Transport
Sustaining Dunbar wants to make it easier to travel around Dunbar by sustainable modes of transport and to reduce the need to travel out of town.
To get involved with this Transport Subgroup, please contact Morag Haddow.
At the moment we are concentrating on
- Joined-up Public Transport - identifying gaps in existing local services, and campaigning to fix them
- Cycling and Walking Routes - we’d like to put together a map which highlights cycling and walking routes within the town, working towards a signed network of paths
- Car Clubs/ Local Car Hire - we feel there is a need for both short-term (2-6 hours) and long-term (day/week) car hire in Dunbar
Joined-up Public Transport
Public Transport is of very little use if it doesn’t get you where you want to go in a reasonable time. We are conducting a survey of the public transport options in Dunbar and trying to find out where the gaps are. If there is something that really bugs you about local train and bus services, please let us know by commenting below.
Dunbar Public Transport Options
| National Express East Coast | National Express trains occasionally (4 times a day) stop in Dunbar on their way between Edinburgh and London |
| Cross Country | Cross Country trains provide a more regular if infrequent (2 hourly) service |
| First Bus | First services 6, X6 and X8 (Timetable) stop in Dunbar and provide a half-hourly link to East Linton, Haddington, Edinburgh and beyond. This route map is useful for planning your journey. |
| Perrymans’s Busses | Based in Berwick-upon-Tweed, Perryman’s Busses run a regular service (the 253) from Berwick to Edinburgh stopping in Dunbar and other places (see Route Map). It is cheaper than the First Bus Service, but less frequent: 253 Timetable. |
| Eve Coaches | Eve Coaches runs the 120 to North Berwick, 128 from Haddington via the coast to the New Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh and the Gaberlunzie round East Lothian. They also provide the 1A bus service which calls often at Asda, but you don’t need to get off there! |
Travel Information Websites
Two useful websites for transport information are Transport Direct and Traveline Scotland. These include timetables from all of the above bus and train services.
The National Rail Enquires website has many useful features including:
- Live Arrivals and Departures board for Dunbar where you can check whether your train is on time before even leaving the house
- Pocket Timetable
The Cost of Public Transport
The up-front cost of public transport means that it can seem expensive. If you know what to ask for there are discount schemes available, for example
- One Ticket
- ITSO
Working with Others
Dunbar Primary School Environment Group
Living Streets Scotland
RAGES (Rail Action Group East of Scotland
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Comments»
I am interested in joined up public transport. …..and here’s a local
issue or 2:
There was a mention from the councillor Paul Mclennan at the last
meeting that Asda would be putting on a bus to bring people from the villages round about into town. If the occasion arises to ask about this it could be important to check that this bus is not just going to go to Asda but into the town centre as well. (It would in my opinion be scandalous if it were only going to serve Asda)
There is an established bus which goes around some villages on 3 days a week called the Gaberlunzie bus which I find useful but few use it . It could be a bit more “joined up” and use of this or the new service encouraged in order to get people out of their cars.
A train or express bus leaving Edinburgh at 9.30pm and 10pm Mon to Sat would be a great help for those who join up for evening classes in the city, go to a film or have a meal in town after work .
Anyone needing help with their bike especially if colin at belhaven bikes is not available get in touch. 864717
does anyone else think that country wide petrol rationing now would be a good idea? with more allowance for those in rural situations
Car Clubs seem to be successful in Edinburgh. How about one in Dunbar for those who are unwilling to give up driving or require to have a car?
I have been thinking about setting up and running a car club for some time. I’d love to hear from anyone else who might be interested. Please get in touch with me on mjhaddow@f2s.com or 862271. Details such as what kind of car you’d need, how often, and what sort of journeys you might expect to make would be useful.
If your old bike has had its day or you fancy taking up cycling to work and you are an employee paying PAYE, check out cyclescheme.co.uk for tax free bikes. Your employer has to register…I’ll be speaking to my boss! Several bike shops in Edinburgh are part of the scheme.
I regularly collect 2 people from the train in the evening. On Monday, I counted 12 cars waiting to collect passengers, all of whom left their engines running from arrival to departure. I was early for my pick up and for the following train, 30 minutes later, I counted 9 cars, one of which had been there since the previous train. This particular car had been sitting for around 40 minutes with its engine running. There was probably more cars for both trains, but these were all I could see from where I was parked. So that would be in excess of 20 cars in an hour - perhaps that’s where all that fog came from on Monday night!
Now if I was a brave lad, I would have gone and accosted these drivers, but in this day and age, such a one man approach is probably not sensible. Is such wanton pollution in the transport group’s target?
Have you considered setting up some kind of car-pooling? I was thinking of sharing information, when people are going where on a regular basis with seats to spare. Or even for one-offs, if they are planned reasonably well in advance?
At my old uni (pre-computers) there was a pin board in the canteen, where people offered and where looking for lifts. Seemed to work really well.
Good idea Ute! Everyone - please consider this comments section as a Car Pool pin board. You can post details here about lifts you need or can offer and others might see them. If it gets well used then we can consider developing it further. I myself would appreciate a lift to Ikea occasionally. I also have a friend in Penicuik that I hardly every get to see as it is such a convoluted journey from here by public transport.
Ritchie Good idea on the pollution front. if you want to suggest to people they stop wasting fuel and reduce air pollution ELC have a campaign to get drivers to switch off. The ad says if stopped for more than 45 secs its worth doing. You are not alone in challenging people. I do it at W Barns School. Most people are happy to switch off.
Are you sure about the Eve 1A bus service being free? I have taken it a few times and have always had to pay 80p.
You are right. I had understood that it was supposed to be free, but in fact it costs 80p to travel from the town to Asda and vice-versa, and more than that to travel to the villages
Hello there,
I am wondering if you lovely people over the border can help me.
Transition Kendal, newly formed and very much in its infancy has asked me to investigate how other Transition Towns have approached businesses and if you have formed any business sub groups. Any info would be much appreciated to help get things moving down here in the sunny Lake District.
Thanks and good luck with your TT.
Dear Transition Dunbar,
I hope you don’t mind me contacting you.
I am undertaking some research at the International Centre for Responsible Tourism (based in Leeds, UK) looking at tourism development within sustainable communities in the UK. The purpose of this ground-breaking research is to find out to what extent tourism is being incorporated into sustainable community initiatives. I plan to send a short survey around all the Transition Initiatives in the UK currently listed on the Transition website and hopefully select from those 2 or 3 to case study. I believe that in some communities (responsible) tourism could be used as a tool to link the different core elements of sustainability together to drive change and I am looking to explore ways in which this could be done. It is therefore a very practically-based piece of research and I am hoping that this project will prove beneficial to the wider cause and make a practical difference, as well as helping to gather support and momentum for the Transition Movement by demonstrating how Transition communities could become responsible tourism “beacons” for others to learn from. It is my intention that any success stories or useful lessons learnt can be shared across the Transition Network and more widely.
I realise that you are volunteers and desperately busy, but I wonder whether I could send you through the survey - it shouldn’t take more than 15 minutes to fill out?
Many thanks for your time