Lothian Buses: An Era of Change in Edinburgh
About this ebook
The company’s maintenance standards are sufficiently high that after 15 years of daily service withdrawn vehicles are valued by the second hand vehicle market and continue in further service with operators for a number of years before being scrapped. while 15 years is the normal working life with the company, this is being shortened as new vehicles are introduced to meet the zero carbon commitment. These changes have increased between 2011 and 2022 and the book illustrates them by photographs of the transport fleets – both buses and trams - operated during that period of change.
The operator tries to remain loyal to one supplier but changes within the industry have resulted in a number of different vehicles being purchased; the rationale of the change in supplier is documented as the company returns to previous suppliers.
The local transport scene has also seen services disrupted as operators providing services from outside the city boundaries have discontinued services leading to the city operator creating subsidiary companies to provide replacement services. These operate buses initially operated by the city fleet albeit adopting different livery styles that identify their relationship to the city’s transport network.
About the author
Fred Kerr was born in Edinburgh in 1948 where he gained an interest in railway locomotives from both the LMSR and LNER companies whose services permeated the local network. When his parents moved to Corby in 1956 the local steelworks provided further interest from its mix of freight services, including seeing the last of the Beyer Garrets and the replacement Standard Class 9Fs whilst the industrial locomotives of the internal steelworks network offered further insight into the variety of steam locomotives. This was a time of change and during the 1960s the interest in locomotives included the new order of diesel and electric traction without reducing the interest in steam traction. While his interest in Diesel Traction led to his early involvement with the Diesel & Electric Group and its preservation activities during the 1970s, his move to Southport in 1982 restored his opportunities to return to his first love of viewing steam locomotives at work and this album records some of the locations that he chose to visit and the locomotives that he was able to photograph.Today his interest continues as a life member of the A4 Locomotive Society, Keighley & Worth Valley Railway and Ribble Steam Railway whilst he also support bodies concerned with preserving steam locomotives, diesel locomotives and infrastructure extensions.
