Tuesday February 10th 2026
Lothian Bus outside Tesco Dalkeith
Written by Midlothian View Reporter, Liam Eunson
At the end of last month, after announcing route changes, Lothian Buses scrapped the popular No 46 bus service from Rosewell to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.
After introducing the service only three years ago, the route played an essential role in travel through Midlothian and to the hospital, allowing elderly members of public, workers and anyone needing to access hospital services, simple travel to the infirmary.
Whilst also introducing new routes when announcing the scrapping, Lothian Buses explained that the No 46 was no longer in service after changes were made as a result of ‘requests from the local community who wanted more direct services into the city centre’, planning to end the service in mid February.
We gathered our readers’ thoughts on the bus changes, receiving over 90 responses that mainly expressed a sense of frustration and anger.
Dalkeith local, Angie Burt, who works as a support worker in Rosewell is concerned about the changes as she both uses the 46 service to get to work and take the people she supports out on day trips.
After recently losing her daughter, Angie explained that her three and half years working as a support worker has given her great job satisfaction and helped her deal with her loss but she fears her beloved role helping people may be put into jeopardy with the bus service changes.
Expressing that ‘if it’s not broken, don’t try and fix it’, Angie told us that, after contacting Lothian Buses, they told her to get to work she would need to get a bus from Dalkeith to Tesco, Tesco to Bonnyrigg and then Bonnyrigg to Rosewell.
“I start at 7am most days, so there would be no way of me getting to work at 7am”, she explained, “Then when I finish at 10pm it would be the same, god knows what time I’m going to get home. If there is a waiting time in between buses, that won’t work for me.”
Alongside causing concern for her own travel, Angie expressed worry for the travel of the people she supports, explaining that people with mobility issues would not be able to handle multiple service switches.
A Danderhall resident, who has mobility issues, said the bus changes will cause her extreme difficulty when trying to visit her family in Rosewell.
She explained: “For myself, a disabled woman with mobility issues, there will no longer be one bus which allows me to visit my family in Rosewell due to the 46 being scrapped.
“Living in Danderhall, the 46 takes me straight to Rosewell, and as I mentioned I have mobility issues so getting off and on buses is not feasible for me so I will no longer be able to visit these family members.”
She also explained that her pensioner mother, who lives at the top of Mayfield, attends regular appointments at the Royal Infirmary.
“The removal of the top loop to Mayfield for the 48 means there is no longer a direct bus to the Royal Infirmary, so my mum would either need to walk down and get a bus, which she is not always capable of doing or she would need to get two buses which I believe, with the timetable change, makes the buses miss each other.”
Starting in May of 2023, the service 46 was introduced as ‘a partial replacement for service 49 in Midlothian to provide additional connectivity across the region’, with Lothian Bus explaining that, despite customer numbers increasing, the service has failed to grow to ‘levels expected or required to sustain the cost of operation’.
Reaching out to the bus service provider for comment, a spokesperson from Lothian Buses told the Midlothian View:
“Lothian [Buses] is committed to delivering reliable, accessible and cost-effective bus services for customers across Edinburgh and the Lothians.
“As a wholly commercial operator, our decision to implement network changes is driven by analysis of data and travel patterns to allow us to maintain delivery of viable bus services. We appreciate the concerns raised amongst some communities and we will continue to monitor the changes once implemented.”
Lothian Buses also explained that, specifically for Rosewell, their data suggests that most customers travel to Bonnyrigg as a destination or to change onto service 31 so the changes ‘reflect this demand and recognise continued calls from within local communities for a direct link to Edinburgh’.
Analysing this data, whilst scrapping the Rosewell to Royal Infirmary service, Lothian Buses are changing the No 31 service from Edinburgh City Centre to Polton, extending the route to go to Rosewell.
They added: “The overall level of customer demand in Rosewell is not at a level that can sustain two separate bus services – a service into Edinburgh and a local Midlothian service.”
With Lothian Buses scrapping the route after it failed to grow to ‘levels expected’, responses from our readers highlighted that the No 46 is a popular service with many people travelling to the Royal Infirmary.
Another Midlothian local who works as a catering supervisor at the Royal Infirmary explained that ‘once the service is withdrawn, travelling to the hospital will become extremely difficult’.
He explained that he begins work at 6am and the No 46 is the only direct and reliable bus that gets him to work on time. He said that despite sometimes using the No 31, missed connections when using that service are common, leading him to frequently having to get a taxi to ensure he arrives at work on time.
Lothian Buses is a municipally-owned company operated on a wholly commercial basis, rather than a public service contract model. This means that, despite being owned by local councils (Midlothian, Edinburgh, East Lothian and West Lothian), they function as an arm’s-length external organisation (ALEO). Owned by the local councils, Edinburgh are the majority shareholder with 91% ownership with Midlothian having a small 5% ownership, followed by East Lothian with 3% and West Lothian with %2.
Talking to the Midlothian View about the service changes, Midlothian Council Leader Kelly Parry, explained that the changes announced were ‘a commercial decision taken by Lothian Buses’.
She added: “Whilst the Council remains committed to working in partnership with Lothian Buses, we are not involved in the decision making process, but are kept informed.
“This can be frustrating for both residents and the Council, who want the best service possible for our communities.
“We will continue discussions with Lothian Buses following these recent announcements, and represent the views of our residents in the strongest possible terms.”
Gathering responses from our readers, we received over 80 Facebook comments on a post shared with the majority sharing a sense of frustration whilst some highlighted the new changes to the 31 service will make travel easier.
A comment received from Kay Wesley said: “I’m delighted the 31 has finally been extended to Rosewell. It will make it so much easier for work travel and will now use the bus so much more.”
Another in support of the changes from Ian Smith explained: “This is a big improvement for us, a direct connection to Edinburgh is better for us. The children will be able to travel home from the City Centre more safely now at any time.”
Despite some responses in support of the changes, many are against it. One comment from Christine Thompson read: “So all residents of Rosewell, Polton , Bonnyrigg and Eskbank are now required to take 2 buses to get to RIE appointments and many can no longer travel directly to Dalkeith for shopping etc. This is unfair – especially as so much of the area has been expanded with housing. Come on Lothian Buses you can do better than this for your customers!”
Another comment from Jennifer Phibbs suggested a return to the ‘old’ 49 route, it explained: “They should keep the 31as it is and reinstate the ‘old’ 49 from Rosewell to the city centre via the RIE. Would make sense, really.”
A full breakdown of the revised timetables can be found at www.lothianbuses.com.
A big thank you to all our readers who gave feedback on this issue.
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