Wednesday 1st December 2010 ~ 37576 Record Breaker !

The record for the number of consecutive days in traffic worked by an Excel B9 was broken today. Today marked the 69th day in use for 37576, a sequence which began on Friday 24th September. A number of factors have to coincide in order to make a run like this possible. The fortnightly servicings have to be completed on schedule to enable the bus to work on that day for example, but there also has to be an element of good fortune attached, so that the bus has to work on consecutive Sundays when there is a reduced vehicle requirement. All this, plus the essential fact that major components must remain reliable to allow a continuous spell in service.
576 has not been without its problems of late and (I am told) only just made it into traffic today. Tomorrow it is due for servicing, so although it was used on K4 this morning - a turn which ends at Yarmouth - it was removed at 16.45 and replaced by 37570. After this though, something went wrong, as on my way to my pool match tonight, I passed 576 running 8 late on Y6. It must have been a last minute decision to send it to Peterborough and back, possibly due to Y6 running late into Lynn. After its scheduled service tomorrow, it also has work to be carried out by Volvo fitters, so its record breaking run looks set to end very soon.
37576 was in the news itself today as it managed to be 23 late on K4 returning from Peterborough this morning, which was marginally better than 37565s performance on the same turn yesterday. 37160 on K5 was the worst culprit today being 28 late on K5 and not far behind was Y6 with 37568 which was just 3 late.
20121 was back to its usual turn with K3 and just when it looked like it would get a rest, 20107 was out on L11.
B7 37157 was again breaking records for B7s today. It was 12 late entering King's Lynn on Y9 this morning, reduced to 11 late from Wisbech and only 4 late returning. One suspects (may be unkindly) that it skipped its visit to the rail station.