We Are Where We Are!
S M T (Scottish Motor Traction) was based in Edinburgh and, broadly speaking, served a wide area spreading from Central Scotland (West Lothian) via East Lothian and the coast south towards the border with England. Associated companies Western S M T covered the western side of the country south of Glasgow and Central SMT had an odd operating area based round Hamilton and Motherwell but extending along the north bank of the Clyde as far as Dumbarton and Helensburgh.
Pictures of "real" buses with the distinctive diamond logo are rare in colour but, fortunately, good models exist.
Later, the whole caboodle was nationalised together with the former Alexanders empire and MacBraynes to form the Scottish Bus Group. Five brand names could be seen in and around Glasgow as fbb courted his future Mrs; the fifth being Clydeside which had been split off rom Western,
In common with other bus groups in the UK, SMT expanded by acquisition, taking over Starks of Dunbar ...
... Lowland Motorways (long before motorways were big roads coloured blue on the map!) of Glasgow ...
... and Baxters of Airdrie.
This explained how Eastern Scottish buses operated routes in the eastern outer "suburbs" of Glasgow, a fact which mystified fbb when a-wooing he went.
Western Scottish was sold to Stagecoach
Clydeside Scottish to Arriva
Central Scottish to First
Midland Scottish to First
Eastern Scottish (the original SMT) to First
Glasgow Corporation was sold to First
Edinburgh Corporation remains owned by the City as Lothian Regional Transport
Then the bus sell-offs began,
Clydeside to McGills
Part of First Scotland East to Lothian
Part of First Scotland East to Clyde Coast
First Midland Scottish to McGills
McGills have since adopted the brand "Midland Bluebird" for most of the former Midland Scottish business and "Eastern Scottish" for routes in the Livingston area of West Lothian.
The two "launch" liveries are shown above with the Xplore Dundee (former Dundee Corporation) business that McGills bought from National Express.
McGills have expanded considerably and, in recent months, very quickly; and some bus watchers wonder whether their growth has been too fast. The bosses are saying all the right things ...
... BUT ...
... this announcement appeared a week or so back on their web site.
As part of McGills policy of empowering local decision makers, the "review" appears to be a "fait accompli". McGills tell us all what they are doing from May 8th and tough cheese if we don't like it.
And we all know that a "network review" is a noble but poorly disguised way of saying "service cutbacks" and that is indeed what is happening.
But before exploring the changes, fbb decided to renew his past knowledge of bus services in the Livingston Area.
Livingston is the largest town in West Lothian, Scotland. Designated in 1962, it is the fourth post-war new town to be built in Scotland. It is situated approximately fifteen miles west of Edinburgh and thirty miles east of Glasgow, and is close to the towns of Broxburn to the north-east and Bathgate to the north-west.
The town was built around a collection of small villages, Livingston Village (map, centre) ...
... Bellsquarry (bottom centre), and Livingston Station (top left). The town has a number of residential areas. These include Craigshill, Howden, Ladywell, Knightsridge, Deans, Dedridge, Murieston, Almondvale, Eliburn, Kirkton, and Adambrae. There are several large industrial estates in Livingston, including Houston industrial estate, Brucefield Industrial Estate, Alba Business Park, and Kirkton Campus
Livingston Village still exists with a Main Street ...
... that is no longer "main"; and a well hidden ancient Kirk.
So, what about the buses?
Once upon a time West Lothian Council produced an excellent comprehensive timetable book ...
... and a similarly excellent bus map.
But now ...
... nothing of any value. The County does advise reference to Traveline Scotland which, as ever, is only of use if you already know what you want to know. It is about as useless as a chocolate teapot for a helpful overview.
Also on-line you can find the First West Lothian network map ...
... which they no longer operate and, tada, a crude digram of Lothian Regional Transport (LRT a k a Edinburgh Council) routes in the area.
LRT competed unmercifully with First Bus on almost all their routes; but have reined back to the smaller onslaught operating today.
But what is this?
As a special treat there is even a First Bus timetable available for your delectation.
... and a route map for said 26/26A shown below in two bits, west ...
... and east.
A similar route 26 is now operated by McGills, but the route ...
... and the timetable ...
... are very different.
Of course it no longer exists!
So there is no comprehensive network map or timetable source for the Livingston area and a lot of confusion but, as we tend to say ...
It is all on line.
... so that's all right then.
fbb searched, at first in vain, for a McGills network map but no such beast in advertised.
But., surprise, surprise, at least one of McGills on-line routes offers a PDF timetable leaflet ...
... which includes their network map (extract only shown below).
So, yet again, without the help of a safety net, fbb will explore something of the Network Review for May 8th.
It is not a pretty sight!
But, memories, memories, those were the days!
And this was the bus station - the Eastern Scottish bus station.
The real Eastern Scottish produced a comprehensive timetable. 
It was all in the book!
Next McGills Mistake, Maybe blog : Tuesday 18th April
While Livingston's Eastern Scottish era bus station and depot were in a combined building, that picture is clearly of buses over pits in the engineering era. And the comprehensive timetable book chose not to use route number order, but showed each in tables in an unrelated number series. And there were no town maps at all...
ReplyDeleteFirst Scotland East sold part to West Coast Motors and now trade as Border Buses
ReplyDeleteClydeside did not exist in the 1970s, along with Kelvin Scottish and Lowland Scottish, it was a company created to break up SBG into smaller companies for privatisation. The Clydeside area was formerly Western SMT territory.
ReplyDeleteLRT is more than just Edinburgh City Council (actually their bit is owned via Transport for Edinburgh), it is also owned by the other Lothian councils in smaller %.
ReplyDeleteOne of the main issues for any bus operator now in West Lothian is that the improvements in the rail service on both the Bathgate and Shotts routes have no doubt impacted demand on the inter-urban routes.
The McGills Scotland east website for Midland Bluebird and eastern Scottish has a number of comprehensive maps for their networks, including services in 'West Lothian and Livingston'.
ReplyDeleteLothian Regional Transport ceased to exist around deregulation, when it became Lothian Region Transport PLC (losing Al, whoever he may have been, from the Region). Then in 2000 it was renamed Lothian Buses Ltd...
ReplyDeleteClydeside and Kelvin other commentators have mentioned.