Thursday 23rd September 2010 ~ Mailbox

Window reglazed, Des managed to procure 37579 for the 6B, 881 schools jaunt &X1 shuttle.
He adds "I managed to get  6B on the destination caption as seen here"



..... but 881 just comes up as 'Bad Display' on the destination selector, hence the 'Contract' and paper number seen here. I did, however, manage to get in such a position that I could get the Belton Bus stop flag into the photo.

 Lots of you were in touch today for varying reasons. John Wilson writes "Hi Gerard, I feel bound to report that 37568 was seen (and heard) entering Lynn Bus Station at 08.33 this morning against a timetabled arrival time of 08.37. Should this be put forward to the Guiness Book of Records ?". Well there you go, after the report of it running 4 minutes early a couple of weeks back and of course numerous reports of it running behind time, we now find ourselves with a new challenge - can anyone lay claim to seeing 568 running exactly to time. I know you will be on the case !!
Rob Brooks says " Following on from Sundays blog and the business with the Norfolk Green 46 overtaking the X1" (yes I hadn't forgotten it was 568 Rob). "Myself and Mum tend to use the 46 as opposed to the X1 when we go to Lynn from Wisbech. Both of us can travel for £7.80 return (Duo return) where as on X1 it would cost us £12 for that. (£6 each rtn)". Hmm yes, Bruce has commented previously that the X1 can work out a bit pricey if you are not travelling alone. Mind you, I think you have to consider that 'First' do offer a half hourly service throughout the working week which would be beyond the scope of most other service providers.
Briefly diversifying here, 'First' have also come in for much criticism this week over new timetables in Norwich which have not been made public in advance, according to the local media - except they have ! It would seem that all the necessary detail is on the 'First' website, but not in a sufficiently big font to alert the masses. Oh well, I know a good opticians !
Back to today on the X1 now and it was quite a notable day in many respects. The low floor service went out of the window with 20107 on K1, 20126 on Y13 and 34108 on K14. 20126 was completely unexpected as yesterday, Yarmouth had the luxury of a spare Gemini. Turns out though that 37579 which arrived last night was discovered to have a broken window this morning, hence 126 standing in. 579 was soon fixed of course and Des who kindly supplied the info took a couple of pictures for us.
In total, five Geminis were unavailable today and these are as follows : 37564 Yarmouth for MOT ; 37576 King's Lynn safety service and adblu attention ; 37579 Yarmouth, broken window ; 37156 Lowestoft : assumed safety service although 156 is unique in not seemingly having a fixed day for its fortnightly services (unless you now differently that is ) and finally 37159 and here we can reveal the reason for its recent absence from X1 work, it has a malfunctioning tachograph which should be rectified shortly.

Y9 was again the turn involved in another swap for servicing purposes. 37563 having been released after attention took the 15.55 back to Peterborough, enabling the incoming vehicle, 37569 to be taken to Lowestoft depot for servicing. This is the way servicing commitments should be incorporated into the timetable of course, but in practice this often leads to the appearance of one of the substitutes.