🎄 Merry Christmas to all 🎄
🎅 I wish you all to have the most wonderful Christmas 2023
Lothian Country's 1044 (LXZ 5431), a ZF Ecolife D9B Volvo B9TL Wright Eclipse Gemini 2, seen here operating the festive variation of the service 72 to Kirkliston via Uphall Station, Uphall, Broxburn and Winchburgh.
1044 was new to First Centrewest in late to mid 2010 as their "VN37930" and was registered as "BF60 VJU". 1044 predominantly operated the service 18 which operated between Sudbury and Euston.
VJU was later sold to Metroline in *2013, due to the demise of First Capital. VN37930 then was acquainted the new fleet number of "VW1882".
In 2017, 50 Gemini 2's, in the same batch as 1044, 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.
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.
September 2023 it was announced that Lothian Country would be starting 2 new services from October 15th in partnership with West Lothian Council and Winchburgh housing association.
This saw Lothian Country introduce the brand new 72 service which operates between Kirkliston and Livingston, the Centre, via Winchburgh, Broxburn, Uphall, Uphall Golf Course, Knightsridge Fastlink, Ladywell Fastlink, St John's Hospital and Howden.
Additional, this saw Lothian Country take over the X40 service from Horsburgh and has been rerouted to serve Mid Calder, East Calder, Calderwood and Westside Plaza. The new X40 operates between Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and St John's Hospital via Ferniehill, Gilmerton, Edinburgh City Bypass, Clovenstone, Westside Plaza, A71, Hermiston Park & Ride, Hermiston, Dalmahoy, Wilkieston, Calderwood, East Calder (Main Street), Mid Calder (Ochiltree Crescent), Livingston Road (A899) and Livingston the Centre.
Late October 2023 Lothian Country announced that they would be introducing 2 new services on Sunday, December 3rd 2023, and extend the service 72. This is due to McGill's Eastern Scottish's announcement that they would be ceasing all West Lothian services by December 4th. This started with the withdrawal of the services X22 and X24 from October 16th and services 21, 23, 25 and 26 from December 4th. Since McGill's did not operate any Sunday services, bar the 31 which the sunday service was withdrawn October 15th, the last day for services operating was October 13th (X22 and X24) then December 2nd (21, 23, 25 and 26).
The new 73 operates between Livingston and Blackburn, with some journeys operating to J4M8, via Alderstone Road, St John's Hospital, Deans South, Tesco Distribution Centre (A89) and Bathgate.
The new 74 operates between Livingston and Fauldhouse via Dedridge West, Bellsquary, Polbeth, West Calder, Addiewell, Stoneyburn, Bents and Longridge.
The extended 72 operates between Fauldhouse and Kirkliston via Longridge, Whitburn, East Whitburn, Blackburn, Seafield, Eliburn, Alderstone Road, Livingston the Centre, Howden, St John's Hospital, Houstoun Industrial Estate, Pumpherston, Uphall Station, Uphall, Broxburn and Winchburgh.
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 Pumpherston Turning Circle on Monday 25th December 2023.
Registration (Current): LXZ 5431
Registration (Previous): BF60 VJU
Fleet No.: 1044
Company (Current): Lothian Country
Companies (Previous): First Centrewest, Metroline
Chassis: Volvo B9TL
Engine: D9B
Body: Eclipse Gemini 2
Manufacturer: Wright Bus
New: November 2010
Location Taken: Pumpherston, Turning Circle
Route Operating: 72
Direction: Kirkliston, Kirklands Park.
