Sunday May 6th - Sunday May 13th 2012 ~ Is He On Strike ?

Yes apologies for the lack of blogs again, all due to my Mum being poorly, but let's not go there - she is improving I'm glad to say. Fortunately from an X1 point of view, it has all been very uneventful. The same old Geminis doing the same old turns.
Meanwhile, I had an email from one Victor Meldrew who posted me a vintage timetable from the year 2000 no less and I thought it only polite to repost it here for you, it certainly shows how times have changed :

Superb modern coaches hey ? RIP the Beast.

Gosh it's that nice young Mr. Woodhouse chauffering all the X94 passengers, if you are lucky you might get him driving your X1 next time but I'm sure he wont mind me saying he might look a bit older !

Well many thanks to Victor for that blast from the past and of course it is accompanied by a good old moan :- He says "Dear Mr Fletcher

What on earth is all this nonsense in your column about the new X1 timetable? Twice as many buses going westbound as there are eastbound... this simply did not happen back in the late 70s when I worked for the Eastern Counties Omnibus Company Limited.

Please make up your mind whether the service is X1, X2, X3, X4 or X5 - we never used to confuse people travelling between Peterborough and Norwich in my day - well, OK, we did have the 337 if you wanted to go via Beloe Crescent or the 336 if you didn't, and the 34, 34a, 34b or 34c depending on which villages you fancied travelling through.

And please pull your finger out and publish the excellent X94 timetable I sent you from the days when the X1 was a proper express service with none of this ridiculous stopping outside every house on the Toftwood Estate. What will you do next - divert the X1 via Walpole St Peter with a stop on School Lane? That will be curtons (sic) for the service! And take a closer look at the X94 leaflet. "Friendly drivers"... they didn't tell you they were running non-stop from Peterborough to King's Lynn causing a 90 minute gap in the service to Wisbech.

A full refund if the service was late... First Group seem to have conveniently dropped this one. And I won't mention the service was operated by lovely air conditioned coaches with proper (i.e. NO) interior lighting at night! Those were the days!

Yours grumpily

Victor

Heavens, what can you say to that ? What a miserable old specimen he is. I bet he will even find something to moan about if we eventually get buses with leather seats and wi-fi !

Let's have a quick look at what's been going on in 2012 since my last post.

Sunday & Monday 6th/7th saw the usual hourly service for Sundays/Bank Holidays. Nothing other than the usual B9 Geminis, but a slight panic ensued at Yarmouth when 37563 refused to start. Only three buses are required from here on the hourly service, so at least  there was time for repairs to take place. In the end Richard had to phone through with instructions to Yarmouth to get it back on the road successfully - all caused by something computerised and electrical as one might expect. Sunday saw diversions in operation at Lynn to allow the Great East Anglian Run to take place. Des reports being 20 late at South Gates roundabout on the 11.35 to Lowestoft (37568). The service was 11 late at its destination. He adds "Did you know?

The circumference of the earth at the equator is 24,901.55 miles (40,075.16 kilometres), so as of 07.50 on Sunday 6/5/12, bus 37567 had travelled the equivalent of 16.27 times around the equator!!!! Or 1678.1 return X1 journeys!!!". 

and you all thought I was sad !!

Kieran adds "Did you know that the 'Mad March Fares' promotion has now been extended until May ? So its Mad March, April & May Fares now !"

On Tuesday 8th, 37563 was sent out on Y13, but it was removed at Lynn for examination and 37564 worked forward. 37159 & 37575 were spare at Lynn, although the former was sidelined with a brake caliper problem. Malcolm reports former King's Lynn mini Darts 43357/8 now being used on the new X22 service from Lowestoft to Beccles - now that's a Go Ahead move for 'First' lol. He also noted 32211 on the 14.10 Norwich - Lowestoft X2 with 34156 going the other way on the 14.28 departure. 

Wednesday 9th saw most services running to time. A series of swaps took place all starting when 37159 on K18 was involved in a rear end collision not long after starting out. Damage was minor, but it meant that 37156 had to replace it. In the end this in turn was changed for 37158 meaning that K18 had three different B7s at various points today. L12 & K15 had 37566 & 37576 change places during the day. At Lowestoft the X2 saw Palatines still in use, 34155 was on the 11.08 and 34156 on the 17.23 to Norwich. Y6 arrived 15 late with 37573 and departed 7 late on the 14.25 to Peterborough.

On Thursday 10th I only saw one X1 service and this was K1 with 37572 seen 13 late at Walpole Highway on the 15.33 to Peterborough. 37575/6 & 37159 were the buses not used today.

Friday 11th was remarkable for some excellent timekeeping. A swap on L11 saw 37570 replaced by 37578. Repairs to 37159 continued and 37576 was stopped for servicing and repairs. L10 had 37160 which meant a refuelling exercise had to take place, the first time this has happened for a while. Surprises on the X2 viewed by Malcolm were 30886 on the 11.08, 32211 on the 10.10 ex Norwich and 30887 on the 15.03.

Saturday 12th saw another smooth operating timetable, though the usual Saturday 10 minute delays were in evidence at times. 37569/70 were in Lynn garage and late on 37566 on K17 was changed at Lowestoft for 37564 off K14 after cleaning was necessary on the former. Even the X2 had settled down with 32651/4/5/6 all being noted in use.

Sunday 13th saw 37571 on K5 being changed at the coast for 37156 - always unusual to get a B7 operating on a Suunday.

Thanks to all my regular correspondents for gen this week, especially Bruce, Des, Cheryl & Malcolm.