Diversions to Inverkeithing FerryToll Park and Ride Friday 10th Oct to Monday 20th Oct 2014

Thanks to information just provided by Stagecoach for changes to bus services, Councillor A McGary (SNP Councillor for Inverkeithing, Dalgety Bay and Aberdour)  and Traffic Scotland we are able to report:-

A temporary road closure has been arranged for B981 Hope Street, Inverkeithing from Ferryhills Road to Ferry Toll Park & Ride to allow road realignment and reconstruction works to be carried out in safety.

The closure will be operate from:

  • 8pm on Friday 10th October until 6am on Monday 13th October 2014.
  •  8pm until 6am each night Monday 13th October until Saturday 18th October 2014.
  •  6am on Saturday 18th October until 6am on Monday 20th October 2014.

That is two full weekends and night working through the week

A text copy of the closure order issued by Fife Council is shown below:-

THE FIFE COUNCIL (B981 HOPE STREET, INVERKEITHING)

(TEMPORARY PROHIBITION OF USE) ORDER 2014

 Fife Council has made an Order under the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 prohibiting the use by vehicular traffic of B891 Hope Street from Ferryhills Rd to Ferrytoll Park and Ride.

 The Order is to allow road realignment and reconstruction works to be carried out in safety and will be operational from 20.00 on 10/10/14 until 06.00 on 13/10/14;  between 20.00 and 06.00 each night from 13/10/14 until 18/10/14;  and from 06.00 on 18/10/14 until 06.00 on 20/10/14 or until earlier completion of the works.

The alternative route for through traffic will be via B980 Castlandhill Rd, Dunfermline Wynd and Hill St.  Access for pedestrians is unaffected.  Any queries regarding this Notice should be directed to Lynne Lees, Legal Services, Fife House, North Street, Glenrothes, Fife KY7 5LT.

50 Years of bus services – Dalgety Bay

50 Years of buses Dalgety Bay - two coaches Stagecoach at the Edinburgh bus terminus
A shorter version of this article appears in  the Dalgety Bay Diary October 2014 edition The good news is that the unnamed author has  passed the complete story to CN for publication, and we will now quote from that…
Dalgety Bay – W Alexander (Fife)
W Alexander Fife coach
A typical coach on the W Alexander Fife service. Photo used with the permission of the copyright owners The Bus Gallery see http://www.thebusgallery.co.uk/fife

Prior to the creation of Dalgety Bay as we know it today, W Alexander (Fife), operated a Kirkcaldy – Dunfermline bus service stopping at a point which is now the corner of A921 road and Eastern Access Road serving the small community clustered around the church towards Barns Farm area.

Another  coach circa 1968 on the W Alexander Fife service.  Photo used with the permission of the copyright owners The Bus Gallery see http://www.thebusgallery.co.uk/fife
Another coach circa 1968 on the W Alexander Fife service. Photo used with the permission of the copyright owners The Bus Gallery see http://www.thebusgallery.co.uk/fife

As Dalgety Bay grew in size from 1965, Alexanders’ route 7A linked Dunfermline and Dalgety Bay. In 1985 the company became part of the Scottish Transport Group when the government introduced a policy of deregulating the bus industry to promote greater competition; W Alexander Fife then became Fife Scottish Buses.

Fife Coastliner, Service 57

Capitalising on the growth of the town, a development in July1990 was the introduction of the ambitious “Fife Coastliner” Service 57 between Anstruther, Leven and Edinburgh  stopping at Pentland Rise.

During the early-mid1990’s, the town expanded westwards with a large number of houses built on the site of St Davids’  harbour; shortly afterwards representation was made by residents to provide a bus service. Stagecoach responded by diverting a number of early morning/late evening service 7, Dunfermline – Kirkcaldy buses.

Bayliner

Commemorating the 25th. anniversary of the town in 1990, Service 79 between Dunfermline and Dalgety Bay was route branded” as “Bayliner” using single deck buses painted with a “Bayliner” logo above the windows. In July 1991, the Stagecoach bus group purchased Fife Scottish Buses for £9.1M which was then renamed Stagecoach Fife.

Two years later, a Kirkcaldy independent operator trading as Orion Buses challenged the Stagecoach monopoly by operating a “circular” Dunfermline-Cowdenbeath-Kirkcaldy-Dalgety Bay-Dunfermline service. This competition was nullified by Stagecoach who increased the frequency of their established services and Orion was forced to withdraw within the year.

