The XL Blog: Monday 28th July ~ An Amicable Split ?

So here we are in the new regime and the first weekday of a split service. I hope to report later in the week on the first few days of the revised service, but today we look at events over the past week.

33819 stands at Acle forming the 15.03 to Peterborough on Wednesday 23rd July.
Photo copyright : Richard Adderson

On Tuesday, 33820 was in a spot of bother in Great Yarmouth working L12. It was unable to continue and 33805 which was on the following turn, Y13 which normally garages at Yarmouth, was turned round to do the last leg of L12 back to Lynn. Next morning King's Lynn sent 33811 to Yarmouth early and this then worked Wednesday's Y13 with 33820 then being driven back to Lynn for attention. Thursday saw 33806 in the depot for repairs to the hydraulic oil cooler and this was also the reason for 33820's downfall.
33803 managed to do at least a half day's work on both Thursday and Friday, but its availability continues to give cause for concern. There were wholesale vehicle swaps on diagrams on Friday, partly because of the chaos caused by the King's Lynn Bypass roadworks, but also because of the need to get 33818 - 824 in position for coastal finishes on Saturday. By the time Saturday arrived, only L8 had to swap buses with 33809 giving way to 33824. So the buses for Great Yarmouth ended up on Saturday as follows :

K2 ends Lowestoft : 33820
K4 ends Yarmouth : 33818
K6 ends Lowestoft : 33819
L8 ends Yarmouth : 33824
Y13 ends Yarmouth : 33822
K18 ends Yarmouth : 33823

Earlier 33815 working K16 omitted the Lynn- Peterborough - Wisbech run because of the horrendous delays from East Winch westbound, instead it went empty from Lynn to Wisbech to work the 16.08 to Lowestoft, thus depriving our regular corresponent Des Speed of a final trip to Peterborough.

Richard Adderson writes "Destination blinds have always fascinated me. When I was at school I used to while away boring lessons by drawing them in my exercise books, 3 piece, two piece, and all the permutations of displays you could see around Norwich in the early 1960s. The most exciting one, and I remember it to this day, was the once daily 91 which was extended beyond Sprowston (Blue Boar) to Sprowston (Hall Gates) Goodness knows why, and there was no timetabled return working. And before you mock, it's no stranger behaviour than noting the advert displays on the sides of buses!
Anyway, something must have stirred deep in my memory this afternoon, as I suddenly decided it would be nice to pop over to Acle to see a couple of X1s with the "full route" displays before they change.
The picture below 15.11 eastbound (and I'll leave you to conjecture whether the young lady in white trousers found her way into the picture by accident or by design!)".

So with all the buses safely garaged in their own depots on Saturday evening, Sunday saw the first day of the new timetable - what nice pictures on the front of it too, well you have to blow your own trumpet sometimes ! The Sunday service from King's Lynn depot now requires just six Enviro 400s - previously eleven different buses passed through the town on Sundays. Malcolm reports from Lowestoft viewing the following :-

33824 0946 X1 to Gt Yarmouth

37575 1014 1 to Gt Yarmouth

37565 1020 X2 to Norwich

37578 0950 X1 from Gt Yarmouth

37569 1420 X2 to Norwich

37579 1350 X1 from Gt Yarmouth

37566 1520 X2 to Norwich

33818 1514 1 to Gt Yarmouth

33820 1450 X1 from Gt Yarmouth

So a mixture of the old and the new there, we await further reports with interest. At King's Lynn the self contained Norwich/Peterborough service utilised 33805/8/10/13/15/16.

33808 passes through Walpole Highway spot on time with Sunday's 10.03 to Norwich (the 09.05 from Peterborough). This bus could also be seen working the 17.03 eastbound and arrived back at King's Lynn depot at 20.50 after working new diagram 6.

Monday has been interesting so far with most buses seen near time until the 13.45 ex Peterborough (K1) which had been on time going west, but returned 30 late through Tilney, 'not in service'. The following service was just two minutes behind it.