They are on the way !

A sneak 'mobile phone' preview from Jamie Vendy of one of the new X1 fleet en route to King's Lynn this morning. 

Sunday 22nd September 2013 ~ Taking Stock

Saturday seems to have passed without incident, indeed Enviro 33423 came cruising into Wisbech 3 minutes before time to work the 08.54 service to Lowestoft and other services seen seemed to be pretty much on time too. Today (Sunday) there were a few small delays, XL10 which always suffers in this respect passed Bruce westbound at 13.22 with 37566, that's only about 9 minutes late, all of which would be regained by the time it returned.
On the eve of a new dawn it is time to take stock of exactly where the X1 allocation are this evening :
37563 K1-XL01 due King's Lynn 22.49
37564 King's Lynn Garage - safety service Mon AM

37565 King's Lynn Garage - spare
37566 L10 -XL10 due King's Lynn 00.28
37567 King's Lynn Garage - water leak
37568 King's Lynn Garage - spare
37569 K5-XL05 due Lowestoft 23.38
37570 Great Yarmouth garage off K6-XL06
37571 K4-XL04 due Lowestoft 22.38, light to Great Yarmouth garage
37572 Y8-XL08 due King's Lynn 22.28
37573 K2-XL02 due King's Lynn 23.49

37574 King's Lynn Garage off Y9-XL09 arr 20.44
37575 King's Lynn Garage - spare
37576 Y7-XL07 due Gorleston 00.06, light to Great Yarmouth Garage
37577 King's Lynn Garage - safety service completion
37578 Great Yarmouth Garage - spare
37579 K3-XL03 due King's Lynn 00.49
33423 King's Lynn Garage - spare
37156, 37157 & 37160 Lowestoft Garage - spare

37158 King's Lynn Garage - spare
37159 Full Circle - Repaint

It is not currently known whether 33423 will stay for a further period once 37159 is returned to traffic. 37572 has now amassed 578,000 miles since its introduction.
Further to my comments about the forthcoming new timetable, 19 buses will still be required and diagrams remain very similar except that now 12 buses (plus spares) will overnight at Lynn and 7 at Lowestoft and Yarmouth. This is because a bus goes light from Lynn to Swaffham to work K6 (XL12) and K1 (XL07) now terminates at Lynn at just after 18.00 instead of going through to Yarmouth. With the final leg of L12-XL18 cancelled, this bus will now garage at Lynn at 20.55 instead of 23.30. There will be a further blog update tomorrow.

Friday 20th September 2013 ~ That New Timetable....

Yes it is now online and to make it even easier, you should be able to access it from the 'All the Essential X1 info' folder above.
A quick look at the new timetable reveals some interesting features. The evening 20.54 King's Lynn - Peterborough (17.50 from Lowestoft) which for some years has not run on Sundays, is now cancelled completely, to give a two hour gap before the final service of the day. There also appears to be one less vehicle overnighting at Yarmouth/Lowestoft, so whether this means the vehicle requirement drops from 19 to 18 remains to be seen. I suspect it merely means an extra bus garaged at Lynn rather than at the coast.  The 16.38 Peterborough - Yarmouth is replaced by a 16.45 Peterborough - King's Lynn. Westbound the 05.50 Yarmouth - Peterborough is replaced by a 07.33 Swaffham - Peterborough.
Strangely there is a switch in timings in the middle of the day with the 11.40 King's Lynn - Peterborough being followed by a 40 minute gap, the next service being at 12.20 whereupon the half hourly resumes at different minutes past the hour. The same gap occurs with the corresponding services westbound.

Today the return of 37156 on K5-XL11 meant 36180 was able to return to its usual haunts in Norwich. Delays were minimal today, although K16-XL03 with 37578 lost 25 minutes and left Wisbech for Peterborough at 14.14, just five minutes before K17-XL04 with 37571 which unsurprisingly was bang on time. One surprise was Y9-XL15 being allocated 37160 but getting 37576, while Y13-XL19 had 37160 instead, meaning it had to refuel at lunchtime. 37567/579 were not in use today.

Thursday 19th September 2013 ~ Late Running

Late running in more ways than one. The new X1 timetable has so far failed to materialise on the First website where it was due to appear on Monday. The timetables have though turned up to day in one or two places.

