Lothian Country's 1032 (LXZ 5418), a ZF Ecolife D9B Volvo B9TL Wright Eclipse Gemini 2, seen here navigating the grounds of St John's Hospital, on the service X27 to Edinburgh, Regent Road, via Howden, Livingston the Centre, Dedridge West, Dedridge East, Mid Calder, East Calder, Calderwood, Wilkieston, Dalmahoy, Sighthill, Gorgie, Lothian Road and Princes Street.
1032 was new to First Centrewest in late to mid 2010 as their "VN37920" with a registration of "BF60 VJA". 1032 predominantly operated the service 18 which operated between Sudbury and Euston.
VJA was later sold to Metroline in *2013, due to the demise of First Capital. VN37920 then was acquainted the new fleet number of "VW1872".
In 2017, 50 Gemini 2's, in the same batch as 1032, were all sold to Lothian Buses. However, this wasn't before 48 of them were sent to WrightBus in Ballymena, Northern Ireland, to receive an extensive refurbishment to high quality Lothian specifications.
The other two, 1001 and 1002, were refurbished at Thorntons in Ashington, England.
All 50 received private registrations which appear as "LXZ 53××" and "LXZ 54××".
25 were sent to Lothian Buses Central depot and all started working in Edinburgh between June and September 2018. The other 25 were sent to Lothian Country which started working West Lothian local routes, in August 2018, from the Longstone depot. This was until the purchase of the Livingston depot in March 2019. I'll discuss more later on.
The Gemini 2s from London were mostly bought of Metroline, which were previously owned by First Centrewest. Two of them from the first batch, 1001 & 1002, were previously owned by Go-Ahead London. These were purchased to upgrade their fleet as well as to provide Lothian Country with buses to operate their new, at the time, West Lothian services; X27, X28 and 275, which commenced operations on Sunday, 19th August 2018.
The first batch were 1001 - 1050. They began entering service in July 2018. The following two months saw the rest of the ex Londoners entered service. Lothian Country's ones were the last ones that required to enter service, they started entering service in August 2018 and were all in service by late September 2018.
These buses are rather unique to Lothian Buses for a couple of reasons. They have a shorter body than the usual double deck vehicles found in Lothian's native fleet. In Lothian's double deck fleet, their vehichles usually range from the lengths 11.3 - 11.5 meters, whereas the ex London B9TL's are only 10.8 meters long. Additionally, they have a ZF transmission instead of a Voith which all Lothian's Volvo B9TL Chassis had, up 'till this point.
Out of the 50 buses:
25 of them went to Lothian Buses in their Central depot, these were; 1001 - 1002, 1005 - 1012, 1014 - 1027 and 1050. The remaining 25 found themselves at Lothian Country, these were; 1003, 1004, 1013 and 1028 - 1049.
The next batch of ex London B9TL's entered service in May 2019 (1000 and 1141 - 1153), these are different than the previous batch as these have an exit middle door, minus 1000. These have so far remained their entire Lothian Buses life the the Marine depot in Seafield apart from 1000 which was sent to Central in 2019 then transferred to Longstone in 2020 then subsequently back to Central in 2021.
One thing to note, in 2021 we saw 1031 be off the road for many months to have its gearbox replaced.
Throughout the late part of 2022 and early part of 2023, we seen the vast majority of Lothian Country's ex Londoners receive the new joint livery with East Coast Buses. They've all been repainted. 1033 - 1049 have remained with Lothian Country, but 1003, 1004, 1013, 1028, 1030, 1031 and 1032 have been painted into Lothian's maroon and white livery and transferred to Lothian Buses.
1003, 1004, 1013, 1028 and 1030 - 1032 all operate out of Lothian Buses Marine depot, with 1003, 1004 and 1013 having a brief spell at Central.
Notes:
1029 was withdrawn in July of 2019 following a collision with a low hanging bridge in Fauldhouse. 1029 was subsequently scrapped. 1029 was housed in Livingston prior to this.
This photo was taken at St John's Hospital, on the 23th of September 2022.
Registration: LXZ 5418
Fleet No.: 1032
Company (Current): Lothian Buses
Companies (Previous): First Centrewest, Metroline
Chassis: Volvo B9TL
Engine: D9B
Body: Eclipse Gemini 2
Manufacturer: Wright Bus
New: November 2010
Route Operating: X27
Direction: Edinburgh, Regent Road.
