Tuesday October 5th 2010 ~ Bus Lane Needed

Someone told me recently that it is rumoured that part of London Road in King's Lynn is to be made into a bus lane. This would certainly have been handy today, as the Millfleet junction roadworks seem to have over-ran causing chaos in this morning's peak right through until lunchtime.
Y6 - the first one from Yarmouth - is normally a good timekeeper, so 37563 departing Wisbech 11 late this morning was indicative of problems. Next along past Bruce was Y7 with 37565 which was 21 late and 27 late coming back, but it was after this that the balloon went up so to speak. L8 with 37578 was already 37 late coming into King's Lynn from Lowestoft and then took 24 minutes between appearances at the South Gates. It was 44 late past Bruce and 41 late from Wisbech. It later returned through Walpole 37 late. Y9 had 37157 and this was 47 late past Bruce, 44 late from Wisbech and on its return at Walpole managed to be 58 late ! As a result of all this chaos, it was decided to terminate L10 at Lynn and the 10.15 to Peterborough didn't run. 37574 which was the bus on L10 was actually only 24 late arriving. Next was 37566 on L11 and this was 16 late into Lynn, 17 late at Walpole westbound which had reduced to just 1 minute late eastbound. At this point, 566 was just 3 minutes behind 37157 when there should have been an hour separating them !
Making an effort to patch things up, Lynn decided to send 37574 to Lowestoft at 12.49, but it is not known whether it ran in service. It later appeared on the afternoon part of L8, this being the 15.25 from Lowestoft. 37157 left Lynn eastbound at 13.30, still with 37566 3 minutes behind it. These were now running as L10 and L11. After this the timetable pretty much righted itself.
Earlier on eastbound services were also heavily delayed. Worst affected was 20121 on K3 which took 28 minutes to get from the South Gates to the bus station and back. By this afternoon though, 20121 was once again on time.
Volvo modifications, which chiefly involve the fuel gauges on the B9s being reset - they have up to now often shown empty when there is still a quarter of a tank left - saw more swapping today. 37573 on K4 was taken off at Lynn and the 10.02 to Lowestoft left with a B7, believed to be 37159. 37576 on K15 was taken off at 12.37 with a refreshed 573 working forward. Attention complete to 576, this then relieved the B7 on K4 at 16.45.
While all this was going on, 20107 worked K14 and 37568 enjoyed a day off at Lynn because its cameras were inoperative. There was no sign of 37564 or 37156 on the X1 or X2 today and Michael B says that 34156 was the only exception to Presidents on the X2 today.