After yesterday's performance, it was only right that today should provide a better illustration of how 'First' would prefer to see the X1 run. Timekeeping was about as good as it gets and only evening peak services amassed delays of over 5 minutes and even then, L9 17.59 Lynn - Peterborough was the worst example at 9 minutes behind schedule.
Noteworthy events today were all three B7 Profiles beginning the day on X1 duty for the first time since around February 5th. For the record, 20352 did K3 and 20353 K17 as booked, while 20351 which had found itself overnight at Lowestoft due to yesterday's dislocation of resources worked L12. Lowestoft B9 37565 unusually worked the King's Lynn early bath turn, K4 07.29 Lynn - Peterborough etc. It still has a fault with its estination isplay !!
B10Ms in service were 20104 which did the first part of K19 before being replaced by 37566 and 20103 which was on K6 which ends up at Yarmouth. Y14 ran all day with 20118.
Had a chat with Andrew James at Lynn bus station early this evening and we remarked on the lack of incident today, however, later there were evening changes. Andy says 37569 on K20 arrived with a broken upstairs windscreen and was replaced for the 18.59 to Peterborough by newly MOT'd 37570. A second change involved Lynn's 37576 which was taken off L9 for a scheduled maintenance service and 37579 off Y8, the 20.07 arrival stepped up and did the 20.42 to Lowestoft.
The mileage on the B9s has been mentioned by me before in this blog. 37573 which had a period out of service following the accident in Peterborough with the overhanging scaffolding had done 44,026 miles this week whereas 37566 which had two extended periods out of service for collision repairs has only done 31,265. In contrast, 37568 and 37571 which have run without interruption since their introduction have done nearly 46,000 miles. On the adverts front it looks as if only 37567/8 and 37571/9 retain the small rear 'exhaust emissions' ad even though most Geminis had them applied. 37569, 37572/4/8 were all seen today without any advertising whatsoever.
Finally tonight, 37574 which worked L13 was seen leaving Lynn on the 23.00 to Hunstanton as per diagram. It would seem therefore that Geminis are now permitted to run to Hunstanton, though that said, L13 is still probably the turn most frequently worked by B10M coaches.
This is the unofficial blog for the Peterborough - Norwich XL bus service operated by First Group. Originally reporting the introduction of the 'Gemini' double deckers and the phasing out of coaches, the blog is now incredibly in its twelfth year and in 2021 the new fleet of state of the art double deckers enter their second year in traffic. To contact me with your observations/experiences on the XL, email gerardtcc@gmail.com .
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