Lothian Bus app is now multilingual

Visitors to Edinburgh can now access our bus and tram information on their mobile phones and tablets in ten languages, as well as English, just in time for the peak tourism season in the City.

The Lothian bus app now supports simplified and traditional Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Korean, Japanese, Polish, Russian and Spanish.

The app offers a range of travel information including departures times, journey planning, service updates, and ‘stop alerts’ for customers unfamiliar with a certain route. Passengers can also pre-pay for a range of tickets on the app which can be downloaded onto their phone or tablet which can be used for travel when needed.

This month, we will also be trialling multilingual service updates from the bus control team, using the same technology used to power real-time translation on smartphones to deliver service updates on diversions and disruptions in all the languages supported by the app.

Also new this month, as part of tour summer partnership with the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, bus travellers will be able to search for Fringe venues, events and individual artists to find the best way to get there by bus.

Gaynor Marshall, Communications Director at Lothian, said:

"Our in-house digital development team are always looking for ways to improve the app for the benefit of our customers. The introduction of the new languages is a major step forward for us as we strive to make Edinburgh as welcoming and easy to navigate as possible for the many thousands of people who visit from across the globe. Our bus network is a convenient and great value way to travel around and see all that the capital and surrounding area has to offer."

Shona McCarthy, Chief Executive of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society said:

"We are delighted that Lothian are now including the locations of Fringe venues on their app enabling audiences to plan their bus journeys to the 300 Fringe venues across Edinburgh. The Edinburgh Festival Fringe welcomes thousands of international performers, visitors and locals each year to experience and perform in the world’s largest open access arts festival and this extra information on the Lothian app can be used alongside the Fringe app where you can explore every show in the 70th anniversary Fringe."

About Lothian Buses

Lothian Buses is the largest bus operator in Edinburgh; the only municipal bus company in Scotland and the biggest municipal company in the UK.

Lothian Buses has been awarded:

• Scottish Transport Operator of the Year and Best Bus Service for Lothian Country Buses Service 113 at the Scottish Transport Awards 2016.
• Transport Award at the VIBES Awards 2016.
• Creative Marketing Award at the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce Business Awards 2017.

Lothian Buses is currently recognised as Police Scotland ‘Policing Partner of the Year’. The company employs over 2000 staff, operates over 700 buses across Edinburgh and the Lothian’s and carries over 121m passengers per year. Lothian Buses has one of the youngest and cleanest fleet of buses in the country and since 2011 has invested in 85 state-of-the-art hybrid buses and 91 Euro 6 buses.