Criss-Crossing the City of Edinburgh
Part One
8 September 2024
ABOVE: Lothian Buses 629 (SJ21 MZT), a Volvo B5TL ADL Enviro400 MMC, passes along HIgH Street, Musselburgh, just after 8am, with a trip on route 44 towards Balerno, on the other side of Edinburgh. It will take about 90 minutes to reach the other end. All photos in this article taken on Wednesday 13 September 2023.
With the number of trips that I undertake each year, there are always going to be some that don't make it onto The View from the Top Deck at all, and there will be others that don't see the light of day quite as soon as they probably deserve to. And today's journey comes into the latter category.
As my regular reader will know, I spent a week in Glasgow last year (see the range of articles in the "Scotland" section of the Regional Index for details). I popped into Edinburgh one day during that week, to ride, amongst other things, the trams and the autonomous bus across the Forth Bridge.
But it was a relatively late decision to bolt two extra nights in Edinburgh onto the end of the trip. And maybe that's why, a few days after that brief visit, my full day on the buses in Edinburgh is starting in Duddingston Mills, on the eastern side of the city; this is where I am staying, as I haven't been able to find 'acceptable' (to me) accommodation in the City Centre.
It's not too bad an area. We're south of the suburb of Northfield, and just under two-and-a-half miles from the Royal Mile in the City Centre. Duddingston Forge, "the Edinburgh Blacksmith", is just across the road. There can't be that many Blacksmiths still trading in this day and age. And we're only a stone's throw from Holyrood Park, but of course I don't get around to going to have a look at that!
I'm going to spend the day with Lothian Buses, mainly exploring the suburbs of Edinburgh. Lothian is the largest municipal bus operator in the UK. The City of Edinburgh Council owns 91%, with surrounding councils owning the rest. The main operation has over 500 buses covering 65 routes, some of which are on impressively high frequencies. There are separate subsidiary operations as well.
ABOVE: One of the subsidiary operations of Lothian Buses is East Coast Buses, represented here by 945 (SN10 DKX), a Volvo B9TL Wright Eclipse Gemini 2, on the A1 Willowbrae Road in Duddingston Mills. It is working route X6, a long-distance service from Haddington, 17 miles from Edinburgh.
I am determined that I'm not going to start by heading straight into the City Centre, so I'm catching the number 44 away from town towards Musselburgh. It's not quite 0745, but things are busy, both on the main road (which is near one end of the A1, the longest numbered road in Britain, which ends in London), and on the bus when it arrives.
Like most (all?) local services, the 44 does not terminate in the City Centre, but provides a cross-City link from Balerno, in the south-west of the city, to Wallyford, in the east. Feels like a long run to me - 15 miles plus in total. Buses run every 12 minutes on this busy route.
The bus this morning is a smart and modern Volvo B5TL ADL Enviro400 MMC (virtually the whole Lothian fleet is Volvo-based). Mine is only going to be a short ride, and it doesn't take long to cross the border from the City of Edinburgh into East Lothian, on the edge of Musselburgh.
ABOVE: Lothian Bus 472 (SF17 VNH), a Volvo B5TL Wright Eclipse Gemini 3, calls at the Edinburgh Road stop on the outskirts of Musselburgh, on route 26 (Clerwood to Seton Sands / Tranent). The bus carries discreet advertising (the green poster) for Edinburgh Zoo (which the 26 serves).
We're on the coast of the Firth of Forth at this point, and Musselburgh Beach looks very peaceful at this early part of the morning.
ABOVE: Musselburgh Beach, looking broadly north-east
A bridge takes us across the River Esk and into the town of Musselburgh itself. The High Kirk of St Andrews makes an imposing sight as we cross.
ABOVE: The High Kirk of St Andrews, Musselburgh. The clock is a couple fo hours adrift - it's only 8am!
I've only been on the bus for 16 minutes when it reaches Musselburgh High Street. It's a busy place at 8am, as schoolchildren and workers head for their destinations for the day. Both Greggs and Costa Coffee are busy!
