Lothian Buses: 100 Years and Beyond

As capital of Scotland, Edinburgh has always boasted a bus service to be proud of. The municipal operator survived deregulation and avoided becoming part of the big bus groups that expanded rapidly throughout the UK. The company transformed from Edinburgh Corporation Transport into Lothian Region Transport and subsequently Lothian Buses, with a wide network of routes expanding throughout not just Edinburgh, but the whole of the Lothian area. Most recently the company has split into a ‘family’ of operating groups not only providing core bus services in the city, East Lothian, Midlothian and West Lothian, but also a large range of city and out-of-town open-top tours and coach excursions. It also boasts a heritage fleet of old Edinburgh vintage vehicles as well as superbly restored London-liveried Routemasters available for private hires. Here, Richard Walter looks at the Lothian Buses story. A range of rare and previously unpublished images from the present and the past explore how the vehicles, the routes and the locations have changed over the second part of the company’s first hundred years.