Thursday 11th January 2018 ~ Timetable Release

The new timetable for the Norwich to Peterborough route has now been published and here is the link

https://www.firstgroup.com/uploads/news-attach/XL%20TT%20Extract%20Web.pdf

It is not clear at the moment how Norwich depot will be involved with the workings, but a proposal has been made that King's Lynn drivers will do a couple of fill in turns on Service 25 during what would otherwise be layover time at Norwich. Consultation on this between First Group, the employees and the Union are due imminently.
A quick glance at the timetable reveals that residents of Hockering, Tilney All Saints, Terrington St. John, Walpole Highway and Thorney are losing out due to a combination of low patronage from these locations and the need for buses to run punctually with the much higher volumes of traffic currently using the A47. Here the daytime frequency will mirror that of Sundays with these stops being served on an hourly basis, rather than the 30 minute schedule which has been the case for many years.
On the western section, services which run directly from Eau Brink to Walsoken via the A47 will then serve Thorney, while the alternate services serving the villages between King's Lynn and Wisbech will then run directly from Thorney Toll to Peterborough avoiding Thorney village.
In the unlikely event of passengers wanting to travel directly from say Walpole Highway to Thorney, therefore, a change and wait at Wisbech will be necessary. This might seem an unlikely scenario, but I happen to be making that journey this weekend, something which will not be possible without changing in the new timetable.
It should also be noted that the X1 service route number is being abandoned west of Norwich and here the service will simply be called XL. The X1 route number will be kept for the Norwich to Lowestoft section.
I will be reporting on the timetable in more detail when further information comes to hand.