Wednesday 13th July 2011 ~ Under Attack

The monopoly of regular interval services between Swaffham and King's Lynn by 'First' is likely to be broken from September when Konectbus extend their operation to work between Dereham /Shipdham and King's Lynn. For more detail, see Andy's bus blog :
http://andysbusblog.blogspot.com/

There is an irony about this challenge, as I was recently informed that Konectbus supremo, Julian Patterson, was one of the two people who had the original idea for the Excel X94 service when working at Eastern Counties ! I have no idea as to the validity of this comment, but it was one of the original Excel drivers who told me.
Back to the present though and the visit of Volvo loan vehicle 32000 couldn't have been shorter - it went back to Volvo today ! 20126 has not worked on the X1 mainstream for quite some time now, but it was viewed on a shuttle in Norwich today, as was 37572 on the 15.08 ex Lowestoft X2. The appearance of Excel X1 branded B9s on the X2 causes some comment, particularly when B7s are on the X1. Lowestoft produced 37158 on L10 today, 20 late throughWisbech and also 37160 on L11.

It looks as though accident damaged B9 37577 should be returning to King's Lynn next week and this will probably mean 20352 will be leaving. Its reliability has been good this time and its only period out of service was last week after it had been hit by a Norfolk Green bus in Lynn bus station.
Punctuality was pretty good with the exception mentioned above and 37159 on K18 and 37574 on K15 passed outside my work on K18 & K15 both running a few seconds early which is very unusual.
Maintenance saw K14 having 37564 changed for 37563 at Lynn this lunchtime.