Photo : NBP

Thanks to NBP we can have a crafty sneak at a page from it ! The main groan I have heard is that the last bus of the evening is now retimed to run into King's Lynn from the East about 20 minutes later than at present - currently it is due in about 00.45.
The new buses are due to arrive at King's Lynn in a revised schedule commencing on Monday when the first three are expected. This will be followed by  further trios on Tuesday and Wednesday if all goes according to plan and two more at the end of the week,which, if it comes to fruition will mean half the order delivered next week, with possibly the remainder the following week. It is likely that the new vehicles will take around a week to be commissioned before being phased into service. As expected, a location has been found in the area to temporarily house buses while the transition takes place. There will, as before with a brand new fleet, be official press launches in due course.

37158, 37156 and 37574 at Vancouver Avenue garage.

Meanwhile of course, the service continues to run relatively well. 37156 is the latest B7 to return from repainting, leaving just 37159 to come. Drivers' reaction to Enviro 33423 seems very favourable and if the new buses are anything like as reliable, then passengers should be assured of a smoother introduction than was possible with the Geminis.
33423 has continued working K3-XL09 this week, while 36180 has also been in use working K17-XL04 diagram since Tuesday. Timekeeping during Tuesday daylight hours was excellent and only 37578 on L10-XL16 10.49 Wisbech - Peterborough suffered delay and then by only ten minutes. In contrast, 37575 on K4-XL10 came running into Wisbech 3 minutes early past me at 09.17. 37579 returned to traffic working K5-XL11. The evening peak service was delayed by an accident at Hockering and 37570 which was due to be the first bus garaged at Lynn (due 18.07) had only reached Toftwood by 17.58, 37574 on L8-XL14 was only 6 minutes behind it and then 37577 just 10 minutes behind that. The X2 was also disrupted on Tuesday by an accident at Hales reports Malcolm.
A collapsed manhole near the Sporle turn caused delays on Wednesday. Y7-XL13 with 37574 was badly affected and its 09.19 departure from Wisbech was delayed by 16 minutes. L11-XL17 fared worse with 37160 which departed 25 late on the 11.19  westbound. The rest of the day was better, but 37566 had a hiccup at Tilney while working K5-XL11 with a water leak around 10.10. After fitters attention though, it was able to continue.

37572 at King's Lynn garage. The advert says 'Happy Days'. Hopefully the new fleet will be as reliable.

Today saw another remarkable feat. Y7-XL13 with 37579 left Wisbech 4 late, but returned from Peterborough 3 minutes early. The Swaffham manhole cover incident delayed some services, but it looks this evening as though the A47 is now open on both carriageways again. 37563 had its MOT this morning and was back on the road this afternoon replacing 37567 on K4-XL10.

Monday 16th September 2013 ~ New Vehicle Update

This looks like being the week that new buses arrive. Richard Tucker, depot manager at First King's Lynn, travelled to Scarborough on Friday to check on the production line. A few minor alterations are in hand as a result and the first new vehicles will arrive once these modifications are complete. This is expected to be some time before Friday of this week or possibly early next.
The new Enviros are likely to be despatched at the rate of 5 per week once delivery starts. The vehicles will have advertising board frames fitted as we suspected, but not at the rear. Top speed should be 62mph instead of the 59mph currently attained by the Geminis and the 6.9 litre engines will be of equal horsepower to the B9s. A meeting was being held today to arrange additional accommodation in King's Lynn for the existing fleet while the changeover takes place. If this is not successful, the new fleet will be delivered to Norwich Rowntree Way and sent over to King's Lynn as required.
 The current fleet will be transferred away as the new buses enter service, commencing with the B7s which will go to Newcastle-Under-Lyme. 37159 went to Full Circle for repaint today where it will join 37156 which arrived there on Friday. To cover the shortfall, Norwich Gemini 36180 has temporarily been allocated to King's Lynn once again. 37160 returned to traffic on Saturday.
37563-69 are going back to Lowestoft (where they were originally based) for work on the X2 and 37570-9 will go to Yarmouth for use on the X1 shorts and other associated services. The additional vehicles should also mean that they can be used as required for rail replacement work.

Plaxton President 32209 seen on an X1 short in Acle on Thursday. These workings should shortly go over to Gemini operation. Photo Joe Leathers.

On the road, Thursday saw 37565 in trouble with a coolant leak at Necton while working K19-XL06 16.08 Peterborough - Great Yarmouth and had to have fitters attention, while similarly on Friday 37579 had a similar complaint at Swaffham while working Y6-XL12 14.25 Lowestoft - Peterborough. It was replaced by 37564 and has been under repair at King's Lynn since. On Saturday, 36180 resumed work on the route doing the diagram K3-XL09 normally worked by 33423. It did not complete the day though as no driver was available for the 16.12 King's Lynn - Peterborough and it retired to the depot. I was waiting with a few others for K3 at Peterborough railway station and we had to wait the extra 30 minutes for 37575 on K4-XL10. In the meantime, 33423, which Bruce calls 'The Stealth Bus' because of its quiet progress, was used on K5-XL11. Cheryl also has a pet name for 33423 : the naked bus ! 37563 is now stopped for MOT and today (Monday) 36180 did the first half of K17-XL04, being replaced for the 13.42 King's Lynn - Peterborough by 37567.
The X1 blog will keep you updated on the arrival of the new fleet as and when it happens, so watch this space.

