Edinburgh Retro: 29 great pictures on the buses in the 1980s - the end of conductors and start of bus wars

Published 8th Nov 2026, 04:45 GMT

Edinburgh is proud of its municipally-owned buses. They survived the controversial deregulation of buses in the 1980s and Lothian Buses now accounts for 36 per cent of all bus journeys made in Scotland.

Buses in Edinburgh have a long history - and hopefully a bright future.

Here are 29 old photos selected from the Evening News archive, giving a taste of life on the buses in Edinburgh around four decades ago.

Scroll through the pictures to bring back memories and get a taste of Capital life in the 1980s.

People standing at the bus stop outside St John's hospital in Livingston, October 1989. | TSPL Photo: Hamish Campbell

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