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Lothian Buses Plc is a the largest provider of bus services in and around Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland. It is entirely municipally owned, being 91% owned by the City of Edinburgh Council, with the remainder owned by Midlothian, East Lothian and West Lothian councils, although it no longer provides bus services in the West Lothian. Lothian Buses plc is registered in Annandale Street, Edinburgh as company number SC096849.〔(Companies House )〕 ==Origins to 1956== Several tramway companies were founded in Edinburgh in the late nineteenth century. The Edinburgh Street Tramways Company was founded in 1871, initially operating a horse drawn tram line from Haymarket to Bernard Street in Leith, which was at that point a separate burgh from Edinburgh. This company's routes inside Edinburgh itself were taken over by Edinburgh and District Tramways in 1893, while the Leith Burgh Corporation took over those routes within their own boundaries in 1904, running them as Leith Corporation Tramways, after which Edinburgh Street Tramways ceased to trade. In 1888, Edinburgh Northern Tramways began operating cable-hauled tram services from George Street to Ferry Road and Comely Bank. They were also taken over by Edinburgh and District Tramways in 1897. The Corporation of the City of Edinburgh (then the formal name for the city council) introduced a motor bus service in July 1914.〔Gavin Booth, Edinburgh's Trams & Buses, 1988, page 64, ISBN 0-946265-09-7〕 This service was short lived, with the buses being requisitioned for wartime use, and services did not resume until after the First World War.〔Bus Results in the Scottish Capital, ''Commercial Motor'', 3 August 1926, page 14〕 In December 1916 the Corporation published a report they commissioned from various tram experts. Having only been tasked to report on the future of cable-trams regarding potential expansion and alternative methods of traction, it commented on the potential of the motor bus to substitute trams. It concluded that the introduction of motor buses instead of tramcars would incur a total loss of £39,425 per annum, and that the bus only had a future serving thinly populated districts, or acting as a feeder for trams. The report was heavily criticised by ''Commercial Motor'' magazine as being wholly one-sided, with fallacious assumptions, seeming to them a deliberate attempt to discredit buses. It recommended the Corporation procure independent advice from people with experience running motor buses at the necessary scale.〔Motorbus or Tramcar? ''Commercial Motor'', 14 December 1916, page 1〕〔Edinburgh's Future Passenger Service ''Commercial Motor'', 14 December 1916, page 5〕 In contrast to the negativity of the tram experts, bus operator the Scottish Motor Traction Company Ltd was reportedly in good financial health, being able to both "pay the petrol tax and to make profits in Edinburgh and district." in the same year.〔The Wheels of Industry ''Commercial Motor'', 4 January 1917, page 7〕 The City Corporation took over Edinburgh and District Tramways on 1 July 1919, forming the Edinburgh Corporation Tramways Department.〔G. Booth, ibid, page 64〕 At the same time, it began seasonal bus tour services around Holyrood Park using Leyland charabancs.〔http://lothianbuses.com/about-us/our-heritage/timeline Timeline ''Lothian Buses.com''〕〔''Commercial Motor'', 6 April 1920, page 8〕 The first post-war regular bus service began on 29 December 1919, being extended the following March.〔 The route ran between Ardmillan Terrace and Abbeyhill via Holyrood Palace, the Royal Mile and the Castle, to supplement the trams.〔〔A Triple System Of Passenger Transport, ''Commercial Motor'', 14 February 1922, page 16〕 It was extended to Easter Road the following March.〔 Edinburgh Corporation Tramways and Leith Corporation Tramways merged on 10 November 1920. By the end of 1919 the Corporation was applying for parliamentary powers to run motor buses 5 to 10 miles beyond the city boundaries.〔The Wheels of Industry ''Commercial Motor'', 11 November 1919, page 4〕 Fares for ordinary services were charged on a graduated scale based on distance - the higher the fare (charged by the penny, 1d, 2d, etc), the further the distance. As of early 1922, 1d bought 1,033 yards, while 5d bought 4 miles 1,170 yards.〔 Special services in the early 1920s included football specials (requiring as many as 30 extra buses) and late night services to venues like the Marine Gardens ballroom, with the entrance fee included in the ticket.〔Edinburgh's Experience With Buses ''Commercial Motor'', 10 February 1925, page 10〕 In the early years buses and trams also carried parcels, working with a network of collection/delivery boys, with the head office acting as a sorting office.〔 By the end of 1920 the Corporation was considering the replacement of northern cable tram routes with buses.〔''Commercial Motor'', 14 December 1920, page 4〕 By the summer of 1921, the number of buses and coaches using The Mound as an interchange was causing concern for the City Magistrates.〔Progress In Passenger Travel, ''Commercial Motor'', 9 August 1921, page 16〕 By May 1921 the department manager was already crediting the buses' contribution to the city's transport system, which at that time also comprise cable and electric trams, for preventing rate relief being necessary.〔 By early 1922 buses had replaced a quarter of the cable-tram network (approx. 6.2 miles).〔 In 1922 there were bus garages in Shrubhill, which had capacity for 53 vehicles, and Henderson Row, which held up to 45.〔 In 1926, the bus fleet moved into Central Depot on Annandale Street, a former Industrial Exhibition hall, which is still Lothian Buses' main depot today.〔Lothian Buses Timeline〕 Hoping for economies of scale, originally all of the Corporation's road transport fleet (including such vehicles as fire tenders and waste collection vehicles) were to be garaged in this depot.