This was a sign of “things to come” and over the years, many well established Fife bus and coach operators were absorbed by the Stagecoach empire including such well known names  used by local schools for outings such as Rennies of Dunferrmline, Allisons Coaches, Moffat & Williamson, Glenrothes.

As time progressed, it was recognised that Stagecoach Fife wished to abandon a number of uneconomic bus routes and they stated their intentions to Fife Council. Following the “Bayliner” brand, Stagecoach revised route 79 as Dalgety Bay – Kelty via Queen Margaret Hospital, Dunfermline running to a half hour frequency.

Two uneconomic routes subsidised

About this time and in order to maintain a service where hardship would be caused to communities if a bus connection was lost, Fife Council agreed to subsidise two uneconomic routes which served Dalgety Bay that is;

Bus 83 From Asda to InverkeithingService 83 Inverkeithing – Dalgety Bay (Ridge Way, ASDA)

 

Service 83 was subsequently withdrawn without replacement on 13 August 2011 and Service 80 renumbered to Service 87, August 2011 using single deck buses on an hourly schedule, Dunfermline – Duloch – Hillend – Dalgety Bay – St Davids –Inverkeithing- North Queensferry (Rail Station).

  Bus 80 to DunfermlineService 80 Dunfermline – Duloch – Hillend – Dalgety Bay – St Davids Harbour – Inverkeithing – Ferrytoll Park & Ride

 

 

 

An advantage with using single deck buses on service 87 was that they complied with a 7.5 tonnes weight limit imposed on B916 road Hillend – Dunfermline to protect the late 18th. century bridge west end of the railway station; double deck vehicles previously used exceeded B916 road weight limit by 2 tonnes although some Inverkeithing High School buses still use double deck vehicles.

Swedish Scania Omnilink Services 53 Dalgety Bay and 55 Dunfermline

A new initiative occurred October 2007 when Stagecoach purchased a number of six wheeled high capacity Swedish Scania Omnilink single deck buses intended for use on Dunfermline – Edinburgh Service 55 and new Service 53 Dalgety Bay – Edinburgh via St Davids which operated on a 30 minute frequency.

This new service supplemented existing hourly Kirkcaldy – Edinburgh Service X58 and hourly St Andrews – Leven – Kirkcaldy – Edinburgh service X60 which runs via Dalgety Bay railway station and augmented early morning/late evening service 7 buses.

Regrettably although service 53 provided St Davids with a regular, reliable service, it proved to be grossly underused and was cancelled; replaced by peak time services 53, X53, 57 & X57 mainly using Scania buses. In view of low patronage, the future of these services is not  guaranteed.

In August 2014, following complaints of poor timekeeping, Stagecoach in liaison with Fife Council revised times of service 87 from an hourly to a 75 minute schedule.

Town Centre Study – Dalgety Bay and Hillend Community CouncilDalgety Bay Town Framework Report

It is to be regretted that although the Dalgety Bay & Hillend Community Council initiated a “town centre study”, final recommendations made October 2011 found no place for provision of a “central” bus station in the town. Significantly, Leven (population 8051 @ 2001 Census) boasts a comparatively new 8 bay bus station but Dalgety Bay (population 10011@ 2001 Census) does not appear to warrant such a facility which could create a focal transport hub as opposed to the scattered stops at Meadowfield, Regents Way, Moray Way North (opposite Community Centre) and Railway Station.

Rail Link Kirkcaldy to Glasgow

Steam Train - Kirkcaldy to GlasgowAlthough a rail link Kirkcaldy – Glasgow via Inverkeithing existed up to 1965, First Scotrail has chosen not to resurrect this service. The author invited Stagecoach (Fife) to consider filling a “gap” in present bus services by linking Inverkeithing Park & Ride to a Glasgow bus service to benefit Burntisland, Aberdour, Dalgety Bay, Inverkeithing and local residents.

Stagecoach’s response was that  they consider Dunfermline and Halbeath Park & Ride facilities as adequate.

Copyright.  The article remains the copyright of the unnamed author and the author has given permission for this article to appear in CN and Scotland4me.  Photographs are provided provided by:

The bus gallery – permission to use much appreciated that is the first two in the article relating to buses in the 1960s.
the unnamed author – photos of the 80 and 83 buses.

The picture of the train is from Royalty Free stock and the featured image is the copyright of Scotland4me.net