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04/12/2008

Wednesday December 3rd 2008 ~ A Service of Sorts

The traffic congestion at Wisbech became even worse during this morning's peak and I suspect an accident or two contributed to the appalling delays suffered by the X1 services at this time. Bruce saw K6 07.59 Lynn - Peterborough on time with 37565, although K7 which passes him at the same time going east failed to appear.
Surveying from around 10.40 at Walpole Highway, the first X1 seen by Bruce was a B9 Gemini flailing westbound down the A47 dual carriageway avoiding the villages to make up time, this turned out to be J11 (we think !) about 30 late. Next came 37576 on Y8 09.48 ex Peterborough 13 minutes late at 11.01 followed by K6 returning with 37565, now 43 late and having been overtaken by 576.
Then 37575 on L12 10.29 Lynn - Peterborough appeared 18 late, I passed this coming in to Wisbech whilst behind me was Y9 10.18 ex Peterboro' with 37578 almost on time. After waving at Bruce, I then met 37568 on L13 at Walpole Highway just 4 late. Whilst sitting waiting for my Mum at Terrington surgery, another unidentified B9 passed by westbound on Y14, while Bruce made a visit to B & Q.
Observations resumed with J11 12.09 Wisbech - Lowestoft which was 37567 dead on time, K15 11.59 ex Lynn had lost time though and was 17 late while 37572 and the following K16 fared worse being 24 late with 37569. 575 returned on L12 by now 25 late, but strangely, despite keeping his eyes fixed on both the old and new A47 routes, Bruce never saw L13 or Y14 returning east ! His next eastbound observation was K15 with 572 just 7 late.
37566 was K17 12.59 ex Lynn which was only 6 late going west, but then there was another big gap in the Peterborough bound service with 20352 and 37570 both appearing in convoy on K18 & K3 at 14.23, 35 & 5 late respectively. By 15.05 when Bruce finished his vigil, K16 and K5 had both failed to appear suggesting that the former may have bypassed the villages again.
At teatime K4 was 33 late at Walpole with 37577, but later services had at last caught up time with L13 still with 37568 being spot on time at Walpole at 20.17 heading west where it passed Y9 on time with 37565. A late observation tonight was 37572 (still on K15) being on time at Walpole.
So a plethora of white elephants and no B10s seen today, however, Sam says 20103 was on K19 X2 turn, although it was 35 late this evening.

1 comment:

Hodge said...

Interesting, is there any performance regime that applies to this service?If it was a train company the regulator would be jumping up and down about punctuality by now!