Wednesday 11th September 2013 ~ Timetable Revisions

Joe Leathers Watson captured B7 Gemini 37159 in Great Yarmouth on Wednesday 4th September.

First announced on Monday that a new X1 timetable will be in force from Sunday 29th September. It looks likely that any revisions to the western end of the journey will be minor, however, the section from Norwich to Lowestoft is likely to be completely recast to allow a more comprehensive service and adjusted timetabling should mean better punctuality.
A very brief look at recent events then and the last week on the route has been pretty quiet,  the highlight being the return to traffic on Saturday of 37157 painted in its new colours akin to 37158. 

37157 photographed by Zak Nelson on Saturday

Meanwhile 37160 is currently being repainted which will just leave 37159 in the old livery. 37156 is nevertheless expected to be the next B7 to leave for a repaint this coming Friday. This may be because it has been a little unreliable over the past week, being removed from service on both Saturday and Tuesday. 

37158 has now gained a fleet number at the bottom right of the destination screen. Here she is photographed by Joe in gloomy weather on Friday 6th September

37569 had an MOT completed and was out immediately last Thursday taking L10 forward from Lynn at 10.12 instead of 37564 which was unable to continue. 37572 was back in action at last on Wednesday 4th working K4 to begin with, but not completing the turn and the identical thing happened on Thursday. 37572 has worked well since though being out every day since Friday. Currently undergoing heavy repairs is 37568 which last worked on Wednesday 4th.
David Wilson has been in touch and writes
 "Hi Gerard,

My little boy Dominic loves buses ( you have previously included a picture of him on your blog in the cab of a Norfolk Green Agoraline at Showbus a couple of years back ) and we always enjoy reading your blog together. 

For a year or so now, inspired by your blog and the others he reads, he's been blogging himself and he has asked me to share this post with you, as we went for a trip, with his little brothers (who luckily love buses almost as much as him), on the X1 to the Dereham Planet Zoom.

 We timed our visit to allow us to sample the temporary Enviro 400 on 0930 from Lynn on the way out, and broke our return journey at Swaffham on the way back. 

http://tmblr.co/ZIQr4vtzTaEG

I was bemused when an elderly couple behind us started commenting on how overcast it was ( it was a very sunny day ) - they had seemingly not realised the windows were heavily tinted...

Keep up the good work

Best Regards

David ( and Dominic)"

Thanks for that chaps and I too have sampled the loaned Enviro 400 on my way back from Peterborough on Monday afternoon. It seems to run well at top speed, but I wasn't over keen on the higher seatbacks which hamper the forward view slightly. Suspension wise I found very little difference from my morning journey with 37570 and both seemed equally rattly. The tinted windows on 33423 were a bit overkill for me as most of my journey took place in heavy rain in very dark conditions. Still, I will reserve judgment and I expect our new buses will have a revised spec.

A view taken in Yarmouth of the rear of 33423 on Thursday 5th Sept, the tinted windows are in stark contrast to the all white bodywork. Photo courtesy of Joe Leathers Watson. 

One failure to report was that of 37570 on Friday evening. The bus was spotted broken down near Norwich whilst working the 18.00 King's Lynn - Great Yarmouth after a water pump tensioner pulley disintegrated. Fitters from King's Lynn atttended and the bus eventually arrived at its destination at 23.30 with its original driver. This caused a slight problem on Saturday morning as the same driver was due to take an early departure westbound and this service had to be cancelled between Lowestoft and Yarmouth. Speaking of Lowestoft, here's the new look in the bus station :

Photo from Des Speed

Finally two more photographs from Joe taken In Yarmouth today (11th) :

Spot the difference ? Yes 37158 has now received adverts !

37579 working L10 11.38 Peterborough - Lowestoft today.

