Xplore Dundee to overhaul buses services – see what changes are being made

The biggest overhaul of bus services in 70 years will begin in Dundee in the New Year.

Faced with financial challenges and fears over public transport in light of the pandemic, Xplore Dundee has revealed a raft of wholesale changes to its services.

The firm has said it has to be bold and not allow itself to “be the victim” as it attempts to adapt to an uncertain future, with no clear end in sight for the current Covid-19 restrictions.

Xplore Dundee has announced it will be revamping all of its routes and introducing a new app for buying tickets, live tracking journeys and checking how busy buses are from January 24.

A number of services are to be withdrawn as part of the overhaul, including the 9C, 15, 22A, 22B, 29, 32A and some 36C journeys.

Christine McGlasson, managing director of Xplore Dundee, said it was vital to make sure public transport in the city is viable in a post-coronavirus world.

This comes a week after the bus operator announced it was freezing its fares for next year.

She said: “The pandemic has changed the way people are travelling and will travel in the future because of more working from home, the amount of people buying online and a residual fear around public transport.

“Rather than being a victim we decided to take the bull by the horns and redesign what it is we do for the first time in a very long time.

“We literally took the map of Dundee and started again from scratch.

“We are struggling financially.

“Passenger numbers are 60% of what they were before the pandemic and they fell to a low of 13% at the beginning of the lockdown.

“We don’t see things getting back to 100%, we think next year we might get to 70-80% but that is still a huge chunk of our revenue.

“We need to reduce our costs and use our resources better otherwise it will not be viable.

“It’s the biggest set of changes our bus network has undergone since the 1950s when the core routes were first set up.

“The main changes are probably combining some routes so they are simpler for customers who just want to get from A to B.

“But a lot of that will mean higher frequencies.

“It’s a big change and people never like change but there is a lot of positives.”

What will change?

From January 24 the new routes will be overhauled and the 9C, 15, 22A, 22B, 29, 32A and some 36C journeys will be axed.

• 1 City Centre to St Mary’s – 1A and 1B services to be merged into one, and in some parts frequency will be increased from every 20 minutes to every 15 minutes. Only occasional journeys will extend to Baird Avenue, but will coincide with shifts at Tesco call centre. Main Street stop to be axed, passengers to use number 22 instead. Byron Street stop to be axed, passengers to use number 2 instead. New service will no longer stop at Rosemount Road, Macalpine Road or St Kilda Road, but will now run via Turnberry Avenue, Dalmahoy Drive and Birkdale Place. The bus shelter on Macalpline Road to move to Birkdale Place.
• 9 and 10 Outer Circle – The 9C service to D&A College Gardyne Campus to be withdrawn.
• 15 Whitfield to City Centre – withdrawn.
• 17 Ninewells Hospital to Whitfield – 17 will run the full Ninewells to Whitfield route. Some stops between the city centre and Whitfield will see a reduced frequency but some stops between the city centre and Ninewells will see double frequency. Route to be connected to Lochee. It will no longer stop at Charleston Drive, passengers to use South Road instead. It will no longer stop at Ancrum Road, passengers to use City Road or Tullideph Road instead.
• 18 City Centre to Claverhouse – Service to be extended to terminate at Crichton Street and begin at Nethergate, but will still stop at Derwent Avenue ASDA. The stop on Balgowan Road will be moved to the south side of the road.
• 22 Ninewells Hospital to Craigowl – Routes 22A and 22B will be withdrawn, and the evening detour to Whitehall Theatre will be axed.
• 28 Myrekirk to Douglas – Route 28 will not stop at Dunholm Road or the western end of Balgarthno Road but will now stop at Craigowan Road, Charleston Street, Brownhill Road and Buttars Road. Those travelling from Charleston to Ninewells Hospital to use services 9 from South Road or 10 from Buttars Loan instead.
• 29 Ninewells Hospital to Douglas – Withdrawn.
• 32 City Centre to Fintry and 33 City Centre to Whitfield – Inbound journeys will stop at Nethergate instead of Crichton Street and the 33 will extend to Jack Martin Way.
• 32A City Centre to Fintry – withdrawn.
• 36C Claverhouse to Ninewells Hospital – The 5.25am service to Ninewells Hospital will continue, but the return journeys at 6.10am and 7.05am will be withdrawn. Passengers are to use the 18, 17, 32 or 33 instead.

Some buses will also stop at different stances at Nethergate, the city centre and Seagate Bus Station under the changes as well.

What will the new app be like?

The new app will replace the current Xplore Dundee app, which only allows passengers to buy tickets.

Christine said this new app will help people get around easier and make decisions on using public transport as well.

She added: “This new app will allow people to journey plan, so they can literally type in where they want to go and it will tell them which bus to get.

“If you are waiting for a bus in the morning you can see if it is running five minutes late through live tracking and then you can stay at home for another five minutes instead.

“It will also have a function to see how busy the bus is – with social distancing that is a concern for people and this will help them make the decision whether to get on the bus or wait for the next one.”

However it will still be possible to pay for tickets on the bus and get maps and timetables from the Xplore Travel Centre on Commercial Street.