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20/09/2010

Saturday 18th September 2010 ~ The Perils of Running A Long Distance Bus Service

It may be obvious to the likes of you reading this blog, that a long distance bus service may occasionally run on time, but in fact is unlikely to do so unless its route is blessed without accidents and the like. Try then, telling this to the passengers who purely see the bus concerned as a local service,  merely to get them to the nearest town for general shopping purposes. The likelihood is that they probably think that - despite Lowestoft or Peterborough being shown on the front - their bus is connecting their two nearest points, for example, King's Lynn to Swaffham or Norwich to Yarmouth. The fact that a pile up on the Acle straight can have a follow up reaction where people in Guyhirn end up with a long wait for a bus to Peterborough is one of the perils I refer to in today's title.
Today I had fellow bus enthusiast Peter Barclay from Sunderland as guest and with cameras at the ready we decided firstly to visit King's Lynn. En route at Tilney All Saints, we passed 37157 running 27 minutes late on L11 07.15 from Lowestoft, so obviously all was not well. Some of this can be explained by the roadworks over the Ouse Bridge which would have compacted any delay already encountered.

At Lynn bus station we found 37577 which had received patching up repairs at Vancouver Avenue, about to work to Peterborough at 11.45 substituting for L12, the 11.15 departure which was yet to arrive.
 20107 which was L12 arrived at 11.47, approx 37 late and this then retired to the middle of the bus station. Y13 was next and things were still well behind time, 37156 departing westbound at 12.18 (33 late). I daresay passengers turning up for K14 due to depart at 12.15 would have just thought boarding Y13, that their service was marginally late leaving !
K14 itself was 37565 and this was 25 late from Lynn and by the time it reached Guyhirn, was 40 late. Returning it passed Bruce 32 late at 15.07. K15 with 37574 was seen arriving at Lynn only 5 minutes down with 37574, but due to the fact that 565 on K14 had only just left, 574 then joined 20107 in the centre of the bus station whilst arrangements for re-employing them were made.
Things eased westbound, K16 with 37569 actually running near to time, but then K17 was in trouble with 37576 being deemed unfit to continue to Peterborough at 13.45. Whatever plans had been made were then discarded and K17 departed Lynn for Peterborough with 'The Beast' which passed Bruce 13 late. After this westbound services ran pretty much to timetable and the focus was on the coastbound services from Lynn.

L11 was already well late with 37157, so 37574 off K15 worked L11 to Lowestoft at 13.32. With 20107 off L12 having been pinched, this meant 37157 took L12 forward at 14.02. 37577 which was inserted onto L12 at 11.45 then became Y13 as expected and with 37565 on K14 continuing, this left K15 to be taken by 37156 which had been 48 late at Walpole on Y13. Naturally all this meant their were further changes to balance buses. 37156 (now on K15) was left at Lowestoft and 37565 off late running K14 came back to Lynn. 20107 stuck on K17 and ended up at Lynn. K19 with 37571 required a replacement this afternoon , but nothing was left at Lynn, so 571 completed her turn. Got that ?? No I thought not. It just goes to show that X1 route controllers should be on bloody good pay ! Considering the odds stacked against them today they did very well I think.
After all that writing, it's time for a pictorial look at the day ....



Here she is, 20107 arrives at Lynn 33 late this morning.

20107 finds itself usurped by a delicate 37577

and now 37577 is delayed.... by a queue out of Lynn bus station !

37156 looks pretty busy as it prepares to pick up more patrons waiting for the 12.15 ex Lynn.

The Beast departs from Queensgate, Peterborough on K17 this afternoon


37568 - not late for once - on a B7 turn, K18 arriving at Queensgate.


The stranger : 37571 departs from Peterborough Rail Station fractionally early this afternoon on K19


Today's last picture is the classic Peterborough Rail Station fot. 37563 with 'Miss Sixty' advert awaits its 16.35 departure time.

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