Tuesday September 3rd 2013 ~ Pictures Galore

37158 in Dereham on Friday 30th August photographed by Richard Alger

The X1 blog photographers have been out in force this week and I make no apology for including so many pictures as we are currently experiencing an unusual period in X1 history. A quick synopsis of the last five days to begin with. Thursday witnessed three changes of vehicle on the service. Quite often these changes are, as in today's case with 37578, as a result of servicing requirements. K14-XL01 began with 578, but at lunchtime the opportunity was taken to remove it for scheduled servicing and 37156 which had just had a service completed took the diagram onward commencing with the 12.15 Lynn - Peterborough. There was obviously an A47 incident of some sort as 37156 returned eastbound 41 late through Walpole Highway and Bruce then spotted the following service (K15-XL02) about 6 minutes behind at 15.20, around 15 minutes late. Other swaps were 37565 on Y6-XL12 which was also due for servicing and 37160 again freshly serviced took over. B7s are quite uncommon on XL12 as this is one of the longer diagrams. Today's other change was on K2-XL08 when 37566 was removed for some reason at 18.30 and 37563 which had just arrived on Y7-XL13 was sent immediately back east after a quick clean.

33423 at Lowestoft photographed by Damon Powell

The upper deck of 33423. Thanks to Damon Powell for the picture.

The lower deck of 33423 as photographed by Damon. Check out his Flickr pages at :
http://www.flickr.com/photos/acbestphotography/

I was about uncharacteristically early on Friday as I had to attend a funeral in Scotland. I boarded the 06.47 Wisbech - Peterborough (K2-XL08) with a cheery Mr. Woodhouse at the helm of 37579. The very tight scheduling to Thorney Toll saw us 2 minutes late there despite a relatively delay free journey. The revised timetable soon turned things round though and we were a minute early into Peterborough Queensgate at 07.26.
 I was soon receiving reports from my correspondents of a deteriorating situation on the road though with an accident at Narborough causing diversions from about 08.00 and the A47 remained closed until about Noon. Running via Stradsett cost most services around 10 minutes in added journey time. At just before 11.30, an accident caused closure of the Acle Straight for an hour and then at around 12.30 there were delays at the South Gates roundabout after a collision between two cars, so all in all a bad day for people trying to run (and catch) a bus service. Vehicle swaps were minimal though and nothing too untoward on the punctuality front was reported to me.
Here are a selection of X1 shots taken by Grahame Bessey at Norwich on Friday depicting both old and new :

Saturday couldn't have been more different though with new liveried 37158 having a funny day. It came off L11-XL17 at Lynn at 13.20 and 37160 replaced it. 37158 then had another trip to Peterborough at 15.12 on K19-XL06 replacing 37575. Just about every turn from lunchtime onwards changed vehicles, no doubt due to A47 delays. 37158 itself was replaced on K19 by 37565 at 17.30. I travelled back from Peterborough to Wisbech on 37158 which was handled very competently by King's Lynn driver Jason. We were on time throughout which as regular readers will be aware is quite a feat with a B7.

Andrew gives 37571 a wash at King's Lynn garage. Photo taken with First Group permission.

On Monday and Tuesday this week, timekeeping has been fairly good - on Monday Malcolm did witness a couple of late morning arrivals at Lowestoft, 37158 13 late on K18 (XL05) followed by K19 (XL06) with 37574 which came in 19 late and of note on Tuesday was 33423 on its regular turn (K3-XL09) being 11 late this morning through Wisbech, but only 1 late this evening. 37159 was on K18 today and Malcolm again reports a late arrival at Lowestoft where it was 23 late, however, almost all the lost time had been regained by this afternoon. 37569 has been stopped for MOT since Sunday and 37572 has returned from repair at Volvo, but has not worked as yet. 37157 has spent the period under review being repainted at Full Circle. 37158 has now gained fleet numbers at the rear.
The new livery for the Enviro 400 X1 fleet is now confirmed as blue or purple and gold and these photographs by Mike Wallington are believed to show the scheme before full branding has been applied. It is also thought that frames for advertising boards will be fitted before entry  into service.

Thanks to Mike for allowing me to use his photographs and to an X1 blog reader for tipping me off.
http://wallys-wanderings.smugmug.com/

Wednesday August 28th 2013 ~ Dennis from Scarborough

One of my sources tells me that the first of the new Enviro 400s branded for the X1 should now appear around 20th September. Five are initially expected to arrive fresh from construction at Alexander Dennis in Scarborough with 63 registrations. Extra accommodation will be found at King's Lynn to house the existing fleet as the new buses are phased into service.

Today, maintenance schedules dictated that 37158 had to be used, despite its lack of any branding or indeed any trace of ownership. Few on the west of the route would have recognised the new corporate colours either. 37158 worked XL05-K18 which ends up at Great Yarmouth. The incognito bus is seen above passing my window this afternoon (I must get a window cleaner !) and below snapped by Bruce a little later.

