Madder and white in pink as buses return to classic livery

The council-owned bus firm is expected to unveil the new paint job in the coming weeks, which will see it revert back to the popular madder (maroon) colour first introduced on Edinburgh's trams in the 1920s and 30s.

The new livery, which will be rolled out gradually across the fleet, marks an end for the "Harlequin" design launched in 1999, which former Lothian Buses boss Neil Renilson once claimed was based on one of Liz Hurley's figure-hugging dresses.

News of the bus company's rebranding came as council chiefs revealed more details of how the trams will look once the scheme is up and running.

As revealed in the Evening News last week, bosses have scrapped the original tram branding in favour of a madder, white and gold design.

There will also be two "specials" – trams which could be given over to celebrating Edinburgh's Unesco City of Literature status or its scientific heritage – and a further two, at least initially, which could yield "six-figure" revenues by being given to advertisers.

Director of city development Dave Anderson said the front of the tram would carry an Edinburgh Inspiring Capital badge, which he hoped would become as "instantly recognisable" as the Volkswagen or Mercedes logos.

He said: "We looked, in particular, at how best to make linkages between the Inspiring Capital brand and the tram. We looked at several different designs, but decided to keep it fairly simple, using the traditional madder colour."

Both Lothian Buses and TIE are set to be amalgamated into Transport Edinburgh Limited (TEL) once the trams are operating.

The council's trams sub-committee also heard from Richard Jeffrey, chief executive of TIE, that reports the tram firm had lost three out of four disputes with contractors which had gone to an independent adjudicator were "disingenuous".

Mr Jeffrey said that of 135 initial "issues," only 14 had gone to a formal dispute phase, with four ending up with the adjudicator.

A further five, however, are yet to be resolved and could potentially end up with the adjudicator, he added.

Mr Jeffrey said "lessons would be learned" from the handling of the tram project, while director of finance Donald McGougan said it was likely there would be an "external review" once the scheme was completed.

In a separate admission, Mr Jeffrey said the final design of the tram line had yet to be approved by the contractor and would not be completed until May.

He said: "It would be amazing if a project of this size did not yield a lot of lessons about how to do things differently in the future.

"I absolutely think there will come a time when we can sit down and learn what lessons can be learnt from this project."