The City of Edinburgh Council has recently undertaken a £2.9m project to update the city’s bus stop departure boards with new LED screens, in an effort to improve passenger experience and accessibility.
Seen at key stops, the new screens promise to show real-time bus departures alongside useful route information.
However, passengers have been left frustrated at the inaccuracy of the departure boards, which besides being two years delayed, currently only display timetable information, rather than live tracking.
Live tracking is only available on the Bus & Tram app and the old generation departure boards.
Consequently, if a bus is delayed it will disappear from the new departure boards after its timetabled departure time, even if it is en-route.
A passenger told The Student:
“It’s really frustrating, the bus times are really confusing and once I get to the bus stop I’m unsure if I’ve missed the bus or not.”
The council were left apologising for this mishap in November 2023, as users blasted the “shocking implementation” on X, promising that live information would be rolled out to the screens in early 2024.
Electronic departure board image via Joe Scholar
Electronic departure board image via Nick Malizia