I'm doubling back on myself briefly, on route 26. This is a 10-minute interval service, and it's pretty busy as well. I'm on a Volvo B5TL Wright Eclipse Gemini 3, which has come from either Seton Sands or Tranent - probably the latter if it's the 0810 service (it's just gone quarter-past as I board). There are two TV information screens built into the front of the upper deck, which reduces visibility somewhat; one of the screens isn't working.
We head north and cling to the Firth of Forth coast as far as Portobello, before turning west towards the City Centre. As full daylight is established, the views are amazing.
ABOVE: Seaview Terrace, between Musselburgh and Portobello, and looking towards Portobello Beach and the Firth of Forth. On the right-hand side of the road is Joppa Pans layby, for terminating buses on route 19 (Granton Square to Portobello), and the ADL Enviro400 MMC on the right (which will be on a Volvo chassis) is probably between turns on route 19. The Volvo B5TL Wright Eclipse Gemini 3 is on a route 26 run back to Musselburgh and on to Tranent. The far coast in the distance is likely to be Fife - perhaps Kinghorn. One needs to cross the Forth Bridge to get there (or swim)!
Again, this is a short trip, and I reach Portobello at 0832. This suburb was considered by a Sunday Times panel in 2021 to be one of the top eight places to live in Scotland.
My attention is caught by the Police Station building. Grade B-listed (the Scottish listing system is different from that south of the border), it was built as the Town Hall, and converted into a Police Station in the 1960s. Unfortunately, it has ceased to be used as an operational station in the last decade, and has just been approved for sale by Police Scotland.
ABOVE: The former Police Station building in Portobello High Street. It's rather later than 7.50, as shown on the clock face.
I'm here to catch the number 12 bus to the Gyle Centre. It looks like a good way to see more of Edinburgh, as it's a long and indirect route (see map below) through the suburbs.
It's not high-frequency, though. I'm lucky, as I have arrived in time for the 0839 service; the next one is scheduled for 0916 (but showing as 45 minutes away on the live departure screen at the stop). This is one of those services where the rush hour frequency has been widened to recognise the greater running times and to avoid having to put an extra bus on. Once the rush hour has passed, buses move into a basic half-hourly pattern.
This is a single-decker and it's already busy when I board, despite having only come three stops from Craigentinny Bus Depot (north of the town centre). Worryingly, three stops into the journey, it is already five minutes late.
It gets steadily busier as we go. The vehicle is a Volvo 7900H, a hybrid electric. Lothian Buses bought 50 of these in 2013/14 so they form a sizeable part of the overall fleet.
I know that this bus is going to cross the path that I have already carved out this morning, but I'm not sure exactly where. It turns out to be in Duddingston Mills, precisely two hundred yards from my hotel. Had I realised that, I might have caught it from there and skipped Musselburgh and Portobello! Glad I didn't miss those places though.
The journey on the 12 turns out not to be particularly noteworthy, although it remains busy. It's a bit of a crawl across the city for almost an hour-and-a-half. We pass near the ruins of a medieval castle in Craigmillar, and through the suburb of Mayfield, the biggest claim to fame for which, accoing to Wikipedia, seems to be that it is one mile south of the City Centre.
We come in through Lothian Road - a southern approach into the City Centre. We just avoid Princes Street (surely the heart of the City?) by turning off one junction before, and heading down the Western Approach Road - now going out of town again. The twisty-turny nature of the route means that we serve a number of bus stops labelled "To City", and then some labelled "From City", before passing more labelled "To City" again!
ABOVE: The Western Approach Road in Edinburgh CIty Centre sees a Volvo 7900H that MIGHT be Lothian Buses 42 (BT64 LHX), on route 12 towards the Gyle Centre. The bridge is the West Approach Footbridge, which would probably have been good for bus photography if only I had thought to go up there! Edinburgh Castle can be seen in the background. There's a coach in the picture as well, but I don't know anything about coaches - despite their huge similarity to buses, they don't do much for me!
