Edinburgh buses: Troubled real-time tracker system is finally working

The £2.9 million system, involving 330 screens at bus stops across the Capital, has until now been showing only timetable information rather than live information about when buses would arrive and depart.

It was originally due to be up and running by early 2021, but was delayed by Covid and Brexit and then it emerged that the system's technology was not compatible with GPS installed on Lothian Buses’ fleet.

The Edinburgh bus tracker is now working | @jester_mouse on X.

Several deadlines for resolving the issues have been missed. But the good news was broken to the council’s transport committee on Thursday by Hannah Ross, head of major projects. She told them: “The travel tracker is working."

Another official said: “As of 4.30pm on Monday, Lothian Buses real time departure information went live on all screens across Edinburgh and those in Midlothian and West Lothian too.”

SNP transport spokesman Danny Aston welcomed the news. But he said: “Given I’m a member of the transport committee and I use the bus quite a lot and I hadn’t noticed that, what chance do the vast majority of ordinary Edinburgh bus passengers have of learning to trust the bus trackers again? We should be shouting about this, including on the tracker screen itself.”

The official said he had been out and about monitoring screens to make sure the screens were displaying accurate information. “It is working fantastically well,” he said.   “About 97 per cent of everything coming through is correct and accurate.  We will continue monitoring that.”

He said the working system was being allowed to bed in for a few days before putting out any communications about it. But he said: “The message will be going out very soon.”