Monday October 7th 2013 ~ Thirteen - Lucky for Some

Thirteen new Enviros were on the road today, with just 33803 (water ingress and servicing) and 33804 (safety service) not on the road. 33423 was also in traffic on K3-XL09 again. The remaining diagrams were B9s as follows : K18-XL05 37571, K19-XL06 37574, K6-XL12 37573, Y9-XL15 37572 and Y13-XL19 37569 to King's Lynn for 37566 forward. 
A couple of corrections now from the weekend. On Saturday 37569 on K18-XL05 came into King's Lynn just after 14.00 and was turned round to work L12-XL18 back to Lowestoft, a result of 37573 being delayed near Wisbech. K18 didn't run to Peterborough, but 37573 took over the turn as the 17.16 to Lowestoft. So 37569 began the day on K18, then found itself on L12 and finished the day as L8 21.35 to Lowestoft, here it is on the latter arriving from the garage at King's Lynn bus station :

On Sunday 37573 came back from Yarmouth on XL08- Y8 07.51 from Gorleston and was taken off at King's Lynn and replaced by 33812. It was then spare until utilised to work XL02-K2 after 33811 failed at Guyhirn at 15.30.
Back to today then and a successful day for the new fleet with timekeeping much improved on a week ago. 33814/5/6/8 were all out for the first time without incident. Wisbech was gridlocked at 13.30 after an accident on the A17 between Sutton Bridge and Lynn meant traffic was diverted through the town. This coincided with temporary traffic lights on Lynn Road  and 33816 on K15-XL02 departed for Peterborough 24 late.

33816 arrives back at King's Lynn on K15-XL02 09.30 Lowestoft - Peterborough today, its first day in revenue earning service. Photo copyright : Damon Powell

 There were no new Enviro deliveries today, but five more are due this week with the remaining two next week. Leaving the area was 37570 which went off to Full Circle for repainting. 
Speaking of repainting, here we have some hot off the press pictures courtesy of James and Syd of 37568 which was delivered to Lowestoft depot this afternoon. Looking very smart in its new designated X2 livery, this is the first of the B9s to be released in a new colour scheme. 568 is due a safety service tomorrow and should be on the road from Wednesday. For the record, 37568's final mileage after use on the X1 was just under 561,000 miles.

37568 photos copyright James Race.

Now we have mentioned lately the pros and cons of advertising on buses and today saw the first Enviro on the road sporting adverts. These were applied at Lowestoft yesterday and the bus concerned is 33805. Being fairly moderately coloured, in my opinion they don't look too bad, but certainly garish yellows and reds would not do much for the colour co-ordination.