Monday 16th - Thursday 19th January 2012 ~ Last Week of Work Buses

Wisbech seems to be swimming in roadworks at the moment and it is set to get worse. Temporary three way lights at Weasenham Lane, the same on Leverington Road and next week the final phase of the flood barrier scheme is being started meaning that Nene Quay will be unavailable for buses coming in from Peterborough and from my point of view mean my sightings will be considerably restricted,
Des says "A glut of roadworks at the moment : Peterborough Bus Station affected from January 16th for 35 days. The west side is currently closed and many buses are using the adjacent bus park for passengers to alight and load. X1 is using Bay 16 to alight and Bay 17 to load. Bus park traffic flow has reversed : enter via The Brewery Tap and exit into Bright Street so heavy traffic on Bourges Boulevard. the Wisbech Weasenham Lane lights are in operation from January 9th for 12 weeks and in addition the Acle straight has night closures from 20.00 to 06.00 from 16th January for nine nights.
Konect Service 8 has changed pick up bays in Norwich bus station. It now loads from Bay 1 towards Dereham and is always sitting there as we pull in to the bay for westbound services",
The X1 service seems to have been running fairly smoothly and completely Gemini operated. Here are a few notes from this week :
Monday 16th : Marion & John were waiting for L10 this morning at Wisbech, due off to Peterborough at 10.48. It didn't appear and instead a string of Lowestoft bound buses passed through before 37160 turned up on L11. This didn't deter them from enjoying an X1 day out though, after Peterborough they travelled through to Lynn for a wander before returning on K3 with 37159.
This afternoon I went to visit my Mum who is in hospital, I expected to pass K17 neat Terrington and it duly appeared about 4 minutes late at Tilney :

Now knowing 37568's unfortunate reputation for late running, I should have been suspicious and lo and behold it turned out to be K16 running 34 late !
I saw the real K17 on my way home which was 37563 driven by Mr. Speed which I passed on Nar Ouse way. Buses spare at King's Lynn today were 37158, 37564 & 37565.
Malcolm had to travel to Norwich and seen on the X2 were 32651/5/6 as well as President 32210

Tuesday 17th : An accident in Peterborough near Boongate caused a few delays this morning. 37573 on K4 08.35 from Peterborough ran into Wisbech 20 late, but this was the only service badly affected. All other services seen were less than 10 minutes late. K1 had 37570 swapped for 37565 at some point. 37563 and 37159 had a day off. Later yet another accident at Boongate caused delay to Des driving 37579 on K16 14.35 ex Peterborough, this was 12 late into Wisbech.

Wednesday 18th : Most buses were not on the road for long today before they gained an unsightly coating of grime. Early delays saw k2 with 37578 10 late and 37570 on K4 14 late. After this things settled down with K16 and 37157 12 late being the worst delayed. 37563 and 36180 were stopped for servicing today and tonight K2 swapped 37578 for 37160 which took the 18.35 Lynn - Lowestoft.

Thursday 19th : 37563 is having some panels repainted, so had another day off today. Timekeeping was good today with both the 11.18 & 11.48 Wisbech to Peterborough passing me slightly early.
L11 with 37565 had this taken off for 37576 at 13.32 and similarly K15 with 36180 changed for 37575 at 15.32. Malcolm saw 34156 getting a run out on the 11.38 X2.