Monday 28th March 2011 ~ What Spare Buses ?

37567 basking in evening sunshine after arrival at King's Lynn on Y7 tonight. DS

Regular readers will be aware that these days there aren't simply spare buses and drivers waiting on every corner in case a bus breaks down. The X1 is a good example of this and whilst complete failures are very rare, this weekend has seen some important changes which may affect the service in the coming months. B10M coach 20107 is now withdrawn and sister 20121 has left King's Lynn, presumably for scrap. In addition Volvo bus 60863 which has so often in the past been Yarmouth's saviour as it has a calibrated tachograph, has this weekend been transferred to Norwich. So what exactly does this leave in the unofficial X1 reserve pool ? Well, according to my chart, just the two Yarmouth coaches, 20115 and 20126 plus Royale 34108. The latter has been noticeable by its absence so far this year and was last on X1 duty as far back as Novemer 24th. This may mean its tachograph will need recalibrating to allow it to reappear.
Credit where it is due though and today saw another completely Gemini operated day. Lowestoft seems to have its servicing requirements sorted at last. Today K4 had 37564 swapped for 37568 at Lowestoft and at Lynn L8 also saw a 'servicing' change take place with freshly treated 37570 coming off Lynn garage to replace 37572. The only Gemini not seeing X1 use today was 37160.
A late morning aberration on the timetable saw L10 just 2 late westbound from Wisbech on L10, but then L11 turned up 13 late with 37157 (it was 9 late coming back eastbound), then 37579 on L12 which passed me 3 minutes early !
Malcolm reports from Lowestoft "Rachel had 37566 on Y13 08.15 to Peterborough and she also saw 37568 in the bus station not in service. I saw 37578 work K14 08.55 to Peterborough, 37156 departed on K16 09.55 to Peterborough 20 minutes late - interestingly it was 1 minute early by Wisbech -  37576 was 15 minutes late arriving on K17 06.52 ex Kings Lynn and departed 8 minutes late on the 10.25 to Peterborough. Also seen this morning were 34156 on a 101 service to Hollow Grove and 34155 worked the 10.38 service x2 to Norwich, Dart 43450 worked a 101 service to Gunton".