[Update re Edinburgh Airport below] The timetable for the new Scottish Citylink express coach service between Glasgow’s Buchanan Street bus station and Edinburgh Airport is now published here on the Citylink website, under Timetables on the list of routes served. The full timetable information is now visible linked from that listing.
There is also a direct link from the citylink air banner at the top of the Scottish Citylink home page to a page with details on the service here.
This is the business.
The service is delivered by Argyll’s West Coast Motors in a fleet of new Scania 14.2 metre coaches in the brightly recognisable livery seen above.
This initiative is a seriously convenient addition to public transport, with its direct express service between Edinburgh Airport and Glasgow. It takes an hour and runs half hourly for most of the day and evening in each direction. Fares are £10 single, £16 return and £13 Apex.
Buchanan Street bus station is a major transport hub in Glasgow with Citylink coaches coming in from all parts of the west coast and Highlands. Now a simple change of stance delivers an express direct shuttle service to Edinburgh Airport. For those coming in from the west coast and flying out on an Edinburgh route, this will mean a much quicker transit and far less bother with luggage handling.
The existing airport shuttle out to Glasgow Airport also leaves from here, making for a fast transfer for passengers flying in to Edinburgh and then on from Glasgow to Campbeltown, Islay, Tiree, and the Western Isles.
The major arterial route coaches also leave from Buchanan, like:
- Service 926 running along Loch Lomond and through Argyll to Campbeltown on the Mull of Kintyre
- Service 976 to Oban in north Argyll, following the same route as 926 as far as Inveraray and then running up Loch Awe.
- Services to Fort William and Skye – like the epic Service 916 which runs right from Buchanan Street to Skye – and then goes on from Portree out to Uig to link with the ferries to Lochmaddy and Tarbert in the Western Isles.
Each one of these routes is a scenic stunner. Timetables for each of them are on the Scottish Citylink page linked above.
Update 13.55: Edinburgh Airport facilities
Edinburgh Airport is excited by this new service, which they too see as a serious contribution to ease of travel.
They have assured us that arriving air passengers using this express coach service to Glasgow may indeed take their luggage trollies right to the coach stance at the end of the taxi-rank.
They say that there may be a signage issue that has confused some early users of the service and have guaranteed that any such confusion will be speedily resolved.