Lothian Buses

Lothian Buses is the largest municipal bus company in the United Kingdom. It is the dominant provider of bus services in Lothian. Transport for Edinburgh, a company wholly owned by the City of Edinburgh Council, owns 91% of the company, with the remainder being owned by the East Lothian, West Lothian and Midlothian councils.

Lothian Buses operates the majority of bus services in Edinburgh, extending to outlying suburbs, towns and villages. The company also operates several limited stop express routes, an Edinburgh Airport service, park and ride services and a night bus network as well as several tourist services.

The company operates four travel shops (three in the city centre and one in Dalkeith), and operates buses from three depot locations; Longstone, Annandale Street and Marine at Seafield. The company also maintains a driver training school and an engineering depot at Seafield.

History

The company can trace its history back to the Edinburgh Street Tramways Company of 1871, also involving at various times the tramway companies of Leith, Musselburgh and Edinburgh North. The City Council (Edinburgh Corporation Tramways Department) took over operation of the tramways in 1919, at which time most of the system was cable operated. Electrification of the tram network was completed in 1923, but the first motor buses had arrived in 1919.

Lothian

Lothian (/ˈloʊ.ði.ən/; Scottish Gaelic: Lodainn) is a region of the Scottish Lowlands, lying between the southern shore of the Firth of Forth and the Lammermuir Hills. The principal settlement is the Scottish capital, Edinburgh, while other significant towns include Livingston, Linlithgow, Queensferry, Dalkeith, Musselburgh, North Berwick, Dunbar, and Haddington.

Historically, the term Lothian referred to a province encompassing most of what is now southeastern Scotland. In the 7th century it came under the control of the Anglian kingdom of Bernicia, the northern part of the later kingdom of Northumbria, but the Angles' grip on Lothian was quickly weakened following the Battle of Nechtansmere in which they were defeated by the Picts. Lothian was annexed to the Kingdom of Scotland around the 10th century.

Subsequent Scottish history saw the region subdivided into three shires—Mid, East, and West Lothian—leading to the popular term 'the Lothians'.

Etymology

The origin of the name is debated. It perhaps comes from the British *Lugudūniānā (Lleuddiniawn in Modern Welsh spelling) meaning 'country of the fort of Lugus', the latter being the pagan god of commerce. Alternatively it may take its name from a watercourse which flows through the region, now known as the Lothian Burn, the name of which comes from the British lutna meaning 'dark or muddy stream'.

Lothian (Scottish Parliament electoral region)

Lothian is one of the eight electoral regions of the Scottish Parliament. Nine of the parliament's 73 first past the post constituencies are sub-divisions of the region and it elects seven of the 56 additional-member Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs). Thus it elects a total of 16 MSPs.

The Lothian region was created as a result of the First Periodic Review of Scottish Parliament Boundaries and largely replaced the Lothians region.

Constituencies and local government areas

As a result of the First Periodic Review of Scottish Parliament Boundaries the boundaries for the region and constituencies were redrawn for the 2011 Scottish Parliament election.

Members of the Scottish Parliament

Constituency MSPs

Regional List MSPs

N.B. This table is for presentation purposes only

Lothians (European Parliament constituency)

Prior to its uniform adoption of proportional representation in 1999, the United Kingdom used first-past-the-post for the European elections in England, Scotland and Wales. The European Parliament constituencies used under that system were smaller than the later regional constituencies and only had one Member of the European Parliament each.

The constituency of Lothians was one of them.

When it was created in Scotland in 1979, it consisted of the Westminster Parliament constituencies of Edinburgh Central, Edinburgh East, Edinburgh Leith, Edinburgh North, Edinburgh Pentlands, Edinburgh South, Edinburgh West, Midlothian, West Lothian, although this may not have been true for the whole of its existence.

Members of the European Parliament

Election results

References

External links