Monday 18th February - Tuesday 26th February 2013 ~ Update

Since the last blog entry I've been making daily visits to my Mum in hospital, so to catch up it's a bit of a 'brief highlights' job. Most noteworthy arrival at King's Lynn was an Enviro 400 which visited briefly on Friday for the engineers to peruse, however, it was shorter in length than the buses which are expected, so an evaluation of that nature was not possible. It is confirmed now that the new buses will be able to run at a top speed of 56 mph, the same as the B9 Geminis.

Norwich bus station was closed all last week for repairs to the roof canopy and X1 services along with other buses which normally use the bus station were diverted to nearby stops. The week dawned with 37573 stopped with its axle problem and 37568 likewise with a no. 3 injector fault. 37570 had an exciting day doing K5-XL11 to 10.27, L11-XL17 from 10.45 and then Y6-XL12 from 20.35, on the latter replacing 37567 which had a wayfarer fault.  Services ran well but with a few other bus swaps, K18-XL05 was the worst delay noted, 37159 being 16 late on the 14.48 Wisbech - Peterborough. Thanks to Malcolm Hicks for some notes on the X2 where this afternoon two successive journeys were entrusted to Darts, 43489 on the 13.38 and 42451 on the 14.08 to Norwich. The 12.40 from Norwich came in with Palatine 34156. Tuesday 19th passed with all buses sticking to their turns. Morning services from Peterborough passed Wisbech running late, the most delayed was 37157 14 late on K5-XL11 09.05 ex Peterborough.

Richard Alger kindly sent me this picture of 37579 in All Saints Green on Wednesday while taking the passengers on the  09.25 Lowestoft - Peterborough (K15-XL02) on unfamiliar territory.

Cheers also to Kieran Smith who was also out with his camera in Norwich on Wednesday capturing 37574 on K1-XL07 07.00 Peterborough - Lowestoft at its temporary stop. 

On Wednesday 37573 made its way to Volvo at Norwich for attention to its axle problem. Delays were restricted to Y13-XL19 13.05 from Peterborough running 12 late with 37576 and K14-XL01 following on the 13.35 with 37566 21 late. The roads were relatively quiet today and Des was quite pleased that he managed to convert a 10 minute late arrival with 37158 on K18-XL05 at Peterborough rail station into an on time departure from King's Lynn at 17.02. Thursday 21st saw a liner sensor fault on 37159 repaired in time for it to work L11-XL17 10.45 from King's Lynn to Peterborough, taking over from 37157. Earlier 37566 had an adblue problem on L10-XL16 and the 10.15 to Peterborough had 37568 forward from Lynn, but all services ran pretty much to the timetable.  On Friday 22nd the service ran well, with only K16-XL03 (37157) delayed and just two maintenance swaps occurred.
Saturday 23rd began with two buses sidelined as 37573 was still out of action at Volvo and 37156 was stopped for MOT preparation work. 37577 was spare at King's Lynn after a safety service. In the evening though 37567 on K15-XL02 was involved in an altercation with a runaway invalid carriage in Great Yarmouth, causing damage to the bus. This meant it had to be taken out of traffic and there was a gap in the service back to King's Lynn. Sunday passed without incident with the service all B9 worked.
A shortage of drivers on Monday 25th saw supervisors and a relief driver employed to keep the service running, most buses ran pretty much to time and with 37567/73 & 37156 unavailable there were no spare vehicles whatsoever. Only one swap was necessary though, 37564 came off Y6-XL12 at 20.35 and 37566 which had just arrived on L11-XL17 worked forward. 37567 was sent to 'Full Circle' for bodywork repairs.
Tuesday 26th will go down in X1 history as a bad day. To begin with, no driver was available to work the 07.45 King's Lynn - Peterborough and 09.05 back to Lowestoft as far as Lynn (XL11-K5). 37569 working K19-XL06 07.21 Wisbech - Lowestoft had an air problem in King's Lynn bus station, so 37159 which would have done K5 had it run, was called for and worked the remainder of K19. 37569 was quickly repaired, just in time to relieve 37160 on K3-XL09 which had a minor fault. 37160 was also soon fixed and took out the 10.32 to Lowestoft. Things then settled down briefly until 37576 failed in Wisbech bus station before departure on the 12.18 to Peterborough (Y13-XL19). With no spare vehicles, the service was cancelled here and the 13.05 ex Peterborough suffered the same fate as far as Lynn.
Bruce was at Lynn bus station where the 14.15 to Peterborough (K18-XL05) was also cancelled, this was because the bus which had arrived from Lowestoft on it, 37158, was then appropriated to work Y13-XL19 at 14.32 back to Lowestoft in place of 37576. Peterborough passengers had to wait until K19-XL06 at 14.45. A similar situation occurred at 17.00 when 37160 on K5-XL11 was turned round to work K18-XL05 17.02 to Great Yarmouth and the 17.15 to Peterborough didn't run. When 37577 on Y7-XL13 arrived at King's Lynn, it was despatched to Wisbech to work K5 at 19.30 and only the Peterborough - Wisbech bit of this was cancelled. So this was all a bit of a tragedy for the timetable. The problem with 37576 was its camshaft and no. 6 injector so this evening Richard fetched 36180 from Norwich to begin another short stint on the X1. This bus is fitted with a tachograph and can therefore stand in on the X1 unlike its sisters, so was really a surprise choice to receive wrap all over advertising (below). 34155 had a run out on the X2 today being noted 15.08 Lowestoft - Norwich.