Well a year has passed since I last wrote an entry here. The fleet of Scanias continue to provide a comfortable and reliable service through the XL corridor and you would struggle to find a breakdown which is good news for consumers. Timetable alterations because of the pandemic meant a slightly reduced service operating at various times, notably between 1st February and 12th April when one of the Norwich - Dereham short turns was dropped from the schedule due to lower passenger numbers. Thankfully since the full service resumed, loadings have recovered greatly.
The Scanias have generally performed excellently (no pun intended). Geminis have made occasional appearances on the Dereham shorts. The remainder of 2020 saw 36168 on September 7th, 36171 on October 3rd, 36184 on 24th and 37571 on 26th & 27th, on the former date it actually operated a Peterborough service. November was a completely substitute free month and the last appearance of a Gemini in 2020 was on 5th December when 36269 finished a three day stint on the Derehams.
Before the temporary cancellation of one of the short diagrams, a few Geminis appeared during January : 36272 on 18th, 36270 & 36167 on 19th and 36171 on 25th. Between 26th January and 15th April the XL service was 100% Scania operated. Late April saw Geminis 36172 & 36267 helping out and also notably Wright StreetDecks 35150 on 24th April and 35200 on 26th.
Since May 21st, one of the Dereham turns has often been a Gemini. This is a reaction to 36902 being involved in a collision on the evening of 19th May which will see it off the road quite probably until at least November.
Since June 9th, a replacement vehicle has been sourced from Ensignbus and this has done much useful work on the Dereham services. It is an Alexander Dennis Enviro 400MMC and has been given fleet number 34432. More often than not, it can be found on diagram 23 which commences with the 07.30 Dereham - Norwich, finishing the day as the 17.20 Norwich - Dereham. With MOTs now taking place on the XL fleet, it is not uncommon for only one Scania to be available for the three 'D' diagrams and Geminis continue to deputise. Most interesting example noted has been Yarmouth's 37150 which briefly replaced 36168 on 15th June. as I write the loan Enviro has come over to King's Lynn for its own MOT, so a Gemini will now be deputising again.
