Thursday 4th December 2008 ~ It's Not Fair

"It's not fair" said Michael the taximan tonight when I told him that the B9s can't keep time. "Why ?" I asked, "Well" he replied "There are so many sets of roadworks (spelt correctly Cheryl, please note) at the moment that nothing could keep the timetable going". He may be right and I look forward to the day when we get a good day. Tonight there was more chaos after a serious accident in the dip between Honingham and Hockering. The A47 was closed for in excess of 3 hours and diversions were set up.
B10s out today were 20104 which did all of K19, 20103 which similarly did K20 and tonight 20118 was sent out to Peterborough and back on L13 19.59 ex Lynn. 20109 had also come in to Lynn on an X1 tonight on one of the early arrivals. The B10s on Hunstanton schools runs were 20121 , 20131 and presumably 20118.
Elsewhere the B9 saga continued. 37576 was my first sighting today on K1 07.48 ex P'bo 20 late at Wisbech. 37577 began the day on K2 but was obviously removed as when I visited tonight, it had just arrived at Rowan Road from Volvo (K Lynn) after attention to Adblu problems. 37565 was also there for same and two others had allegedly been into Yarmouth Volvo for similar attention.
Delays because of the Wisbech roadworks resulted in Y9 10.18 ex P'bo with 37570 being 26 late, while J11 from Gorleston did its increasingly popular manouevre by missing the villages west of Lynn due to it being 30 late. Once again viewed on the A47 bypass by Bruce, the bus is believed to have been 37578. L13 10.59 Lynn - Peterboro' had a bad day with 37564 running 26 late going west and 32 late returning. The following Y14 travelled on its booked route through the roadworks, rather than taking the A1101 out of Wisbech which accounted for it being 34 late with 37571. Tonight the latter looked to have come in to Lynn on Y21 and due to severe congestion at Vancouver Avenue was parked in the HGV park off the South Gates roundabout. 20109 had been left abandoned in the road outside the garage by its incoming driver.
At lunchtime I visited Wisbech bus station at 13.08 just as 37568 arrived from Lynn with 'not in service' on the front and 37573 was filling up with passengers for Peterborough. 573 was actually K15 running 36 late and 568 originally on K16 must have gone empty to Peterboro' to take over K15 leaving 573 to drop down to K16. Jamie R was at Peterborough for the 13.58 to Wisbech (K16) which was 573 and this left Queensgate bus station and then went to the rail station where 20351 on K17 was already in attendance (on time !). Bruce witnessed a pairing at Walpole Highway this afternoon when at 16.20 he saw 20352 just 2 minutes late on K3 heading east followed 20 seconds later by 37563 on K18 which was 32 late. The reason for the transposition of K18 and K3 was because the Profile took the Wisbech western bypass to the B & Q roundabout then the A1101 to reach the Horsefair while the Gemini stuck with its correct route and thus lost more time. K5 this afternoon was a B10 believed to have been 20107 and glimpsed by Bruce on the A47 flyover, this turn had started the day with 37566.
At Rowan Road tonight there had been no further Paragon movements and 20114 was sandwiched between two B12s probably indicating that its operating days here are likewise over. At Vancouver Avenue 20120 had been moved over the pits and also in this position was 20105.
20351/2 were on their old favourite turns K17 and K3 today, while 20353 which has an odd front panel following its mishap the other night came in on Y8 18.48 from Peterborough.
On the Hunstanton route, 30235 had a collision with a loose tree branch this morning knocking a front window out and badly damaging the roof. It was the first decker to traverse the route today and was en route to Hunstanton empty. It is not expected to see further service and indeed the whole route is supposedly to be low floor by the end of the month.