Lothian and their elected representatives who are now facing the prospect of no public transport running in various communities. As you can imagine, they’ve been very angrily denouncing the move which they will say hit the most vulnerable hardest.
McGill’s argue - and with some justification - that not enough people were travelling on a Sunday and as a result the services were incurring considerable losses. It’s odd though as Sunday services in other parts of Scotland, particularly in the cities can be quite busy. Livingston is after all quite a busy shopping destination. However by consolidating their staff on other days they can improve performance on those days. It may also help recruiting too as it may make it more attractive if new recruits can get every Sunday off.
Of course the detractors point out that the reason folk may not have been travelling is that the services were so unreliable that folk were making alternative arrangements. And there’s a suggestion this could be a move to force the local authority into subsidising services.
However although West Lothian Council has stumped up some funds for services on other days it’s shown no real want or desire to provide funds for Sunday services, or even offer tenders for alternative operators. So an impasse has been reached.
It’s a tricky one this. I can see both sides but the current situation helps no one. I’m not sure how you encourage folk to use the bus by taking them off en masse but at the same time, if not enough folk are travelling then it’s unsustainable. But either way, a large swathe of east central Scotland is facing limited public transport options this coming Sunday (14/5/2023). I hope it can be resolved,