First’s 260-vehicle Scotland East business — now serving West Lothian, Stirlingshire and Clackmannan following its retreat from East Lothian, Midlothian and the Borders — is upping the ante in a battle for business with council-owned Lothian Buses, which has established 10 Lothian Country-branded routes in West Lothian since August last year and opened a depot in Livingston.
First has not retaliated until now, but on 1 July takes the fight into one of Lothian’s most profitable markets with an open-top sightseeing tour of Edinburgh.
It has acquired 14 secondhand doubledeckers — nine Dennis Tridents (four of them new to Lothian and latterly with West Coast Motors), four Cummins-repowered DAF DB250s and one newly converted Alexander Dennis Enviro400 from Metroline — and is recruiting a manager and around 30 drivers and pavement staff who will work out of First’s Livingston depot.
‘We can see that the Edinburgh sightseeing market is growing’, says Andrew Jarvis.
‘There is a clear tourist demand for that sort of product. The question was how can we tap into it.’
Full details were due to be announced a week after this magazine goes on sale, but the branding will not include the First name. A press release in …
