Wednesday July 2nd 2014 ~ In Deepest Norfolk

Sunday 29th June was a day of heavy showers, here 33806 creeps through Thorney with the 10.30 service from Lowestoft.

I was speaking to Richard Tucker at First King's Lynn on Monday, he is now promoted to be in charge of engineering at Yarmouth and Lowestoft as well as at King's Lynn where he has held a similar position for some years. He asked me why the blog updates have been less frequent of late, to which I replied that with the new Enviros being so reliable, there hasn't been a lot to report. The past few days have been rather eventful though. Incidentally, I'd like to wish Richard good luck with his new post and thank him for taking the time to have a chat with me about the current operations.
Since the last blog almost a fortnight ago, the work on the A47 bridges on the King's Lynn bypass has been underway with delays affecting the X1 service at peak times. Peterborough bound services from Lynn are still using the route through South Lynn which has traffic calming measures, due to the closure of the slip road at the Saddlebow roundabout. Elsewhere an Acle Straight accident on the 21st resulted in several services being terminated short at Yarmouth instead of going through to Lowestoft. Malcolm reports 33818 on Y7 15.00 Lowestoft - Lynn starting at Market Gates, while L10-XL16 went through to Lowestoft but was 30 minutes in arrears. Great Yarmouth was gridlocked on the afternoon of Thursday 24th after an accident badly affecting X1 punctuality and then the Royal Norfolk Show on 25th & 26th brought some expected delays. On 25th K1-XL07 finally reached Wisbech 31 minutes late with 33820 - it was followed to Peterborough by 33813 just two minutes behind. Things were worse on the afternoon of Friday 27th with heavy holiday traffic adding to the congestion. After seeing L12-XL18 passing me at 13.32, about 12 late eastbound through Wisbech with 33819, buses seemed to disappear altogether - I guess they must have sneaked past on the odd occasions I was away from my desk, anyway the next X1 I managed to view was a Peterborough bound service at 15.53. This turned out to be K18-XL05 which is due past town bridge at 15.00, so 33818 was running 53 late. Several buses jumped up a turn to help out as is usual at times of disruption.
A rare failure occurred on Saturday 28th when 33810 expired at Peterborough bus station while working Y13-XL19. Due to depart for Lowestoft at 13.05, it was viewed by Doreen receiving some coaxing from Mr T and his white rescue van. Eventually it was able to return to King's Lynn, it being another oil cooler casualty. Richard tells me that this problem will soon be eradicated as the fleet are now having a modification to solve the problem.
Tuesday July 1st saw a couple of incidents, firstly K18-XL05 running with 33813 was hit by another companies vehicle in Norwich bus station causing damage to a wing mirror. K18 was not seen west of King's Lynn, although it is believed that 33803 was available to take up the diagram working the 17.16 King's Lynn - Great Yarmouth.
33818 working K2-XL08 was also involved in an incident at the eastern end of the route and 33809 which had earlier in the day been sent to Full Circle for repairs, was hastily despatched via an unorthodox route through some Norfolk villages to regain the X1 route and replace 33818 which in turn went back to Full Circle as it warranted more serious repairs. 33809 was then replaced on K2 at Lynn by a repaired 33813. Complicated isn't it but at last it explains what Zak from Norwich Bus Page saw this afternoon :
http://www.norwichbuspage.com/2014/07/84-to-hempnall-what-take-x1.html
I hope the probably unprecedented sight of an Enviro 400 in these parts didn't distract him from his driving lesson too much !
A final word from Lowestoft where Malcolm says 37562 has left, initially it is believed for Yarmouth, its place being taken by 37572 which is now a Lowestoft vehicle.

33817 departs from its South Gates driver change working the 05.50 Lowestoft - Peterborough on Monday 30th June.