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01/10/2009

Wednesday 30th September 2009 ~ Unwanted Premieres

34108 heads through the gloom for Peterborough this evening, it was late but comfortable !
So our friend in Glasgow - see yesterday's comment - is offering us our B10Ms back if he can have 20500/1 in exchange !! I think most folks down here would be happy with a coach of any description. Personally I loved the B12 Paragons, just as long as the air con was working and the dear old B10Ms simply have character, not bad for a product of the 1990s. As I have said before, the B9 Geminis are functional, they are good workhorses for short distance routes, but look at comparable routes to the X1 such as Oxford - Cambridge, or a more profitable one such as Oxford to London ? Far better accommodation and eminently more suitable vehicles are in use. One could I suppose, equally point to Stagecoach's X4 from Peterborough to MK which is DD worked, but again this is hardly an 'express' service. Disregarding the Toftwood fiasco, the X1 has the potential to be a fast service which would undoubtedly make it a more attractive proposition to car users. Anyway, I digress, our B10Ms which went up to Glasgow were in many cases never used by 'First' again. In a direct reversal of recent 'First' policy, 20114/119/120/141 have all been sold to private operators for further use. What became of 20117/142 is unknown. May be CJ can tell us.

Today our own express service had 20103 on K2, 20104 on Y9 and 20107 working K1. In addition, the big bus, 34108 was in charge of K4. Tonight it was running 22 late going westbound, possibly caused partly by a greyhound on the loose in the Swaffham area which local radio reported as disrupting the A47.

Gemini availablity was still down to 13 today. 37568 was viewed at Lowestoft receiving attention from fitters including a representative from Volvo by Terence and 37569 was also absent from the X1 again. 37579 should be back on the road come Friday after its MOT. All three B7 Geminis were at Lynn today. B7 Profile 20353 returned from Yarmouth on Y7.

1 comment:

ECBusman said...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/22455491@N02/3779095344/ - New apparent owner of ex FEC N614 APU. I will try and find photos of the others. Terence.