Edinburgh commuters 'risk health on crowded buses every day'

Commuters are risking their health on a daily basis because of crowded buses on a busy Edinburgh route, it was claimed today.

This is said to be a regular sight on the No 30 bus

These pictures were taken on the 6.50am No 30 Lothian bus on its way to the city’s Sick Kids Hospital yesterday.

The reader who sent them to the Evening News, a concerned mother who asked not to be named, said: “My daughter works with very high risk children in hospital, and she herself is deemed at increased risk because of a condition she has, but has continued to work throughout the pandemic, taking every precaution to try to reduce the risk to her patients and herself.

"However, during this latest lockdown, this is the situation she has had to deal with five days a week on the No. 30 bus en route to the Sick Kids. How is this safe?

"This is the 6.50am bus, since Lothian Buses reduced the service. The next bus, 20 minutes later, has been even busier which is why my daughter tried leaving earlier in the hope this bus would be quiet, but obviously many people are using the (reduced) service.

"How can people exercise social distancing when there are fewer buses? Surely it makes more sense to increase the number of buses at busy times on busy routes when people are most likely to have a valid reason to be on a bus instead of reducing the service.”

A Lothian Buses spokeswoman said buses had continued to operate throughout the pandemic for those needing to travel.

“In light of our experience operationally across the last 10 months, the business is currently operating a Saturday service on weekdays for those that require to make essential journeys on public transport. Since the introduction of this service we have identified a small number of capacity issues, particularly on early morning journeys where Saturday frequencies are lower than on a normal service. Our commercial team are currently working to rectify these issues which will be introduced in our next service change in the very near future.

“As well as looking at frequencies on Service 30, we will shortly be introducing new single deck vehicles to this route which will significantly improve capacity across this service.”

She added the Scottish Government allowed a reduced physical distancing of one metre on public transport.

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