A group of people attended a public forum at the council’s December 7 meeting last year, and raised several issues about the Waverley-Belleknowes bus service, after changes last year.
Petitions, signed by 332 Waverley residents and by 149 Belleknowes community residents, were presented.
A report, under the name of council corporate services director Nick Donnelly, was tabled at a council finance and corporate committee last week.
After some debate, councillors also backed a motion from Cr Andrew Noone and seconded by Cr Michael Deaker, that the council undertake "targeted consultation" with people in the Canongate, Russell St and Arthur St areas.
Petitioners had sought to restore the previous route through lower City Rise to service those areas.
Cr Noone has welcomed the "pleasing" committee decision, which would give people in the area more chance to have their say.
Consultation would take place within the next couple of months and a possible amendment to the council’s Regional Public Transport Plan could result. But any amendment was not a "done deal", he emphasised.
The report said it had been suggested that it was "difficult for some elderly" to walk to the bus, given that bus stops were now further away.
Council staff had "extreme empathy", but the changes last August were in keeping with the council’s transport plan. Cr Noone said he had looked around the area with affected residents in December, and there had been an intensification of accommodation. More people were living in the area and some were now housed in smaller units, he said.
The report said that among the concerns raised by petitioners were eliminating a previous 37-minute delay for passengers halfway around the Waverley Loop, and using that time to reinstate twice an hour off-peak frequency at the Belleknowes end of the route.
Petitioners also asked that signs on buses display only the destination, to avoid confusion.
The report said the 37-minute delay had already been eliminated, the off peak frequency would be restored in July next year, and the bus signs had also been improved, in consultation with the operator.