Timekeeping was hit and miss today. Y9-XL15 left Wisbech with 37569 9 late on the 10.19 to Peterborough, but by the time it returned eastbound to work the 11.54 to Lowestoft, it was 22 late. L10-XL16 fared better with 37579 being 6 x 9 late and L11 with 37566 came back into Wisbech just 2 minutes down. Next was L12 with 37570 which went to Peterborough 16 late and returned 19 late. Things then returned to normality until K17 15.08 Peterborough - Yarmouth came through 19 late with 37159 having replaced 37575 at Lynn earlier. 37158 itself on K18 went back eastbound 16 late.
Yesterday's casulaty, 37573 returned to traffic after attention to a brake caliper this afternoon. It worked K16-XL03 forward to Lowestoft at 16.00 replacing 37156.

Tuesday August 27th 2013 ~ The Winds of Change

With the introduction into service of 33423, the long awaited changes to the X1 fleet have got underway. 33423 seems to have behaved impeccably since it began work on K3-XL09 last Monday, doing the turn daily until Saturday and then resuming it today (27th). This is not to say it has always run to time and on more than one occasion in the past week, K3 has become quite delayed. The arrival of the Enviro 400 meant that Gemini 37158 could go to Full Circle for repainting, prior to its move to the Potteries. It returned today in the new First delivery, but totally devoid of any fleet names or numbering. This will presumably be attended to before it returns to service. Going the other way for repainting today was 37157.
In the previous blog entry I mentioned about the failure of 37572 at Gorleston last Monday. Tony Irle kindly sent this photograph of 37572 shortly before departure from Queensgate on L10-XL16 11.38 to Lowestoft on the day in question :

The problem with 37572 turned out to be as steering fault and after being sidelined at Vancouver Avenue following recovery from Gorleston, it was finally despatched to Volvo for repairs today.

Sam Larke says " I realise you will probably have plenty of photos of 33423 this week, so here is something different. Monday's X1 shorts featured both 34114 & 34112 in action, here is 34114 at Norwich bus station ". 

On Tuesday 20th congestion around Great Yarmouth, due to an accident and races traffic, was responsible for some afternoon delays. 37564 was seen by Malcolm Hicks arriving in Lowestoft 21 late on the 15.40 arrival from Peterborough (Y9-XL15). L10-XL16 following was 35 late by the time it arrived in Yarmouth. The repercussions continued into the early evening and 37578 on L10 travelled part of its journey 'not in service' prior to working the 19.54 King's Lynn _ Peterborough. Behind it by some considerable margin was 37156 on L11 which was noted at Hardwick, on its way into Lynn at 20.38 (43 minutes late). One of the earlier services affected was K3-XL09 with 33423 which passed Walpole 23 minutes late and K5-XL11 was 35 late into Lynn with 37570, so 37157 worked the 17.12 Lynn - Peterborough instead. . Wednesday 21st August saw an inconvenience to X1 passengers when the road through Peterborough rail station was temporarily closed.

L11 (37159) and K1 (37571) manouevre themselves at Dereham on Wednesday while the Konectbus driver has a crafty smoke ! 

37159 gets away from Dereham on the 09.35 to Peterborough. Both pictures courtesy of Des Speed.

 On Thursday roadworks at Honingham caused some delays. Y13-XL19 was seen coming back from Peterborough on the 13.08 running 15 late with 37579 and once again 33423 was behind time, being seen 21 late this time, again on K3-XL09 12.55 ex Lowestoft.
The Friday before Bank Holiday is notorious for delays due to the holiday traffic, but this year was not quite so bad as on some other occasions in recent years. Y9 11.08 from Peterborough had 37160 which had lost 18 minutes by Wisbech. The traffic then became intense around Lynn and Chris reports 37159 on L11-XL17 12.08 ex Peterborough running via Tilney All Saints village and the A17 to avoid the congested Pullover Road, it had departed Wisbech 34 late. The service after this, 37568 on L12-XL18 was seen on the Southgates webcam emerging from the South Lynn exit at 14.29, approx 39 late. The last service which seemed to run late was K17 15.08 from Peterborough which with 37573 was 29 late into Wisbech, closely followed by 37575 on K18 just 6 minutes behind it. Over at the Lowestoft end, Malcolm saw 37563 arriving 20 late and departing 25 late on Y7-XL13 14.55 to Lynn and later 37569 appeared slightly late on Y9 having replaced 37160.
My annual visit to Peterborough beer festival took place on Saturday 24th, I travelled out from Wisbech on L9 10.19 departure with 37566 - yes again, this bus is really haunting me now !