We come to Haymarket station, on the western side of the City Centre. Soon afterwards comes the (Scottish Gas) Murrayfield Rugby Stadium:
We pass Edinburgh Zoo, which gives me a reminder that we are now back in line with route 26, which we left in Portobello. If I had stayed on the 26, I would have got here, on its more direct route, at 0912; it is now nearer 0950!
The final part of the journey is the quietest section, as we head through Corstophine, described on Google as a "sprawling residential suburb". There is a 15th-Century Parish Church around here somewhere, representing the heart of the original village.
We're now only just over a mile from the Gyle Centre - due west. But this is the 12, so there's time for one last detour before we get there! We head south towards Broomhouse and Sighthill. We then pass the Edinburgh Park Business Park.
ABOVE: Edinburgh Park Business Park
I have been here before; the autonomous bus of five days previous is quite close by. I did comment, in that earlier article, about the poor quality of the "How to get here by bus" information on the Edinburgh Park website. The offending page does appear to have been removed, but, if you click "Getting Here" now, it takes you straight to a Google map. So you have to figure it out for yourself if not driving (or, I suppose, even if you are driving)!
The 12 reaches the Gyle Centre at 1013 - 10 minutes late. The journey has been consistently busy as far as the City Centre, but this last bit has been far quieter.
For those unfamiliar, the Gyle Centre is an out-of-town shopping centre. The bus station, which is right at the main entrance (makes a change!), acts as an interchange point for various services.
After a run across to the north of the city on route 22 (read about that here), I am back at the Gyle Centre to board route 36, towards Ocean Terminal in Leith.
ABOVE: Lothian Buses 86 (SJ70 HNY), a Volvo B8RLE MCV Evora, stands at the Gyle Centre bus station. Behind is a Volvo B5LH Wright Eclipse Gemini 3, between trips on route 22 to Granton Harbour.
This is another of those convoluted services that digs deep into southern Edinburgh on its way to the City Centre (the direct route would be due east).
The suburb of Craiglockhart is named after the Lockhart family; according to Wikipedia, the Lockharts were credited with building Craiglockhart Castle (now a ruin) in the 15th Century. The oldest structure in the area is the remains of a prehistoric fort on the top of Wester Craiglockhart Hill. The hill is also a Site of Special Scientific Interest due to its diverse biological habitat.
This long-winded journey takes 52 minutes to reach the City Centre. I don't note a huge amount along the way. Maybe I'm too tired, with this being my 10th (and last) consecutive day out on the buses, or maybe there's nothing to note?
I decide to bail out in the City Centre, rather than heading on to the Ocean Terminal.
The day is not done - far from it. But the planned itinerary is complete. I'm now just going to start jumping on buses to see where I end up. And you may know, Dear Reader, how confusing and tricky it can become when I'm travelling without a plan.
But most of the buses around here run into the CIty Centre, so how can I go wrong? As I say, most buses run into the City Centre...
TO BE CONTINUED...
ABOVE: Several buses can be picked out in this view of the magnificent Princes Street, Edinburgh. On the left, the second set of rear wheels can be detected on extended-length Lothian Buses 1126 (SB19 GLK), a Volvo B8L ADL Enviro400XLB on route 31 towards Bonnyrigg. In front of it is Lothian 5 (SN13 BDF), a Volvo 7900H on route 1 to Seafield. The front bus on the right is Lothian 657 (SJ71 HJK), a Volvo B5TL ADL Enviro400 MMC, working route 25 towards Herriot-Watt University. and behind that is similar 690 (SJ71 HLG), working route 11 to Hyvots Bank. The Scott Monument, a memorial to the author Sir Walter Scott, can be picked out behind the number 11. The five-star Balmoral Hotel, with its clock tower, dominates the distant landscape, and the pillars of the National Monument of Scotland - a memorial to soldiers and sailors killed in the Napoleonic Wars - can be seen to the left of that.
The approximate routing described in this article is as below, excluding route 22, which is the subject of a separate article. For more of a perspective of Lothian bus routes across the city of Edinburgh, see the operator's Network Map.
