33810 approaching Walton Highway on the 14.30 Norwich - Peterborough today. |
A few things to report this time. Not least the entry into service of 37578 in its new X1 livery, incorporating the wi-fi vinyls. It was intended to repaint 37579 in similar fashion, but an unfortunate accident with 37573 (details shortly) has meant that this bus is now at Full Circle for repairs and should now be the second Gemini recipient of the new colours. Fortunately my correspondents have been on the trail of 37578 for me and here we have some photographs :
Here is 37578 before the X1 vinyls were applied sitting in King's Lynn garage on Saturday 4th October. |
37578 arriving at Norwich Bus Station on the afternoon of 11th October. Photo : Zak Nelson www.norwichbuspage.com |
Earlier on the 11th October, 37578 was photographed at Acle en route to Norwich. Photo : Cameron Robinson http://yarmouthbuspage.blogspot.co.uk/ |
The bus stop at Lowestoft Tesco with 37578 in attendance. Photo copyright : Cameron Robinson |
Photo copyright : Cameron Robinson |
The Enviros seem to have been behaving of late and 33812 (below) returned to traffic after collision repairs on Thursday 16th October.
33812 has returned to traffic and is temporarily without the characteristic X1 vinyls. Photo copyright : Grahame Bessey. |
Last weekend saw the fitting of new ticket machines to the fleet and there were one or two delays on 12th/13th caused by drivers becoming conversant with the new equipment. There was also a problem with the fitting of the new equipment on 33808, but this was remedied on Wednesday 15th. Computer problems on 13th saw some passengers travel free for a while as tickets were unable to be issued. 33804 has been in service this week without a passenger side advert, quite an unusual sight these days.
Resurfacing work on the A47 between Swaffham and Dereham in the coming week may have a negative impact on the timetable.
We mentioned the Enviro mileages recently and in the next blog we will look at the buses now based at Lowestoft. Meanwhile, lets not forget the Yarmouth based Geminis which still work the route and take a look at how they have been accumulating the mileage since they left King's Lynn.
We will take as examples 37576, 37578 & 37579. Here are their mileages when they left King's Lynn and again this week
37576 03/10/13 560655. 16/10/14 614791
37578 6/10/14 559474. 16/10/14 606496
37579 05/10/14 576132. 14/10/14 626081
So to save you calculating for yourselves, this means the mileages run in the last year - give or take a week have been
37576 54140
37578 47000
37579 49950
Obviously 37576 has been making up some lost ground, but it does mean that the annual mileages have been in effect halved, as previously the Geminis had been averaging 100,00+ each year.
Grahame Bessey has sent me some pictures from a visit to King's Lynn today which I'd like to share with you :
33812 departs King's Lynn for Norwich. Photo copyright : Grahame Bessey |
33807 loads up for the 12.01 departure for Norwich . Note the advert for the film 'Love Rosie'. This is the second campaign for this film, see below |
The original ad for the film featured a rather risque pose shown here, so this was withdrawn hastily !! |
Thanks to all who continue to contribute - much appreciated. Next time we will catch up with events at Lowestoft of late.