〔 In the period of 1920-5, the experience of running buses at high frequency (every 3 mins) on busy city routes to temporarily replace cable trams exposed the early designs weaknesses - the vibration issues (particularly bad due to Edinburgh's paved streets), the low capacity and narrow doors in comparison to trams, and the fact that, despite their speed advantage between stops, longer load/unload times often meant they were slower overall. In some cases, the buses were so unpopular they were removed and replaced with electric trams. On the other hand, they were showing their usefulness in other areas. Because of this, by 1925 the department's manager was of the opinion that trams should still be used for the heaviest and busiest loadings, but never for new routes with a frequency less than 6 per hour, while buses would still remain employed on routes either complementing or connecting existing tram lines, or on routes that were unsuitable or uneconomic for trams. He nonetheless advocated for the bus as a necessary part of new housing developments such as Lochend, where revenue growth over time was evident, and considered the vibration issue solved since the introduction of pneumatic tyres. He concluded that as both modes are so inter-dependent, they "should be considered as a single transport organization for the city."〔〔Bus Results in Scottish Cities ''Commercial Motor'', 4 August 1925, page 10〕 Effect of motor bus tyres (which at that time were solid rubber) on the road surface was an early issue. Reimbursement for repairing the damage to the roads in Holyrood Park by the tour charabancs was laid down as a condition of operating there in the 1921 season.〔 In 1921 the city deputy surveyor found that no undue damage was being done by buses on tarmacced roads, with some not damaged at all, but water-bound macadam surfaces and sett paving without concrete underlay were vulnerable to rutting and other issues.〔The Wheels of Industry ''Commercial Motor'', 9 August 1921, page 4〕 On one hilly route, after residents complained of vibration caused by the buses, various remedies were deployed - limiting the speed to 8 mph, descent in gear, and the fitting of super-cushion tyres (Dunlop and North British).〔 The 8 mph limit was also necessary in granite paved sections of running, which were extensive in Edinbugh.〔 This record of the early introduction of buses was hailed by ''Commercial Motor'' magazine in the mid 1920s as a sign of the Edinburgh authority's foresight in recognising "the part which the motorbus was destined ultimately to play in the solution of the passenger transport problems of the age", contrasting it with Glasgow Corporation which, despite having twice the population of Edinburgh, had only begun bus services in December 1924.〔 In the early 1920s, batch by batch reliability of buses could be unpredictable and often required running adjustments. The combination the build quality of early AEC vehicles and the professionalism of the Corporation's garage staff produced in-service mileage figures and engine life that ''Commercial Motor'' praised as "exceptionally good".〔Remarkable Motorbus Performances, ''Commercial Motor'', 30 October 1923, page 30〕 Measures taken included mandatory defect reporting by drivers at the end of each shift, a preventative maintenance regime which called for inspection/repairs every 10 days (with the spare parts inventory including complete engines) with close monitoring of parts usage, and an overhaul/repaint cycle of every 18 months.〔 In order to improve the system, the Corporation was performing its own modifications to buses as early as 1921, experimenting with a new type of rear shock absorber using rubber pads on one of its Leylands, and widening the doors of buses during overhaul.〔 Examples of in-house innovation included portable bus electrics testing apparatus in 1932〔Wheels of Industry, ''Commercial Motor'', 26 April 1932, page 48〕 and the establishment in the 1940s of a soap making plant inside the Laundry at Shrubhill Depot, in response to the need for a soap which didn't damage vehicle paintwork.〔Edinburgh Transport Has Its Own Laundry, ''Commercial Motor'', 6 September 1940, page 41〕 All horse and cable operated trams on the network were fully electrified by 1923. By 1926 there were 12 regular bus routes, with a total mileage of 43, and working to Bath Street, Blackford, Bonnington, Cameron Toll, Colinton, Cramond, Easter Road, Juniper Green, Hillend, Lochend, Newcraighall, Portobello and Surgeon's Hall. The average number of passengers per mile was just under 9, with the average fare at around 1.6d.〔 Good loadings on an experimental night service run from October 1925 to April 1926 saw the Corporation make plans to introduce regular winter night services.〔 In the 1920s, the average speed of the bus fleet approached, and then surpassed, that of the trams. The change occurred some time in the window of the 1927/8 financial year - in the space of this period the average speed of the buses went from 8.25 mph to 9.5 mph, in contrast to the trams, which went from 8.5 mph to 8.76 mph.〔Bus Results in Scottish Cities, ''Commercial Motor'', 7 August 1928, page 53〕 In 1928, given the increasing importance of buses, the Edinburgh Corporation Tramways Department was renamed the Edinburgh Corporation Transport Department.〔G. Booth, ibid, page 64〕 In 1928, the Corporation introduced measures to ensure bus operators couldn't undercut trams, by insisting one-way fares on routes duplicating trams must be at least 1d higher, and that other forms of ticketing must not be cheaper than equivalent tram travel.〔Wheels of Industry, ''Commercial Motor'', 12 June 1928, page 42〕 Edinburgh was one of many corporation transport systems in the UK that began employing female conductors in large numbers during the Second World War. Edinburgh Corporation's tram network was abandoned between 1950 and 1956. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「History of Lothian Buses」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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