Return was with 37563 which having begun the day working K5-XL11, was by evening working Y6-XL12 in place of 37575. Both journeys were managed well by their drivers, but the morning trip was made in heavy traffic.
 The Bank Holiday buses did quite well and at the time of peak traffic levels returning from the coast, the 15.50 from Lowestoft passed Terrington exactly 30 late with 37574, while the 16.50 with 37577 appeared just 10 late here at 20.20. To bring  the story up to date, today (Tuesday) services ran well in the morning but ran up to 15 minutes late in the afternoon. To add to insult to injury, 37571 was seen coming into Wisbech this evening on K19-XL06, the 16.08 from Peterborough about 10 minutes late and bearing a new advert for the film 'About Time' !
This morning 37573 was involved in a mishap shortly after leaving Yarmouth when a wheel overheated and the fire brigade had to attend. The passengers were successfully evacuated by the driver and then 37563 had to be sent out from King's Lynn to take over the service, the 06.45 from Gorleston. 37573 was recovered to King's Lynn with no outward signs of damage and was being examined this afternoon.
The first of the new fleet from Alexander Dennis are rumoured to be arriving imminently, so watch this space !
I have once again had several enquiries about the codes used in the blog - these can be found on the blog entry for 14/5/13 which features the full timetable and codes used.

Monday 19th August 2013 (Part 2) ~ Enviro Update

As I predicted in the blog of 31/7/13, 33423 entered service today on K3-XL09. It is likely that the bus will be restricted to this turn when required in service. Within a minute of time this morning, the Enviro had lost 6 minutes by the time it returned westbound this afternoon. The masthead picture shows Mr. Saban approaching Wisbech this morning and below is another picture of 33423 today taken by blog reader Marcus Kerton in Norwich.

Elsewhere on the X1 today. K16-XL03 was the most delayed service, 37156 just 12 late on the 13.49 Wisbech - Peterborough. There was bad news for the highest mileage Gemini today, Terence says "I found 37572 broken down on the Hartford Way, Gorleston bus stop. She has no power steering, so was left for ASW Recovery Services Breakdown Lorry - M357HMS - to pick-her up at 7.30pm tonight.". 572 had been working L10-XL16 and later tonight this was seen arriving at Wisbech spot on time at 21.55 with 37563 in its place.

Monday 19th August 2013 ~ Enviro 400 33423 on the X1

The Enviro 400 loan bus is working today on K3-XL09. More details later.

12th - 18th August 2013 ~ End of an Era

Yes it would seem that the end of total Gemini domination on the X1 is imminent. I am informed that 37158 is to be the first of the existing fleet to be taken off the road for repainting (scheduled for tomorrow, Monday). Loan Enviro 400, 33423 is now ready for service and may well appear on the X1 this week, possibly as early as tomorrow.
So a quick look at the past week on the route, beginning on Monday 12th  when only two services were noted running behind time, both B7 workings. L11-XL17 is never a surprise in this respect and 37574 left Wisbech 10 late on the 11.19 to Peterborough. Later 37156 on K18-XL05 was 15 late going westbound. 37578 meanwhile was undergoing MOT prep. Things ran pretty well on Tuesday but delays affected K14-XL01 and by the time 37572 reached Walpole Highway it was 24 late. At Wisbech it was decided to transfer passengers to K15-XL02 which was 37576. As a result 576 passed me first at 13.24, with 37572 following less than a minute behind 'out of service' in an attempt to regain some time. K17-XL04 changed vehicles with 37566 being replaced at lunchtime by 37564.
Wednesday was a very strange day for punctuality. The morning services seemed to run to time, but from late afternoon, things went awry. K18-XL05  being 15 late from Wisbech westbound was not very surprising as this service often runs behind time, 37157 was the bus concerned today. At teatime K3 with 37576 appeared 24 late on the 16.15 Lynn to Peterborough , followed by K4 just 4 late with 37563. Peter saw 37159 on K5, which Malcolm had seen just 8 late at Lowestoft, but arriving at Wisbech 'not in service' at 18.10 with passengers aboard, now running 24 late. Later L8 18.54 Peterborough - Lynn left around 24 late with 37565 but had regained all but a couple of minutes by the time it came back. Normally delays are minimal by evening but L12-XL18 was 23 late at Tilney All Saints with 37573 at just before 21.30 westbound and 37568 on the last westbound service was 7 late.
On Thursday things ran very well but Des encountered delays while driving the 16.55 from Lowestoft (L11-XL17) because of races traffic in Yarmouth making the service 17 late at Acle. With 37157 only two minutes were regained en route to King's Lynn. Friday punctuality was above average with just some late afternoon delays. K16-XL03 was 15 x 18 late through Wisbech with 37570 and K17 with 37578 went eastbound 20 late. About the same time westbound, 37572 on K1-XL07 passed me at 16.21 and 37563 on K2-XL08 at 16.22, 31 and 2 late respectively. The evening service saw diversions to avoid roadworks at Middleton with the X1 being diverted via Stradsett, adding 11 minutes to the schedule.
Saturday ran smoothly and on Sunday, the 09.50 from Lowestoft came past Bruce at Walpole 13 late with 37571, but some smart running saw it come back just 2 late. I had a trip to Peterborough with 37578 on the 15.12 from Walpole, we were 5 late departing and 4 late arriving. My return westbound on the 19.15 departure from Peterborough was with 37579 and a brilliant run was enjoyed back to Walpole, on time throughout and commendably we were 2 minutes early into Wisbech. Full marks to the driver for such a fine performance.

