Lothian Buses Omdömen 

Aside from the regular complaints you'll see here (Lateness, terrible bus scheduling, rudeness from drivers, buses intentionally driving past people waiting at bus stops, etc) what finally motivated me to write a review was boarding a bus with a driver very nearly sleeping at the wheel, and so was incredibly lethargic in driving and boarding & disembarking passengers. It resulted in severe delays but this is primarily incredibly dangerous to allow a driver who is too tired to focus to drive a bus through a densely populated city.

I have submitted complaints before, regarding incidents like ones I detailed above, and each time the customer support team dismiss them. This bus service is quite honestly a joke. It needs revamped from the ground up.

I would give it zero stars if I could. Absolutely shambolic service. Never on time, often delayed or cancelled entirely. Always someone else’s fault. You’re encouraged to take public transport but what’s the point when this is what you get. Zero reliability or consistency. Overpriced. Usually met with mute or grumpy bus drivers. A total embarrassment to East Lothian. Absolutely useless!

Why have a timetable for the 31 bus route. Every second bus is cancelled. And every other bus arrives late/early. I will revert to using my car adding to congestion/environmental decline etc etc. this review is prompted by years of disappointment in the service.

Travelling back to the airport during a summer heatwave. I was on the bus for an hour. The temperature outside was 25° but inside the AC was turned off and felt like 40°.

I've always had a positive experience with the 100 service but this was honestly unbearable. A very sad experience from a usually very positive bus route.

I made a complaint last week because the bus time at my stop were wrong and as such the bus did not come according to the information provided at the bus stop.

Yesterday at 10:28 an advisor from Lothian bus called me.

To start with she did not offer her name clearly. So I am not even sure who I have to make a complaint against. However, she was working from Lothian buses.

She did not show any empathy and called me to tell me off about leaving a complaint.

She did not accept any responsibility.

During the call I wondered if she was speaking to me like this because someone caused her some stress at work and she needed an outlet.

Moreover, no solution was given to me. The purpose of this call was to be impolite and tell me I was wrong.

I work in a call centre and I have never called a customer to tell them off. I call customers to give them solutions.

I believe this call is a zero tolerance and the staff needs an urgent training on soft skills and root cause analysis.

The reason I was dissatisfied is because the times at my bus were wrong. Until I insisted the advisor kept saying that I was wrong. Then told me my picture was bad quality.

As a quality checker I would have flagged this call to my supervisors.

Please do not forget that my taxes pay for Lothian buses and I also pay for the services monthly.

Do not call your customers to tell them off.

Lothian country is the third world service in terms of reliability.Buses turn up, or not.If you rely on them for work then you are screwed

I came from Middle East to visit Scotland, hoping to have a good impression of the bus service. Unfortunately, I experienced racism and rude language from some bus drivers, which made me feel embarrassed in front of my family. As an NHS worker living and working in the UK, facing such situations was very upsetting and ruined part of my holiday. I hope Lothian Buses takes this seriously and addresses such behaviour to ensure all visitors are treated with respect.

Did not accept an electronic ticket, so i had to buy a second one. Rip off. Never again. Next time i take a cab.

Stopped at Seton Sands, so got the bus a few time into Edinburgh, miserable rude drivers. I always say hi or good morning they can't even be bothered to say hello.

Really expensive, rude drivers, and the tickets are not honoured even if you have proof of payment and evidence such as photograph with all necessary information. You cannot load it on app or store in any other way than a flimsy receipt.

Driver of the bus 100, bus number 1135 at 11:20 am, you're a star, I saw people asking for directions and you gave them detailed instructions on what the best way to travel was, you didn't have to, yet you did, I salute you my friend

The guy took money of me and would not let me on as I was far away from my house and he took money of me!I showed him my bank and that money has came out and he still said get off absolutely fuming😡

Fantastic driver- Mark 473- on the number 26 to Clerwood on evening of 26th June. So friendly with all passengers. Was my 60th birthday and his lovely attitude with everyone made my day. Thanks Mark 😊

I was taking the bus 35 today (23 June) at 13:00 hour from the Royal Mile,Edinburgh. Some passengers in the front were having problems with payment and they stepped to the side inside the bus for a while. I did not know this, assumed they already paid, and started to go inside the bus to tap my card. The female driver started shouting at me to wait instead of just politely asking.

You can educate your drivers to talk like a normal human being rather than shouting like a rabies-infected dog at passengers. They are quite well paid. No need to be so entitled if they don’t like their job . Please hire more civil people with good etiquette and basic human decency for public service jobs like this. Edinburgh is turning into London 2.0 thanks to hare-brained folks like this.

This is a review of Lothian Country, the more rural part of Lothian Buses, specifically service 72, Fauldhouse to Kirkliston.
This is an hourly service, taking almost 2 hours from end to end. The drivers are great, however it is such a busy service picking up and setting down along the whole route, including schools, that the buses never run to time. There doesn't appear to be any catchup time available to the drivers.
Routinely miss my connections due to the late running. I contacted Lothian Buses and this is their non-reply :-

"It is imperative that the timetables we create are realistic and can be met by our drivers at any time, unfortunately there can be a multitude of issues which can adversely impact on bus journey times such as diversions and traffic congestion.
Our drivers and operational control team will continue to work hard to run services as advertised.
I understand this has not been an isolated incident and will pass your comments on to our Schedules team."

The service really needs to be revamped, or increased to 2 per hour, which would reduce the number of passengers waiting, but given the reply, I doubt anything will bve done.

Yup, usual crap, no signs at the most busy locations, buses speeding all through town. The busted suspension and bone shattered ride, that is Lothian Bus.

I was waiting for the bus but it was 47 minutes late

Due to an accident, I am disabled and required the assistance of a mobility aid in the form of a 4 wheel zimmer. The relatively new 100 seater (route 11) buses are totally impractical, apart from a wheelchair user. The disabled seats are far too narrow, front to back, to get a zimmer in. If someone is on with a pram and a wheelchair user gets on, the pram has to get off the bus and aren't even granted a day ticket for another bus! LRT prides itself with its inclusive policy. I think not.
Also you always, without fail need to ask the driver to put the ramp down, sometimes done with good grace but more often not with good grace.
The drivers rarely wait for someone with a disability to be seated until they drive off. I understand that timetables require, where possible to be adhered to but safety is paramount.
LRT, please review your training and policy for drivers.

Passengers were not informed until 2137 that buses would not be turning up at bus stops on Princes Street or South Bridge. This effected
MANY passengers!!

This company can be improved by keeping all passengers informed when bus stops are effected regarding picking up passengers.

The drivers are usually pretty friendly, but today the driver I encountered was absolutely disgusting. I was trying to ask him if he's going to a particular stop and started off by saying I'm going to.. and he cut me off and said " I don't care where you're going, just tap your card!" Then I reached into my bag, grabbed the wrong card and it got declined then he said it declined and I said I used the wrong one, then he replied, "I don't care." Completely disgusting and uncalled for. Not sure if he was having a bad day but it shouldn't have been taken out on me! People aren't going to be encouraged to use public transport if they have to deal with rude, nasty drivers!! Not interested in boarding a bus anytime soon at this rate!