NINETEEN new double decker buses will serve the Bathgate, Livingston and Edinburgh corridor following a £4.4 million order between First West Lothian and bus manufacturer Alexander Dennis.
The order is part of a £50m deal agreed in April and was announced just days after Alexander Dennis was awarded a £7m grant from Scottish Enterprise as part of its £31 million low carbon vehicles programme.
The new Enviro buses have smart air conditioning and heating, while they feature Alexander Dennis’s latest technology, including CCTV, free wi-fi and USB (universal series bus) charging points, along with a real-time information system.
The deal reduces the average age of the fleet to four years.
Humza Yousaf, Scottish Government minister for transport and the islands, launched the fleet at The Centre in Livingston yesterday.
The new fleet will operate on services 27 and 28, on a route that conveys more than 1.6 million passengers a year and which has benefited from the Quality Partnership between First Scotland East and West Lothian Council.
Paul McGowan, managing director of First Scotland East, said: “These state-of-the art buses are an example of our commitment to developing services for local people on this important public transport corridor.
Colin Robertson, chief executive of Alexander Dennis, said: "We have collaborated closely with First West Lothian to deliver this fleet of state-of-the-art vehicles with a premium interior specification including high back luxury seating, ambient lighting and USB ports at all seats, all of which will contribute to a first class passenger experience.”
Earlier this week, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was at Alexander Dennis’s Falkirk headquarters to announce the grant funding, and the creation of 100 new jobs at the site.
The company is investing in the development of hybrid and electric buses, and plans to double turnover by £1bn by 2020 through these vehicles.
As principal bus supplier to FirstGroup, the company is on track to deliver 204 buses to the transport firm.
FirstGroup has invested between £70m and £80m in its UK bus fleet in each of the last four years.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here