Edinburgh Bus Users Group (EBUG) are keeping up the pressure on the council by making a deputation before the meeting of all councillors on Thursday at the City Chambers.
A fire at 109 Princes Street on 9 July brought about the closure of the tram line past the West End stop, and has impacted many bus services which cannot access all of Princes Street. Bus services are diverted along George Street causing considerable congestion.
The council maintain that Princes Street will reopen on Monday taking into account the current weather forecast and by examining the progress of work to shore up the facade of the building ravaged by fire.
EBUG say they are most appreciative of the work of the emergency services, The City of Edinburgh Council officers and Lothian Buses management and drivers.
What they will say to the meeting follows on from two open letters to the council published in July and earlier this month. In the first letter published in full on their website they asked for temporary bus-only lanes on George Street and traffic signal priority at key junctions.
In the second letter at the beginning of August, the group set out its proposed “next steps for Edinburgh’s public transport recovery” after the fire. They asked for a portion of the £5 million to be allocated to stepping up bus prioritisation measures, to setting up temporary bus stops on George Street and to provide information for bus passengers. They also demanded a bus replacement service along the tram route if the road closure extends longer than the end of August.
The group says it is thankful for responses from Cllr Stephen Jenkinson, the Transport Convener, in which he acknowledged that there had been significant disruption for passengers and they note his confidence that a full review will follow. Cllr Jenkinson also said that he undertook to review the data and evidence as part of that review.
The remainder of the deputation reads:
Every journey matters
Normally, over 260 buses per hour (both directions) operate on Princes Street (nearly 80% by Lothian Buses). 50%+ of passenger journeys are on routes stopping on Princes Street. Around 8% of Lothian Buses passengers boarding buses in the city do so there (of which 38% board at stops in the western part of Princes Street).
It is obvious that the multi-week closure of the western third of Princes Street has had a major impact on many Lothian Buses services with knock-on effects felt far away from Princes Street and on the tram service west of Shandwick Place – normally the busiest part of Edinburgh Tram’s service.
This in turn has had a disproportionate and heavy impact on everyday bus users, including hospital workers and patients, daily commuters, job seekers and shoppers. We estimate that in excess of 100,000 bus passenger journeys per day are impacted and 18,000 tram journeys.
The cumulative delays over many weeks resulted in enormous economic cost to the city, its businesses and its workforce:
- Wasted passenger time: when buses are delayed, passengers lose hours that could otherwise be spent working, studying, or on leisure
- The “Buffer Time” penalty: cumulative delays force passengers to build extra “buffer time” into their schedules to guarantee arrival for work, education, or appointments. This unrecorded, forced early departure represents an additional hidden drain on personal time and daily productivity.
- Reduced Workplace Productivity and Reliability: commuters arriving late or fatigued due to unpredictable transport networks negatively impact business productivity. Unreliable public transport makes it difficult for employers to attract and retain staff, particularly affecting lower-income workers who rely heavily on buses and have less schedule flexibility
- Demand Suppression (Modal Flight): cumulative delays degrade the attractiveness of public transport. A 10% increase in travel time on buses can lead to a 5% drop in passenger demand. As passengers abandon buses for other modes (such as private cars), urban road congestion worsens, compounding the macro-economic cost of gridlock.
- Increased Operating Costs for Operators: delays create costs for operators. Slow moving traffic means buses take longer to complete routes, requiring operators to deploy additional vehicles and staff hours simply to maintain a baseline timetable.
The deputation relates to three motions on the agenda:
- Motion by Councillor Meagher: Strengthening Edinburgh’s Transport and City Resilience Following the Princes Street Fire
- Motion by Councillor Kevin Lang: Closure of Princes Street
- Motion by Councillor Mumford: Princes Street fire – city resilience
Welcoming broadly all three motions, EBUG encourages Councillors across all parties
- To acknowledge the impact on public transport users of the delays and congestion the city suffered in the aftermath of the Debenham fire.
- To make sure that the Lessons Learned exercise:
- a. Takes place and concludes before the end of 2026
- b. Be well resourced with access to the necessary expertise
- c. Reports on the cumulative costs for per day for public transport users from this incident
- d. That the lessons are applied to future infrastructure incidents, big and small small
- e. That it starts to generate principles and a hierarchy of priorities to guide decision making in future
- f. Considers at a high level the case for specially commissioned tram replacement busses (double-sided, doors meeting tram platform height) vs building and maintaining a tram depot in Newhaven
- g. Sets in motion the long-delayed Strategic Infrastructure Forum, to deal with the frequent disruptions to the public transport network – large and small – throughout the year as a result of planned larger road/utility works, emergency road/utility works, accidents and fatalities on or near public transport routes and to expand its remit to include contingency plans for disruptions of major public transport arteries
Anyone can attend the council meeting in person and sit in the public gallery or watch online here.
