The coach companies are still in direct competition with the train (which says more about the train service than anything else...) and the stop is omitted for exactly the reason's you've identified. Anyway, I believe the Executive is saving its (sic! ) money for a spectacularly-expensive but equally-slow underground rail link instead

As for the Executive's route development fund, I should point out that development agencies in north-west England and Yorkshire both give assistance to airlines starting direct routes, so this isn't an exclusively Scottish phenomenon (doesn't make it right, of course...) Also, the assistance cannot be given until the route has been confirmed in the first place as required by EU law - in other words, it is not a case of the Executive saying "we'll give you x per pax rebates if you start this route regardless of demand" but rather "now you've that identified a certain demand, we'll give you x per pax rebates not to abandon the route after six months". The RDF rebate averaged out at £1.27 per pax for 696,000 pax a year in 04/05 and is not payable when load factors get above about 75%. In the example you've given, CO's EDI-EWR loads average 92 per cent (and it's twice daily in summer, not daily ) so it hasn't seen much of your hard-earned English tax pound...

Anyway, where were we? I see there's an early morning bus from Bearsden to Queen Street but I a private car direct to EDI would definitely be the easiest option.