Sunday August 11th 2013 ~Tweeting and all that

Now here's something I meant to mention earlier, but the little grey cells are getting a bit cloudy ! If you want to keep up with the daily goings on with the X1 punctuality wise, you could do worse than check out First's own Twitter feed online at :
https://mobile.twitter.com/FirstNorfSuff

Heavens forbid, you can also use it to complain about or compliment your experiences.  I've had several people contact me to say that they have just noticed that X1 now departs from Bay 10 at Peterborough bus station, it had been Bay 17 until recently. The twitter feed tells me that this change occurred on August 6th and I have to say it is an eminently more sensible arrangement than visiting two different bays which has been the situation since the new timetable.
Needless to say some passengers have only seen the notice informing passengers of the change after their bus had left. Christine had to rush to Bay 10 to catch the 15.09 departure on Saturday and Doreen and her friends were less fortunate and only realised after they'd seen two X1s arriving with no sign of them departing at Bay 17 !

Saturday/Sunday 10th & 11th August 2013 ~ A Little Notice

The weekend has passed fairly uneventfully although Saturday saw 37159 on a most unusual turn, K4-XL10, normally a solid B9 duty. Yarmouth then sent it back on Sunday's XL09 which finishes early at Lynn at 20.44. On Saturday 37569 & 37573 seemed to swap turns on K19-XL06 & K1 -XL07, but punctuality seemed fair with only K14-XL01 losing 15 minutes en route. 37566 has not worked this weekend as it has a broken anti-roll bar.
Now a bit of an apology, you know what I said about Lothian buses having notices warning passengers about putting their feet on seats ? Well our Geminis do indeed have a similar warning, though a little smaller viz :

Finally this weekend, a look at the Enviro 400 loaned to King's Lynn at the moment :

Friday 9th August 2013 ~ Scotch on the Rocks

I have been away for a few days in the land of Lothian Buses and it is interesting to compare the ways different bus operators perform. On a few occasions I travelled on Geminis and also in one case on a Dart.

The cleanliness of the buses was excellent, but a few differences were observed in comparison to the X1 route here.  Most noticeable was the way drivers set off immediately after passengers have boarded, rather than the system here where most drivers wait for passengers to be seated. I was told this would not be possible in urban conditions. The 'Drive Green' system used by First doesn't appear to have a comparable method at Lothian and not many buses seen seemed to use adblue. While taking refreshment in one of Edinburgh's fine hostelries, the customers were startled when a Lothian Gemini passed by with a fan even louder than that on 37157, so it was nice to report that none of the First fleet seen in the area had this malady. One Gemini we used had very worn seats and a badly vibrating engine which made sitting on the back seat downstairs quite uncomfortable, however, I did notice that sensible warnings had been put up to try and prevent bad mannered passengers from putting their feet on the seats, see pictures below.


Here in X1 land since my last report, Enviro 33423 has arrived at King's Lynn as expected. It is thought that it will not be entering service yet awhile, presumably to allow maintenance staff to become acquainted with its features. Rumoured estimates for delivery of the new fleet are now late September onwards. Meanwhile, the Geminis continue to provide, for the most part, a reliable service and any delays are usually the fault of other errant motorists on the A47. Scarcely a week goes by without some sort of incident on the Guyhirn to Thorney stretch and accidents on the Acle Straight are nearly as common.
Looking at August so far, the month began with 37576 sidelined with an injector problem. a couple of years ago it looked as though this was going to be the achiles heel for the type, but this was just a blip and these days such defects are rare.37576 was off the road from 1st to 4th for repairs. On Thursday 1st, 37569 became a failure at Acle around 10.30 while working K19-XL06 with an electrical fault in its fire sensor. Later in the day it had been replaced by 37571 which had just had its MOT that morning. Gorleston High Street was closed at this time due to a water main burst. Friday 2nd din't appear to be as bad as many Summer Fridays of late. At the Wisbech end, Y13-XL19 due to depart for Peterborough at 12.19, passed me at 12.34, 14 minutes late with 37566. K14 was then observed tanking along with 37158 about 16 late. My next sighting was K19, the 15.19 departure on which 37569 was running to time. 37570 came off L10-XL16 at 13.00 to be replaced by 37578 off servicing. Whatever was wrong with 37570 couldn't have been too serious though as it then took the 17.12 Lynn - Peterborough (K5-XL11) in place of 37575.
Observations at Terrington on Saturday (3rd) lunchtime saw most services within about 7 minutes of time, but returning eastbound, L11 -XL17 turned up with 37158 at 13.24, 23 late followed closely by 37160 on L12-XL18 which was 6 late. I then discovered that these two buses should have been the other way round and that 37158 had overtaken 37160 at some point during the morning. Later in the afternoon, the 16.12 King's Lynn - Peterborough (K2-XL08) came to grief on Nar OuseWay with a major air leak on 37564, Marcus was on board and says " The driver rang Vancouver Avenue depot and 37159 was immediately dispatched. Total delay from failure to recovery 6 minutes. Amazing. Thank you First for your prompt recovery"

37159 (rear) comes to the rescue of 37564 on Nar Ouse Way. : Photo : Marcus Parry.

On Sunday 4th, I travelled to Peterborough aboard the 13.12 from Walpole Highway. I expected this to be late as it is the 09.50 from Lowestoft which is always a very busy service, particularly between there and Norwich. 37569 turned up only 11 late and proceeded westbound at comfortable speed going in to Peterborough via Boongate and arriving in the bus station 8 minutes late. With a shorter break than usual, I was deposited at the rail station just 2 minutes behind time. Only other item of note on this date was King's Lynn providing B7 37159 for XL06, the 08.54 Lynn - Peterborough and 10.15 return to Lowestoft.
Monday 5th saw a few maintenance swaps , but 37573 which worked K17-XL04 into King's Lynn from the coast at 13.37 was then despatched eastbound again on L12-XL18 at 14.00. K17 went forward with 37565 and 37563 was sent to the garage off L12. Bruce reports Monday to Wednesday services running smoothly, but in Lowestoft, Malcolm reports a nightmare day for the X2 on Monday with some morning breakdowns causing havoc. 44513 was turned out for a morning service and 34156 was also seen arriving, but at completely the wrong time. On Tuesday, Des reported slow traffic hampering the progress of 37158 on L11-XL17 16.55 Lowestoft - King's Lynn. Departure was 9 late and times were then Yarmouth -18 (after congestion), Acle -24 (more queues out of Yarmouth), -19 at Norwich, final arrival at Lynn at 20.15, 16 late.
Here are some photographs taken by Joe Watson at Norwich on Thursday morning ........

60808 arriving in Norwich on an X1 short, soon to be taken over by the 375xx series Geminis.

37159 arrives at Norwich with K16 -XL03 06.17 Lynn - Lowestoft  and Bob at the wheel. The passenger side advert is missing.

37569 working Y13-XL19 08.15 Yarmouth - Peterborough at Norwich on Thursday.

My journey home on Thursday was with 37157 on L11-XL17 which pulled into Peterborough rail station spot on time at 12.12. Our driver, whose name I can't pronounce (!) was very keen to keep time and produced a terrific performance out of 37157, departing via the Dogsthorpe route to Eye Green. With stops at Thorney and Guyhirn and a congested approach into Wisbech, we arrived punctually at 12.51, something rarely managed at this time of day and even less so with a B7 on L11-XL17.
Friday 8th saw heavy traffic throughout the day. 37563 only made it as far as Wisbech on K1-XL07 05.42 King's Lynn to Peterborough and suffered a data link fault losing its gears - this has been the most common cause of failure in the fleet in 2013. 37574 was despatched from King's Lynn to continue the service. Friday afternoon was a blackspot for punctuality as usual, Angela S texted me from Peterborough to say that 37158 on K16 was running so late that the driver took it directly from the rail station to King's Lynn, leaving her and her hubby to wait for K17 which arrived not far off its time with 37566. By this time she had been waiting almost an hour. Things got worse later though when an accident on the Thorney - Guyhirn section of the A47 (there's a surprise !) caused heavy delays. Bruce noted 37567 passing his house on K19-XL06 running 24 late and then on a journey westbound passed 37572 flailing down the Wisbech bypass with a full load on K2-XL08 at 18.32, 32 minutes late. He then encountered K3 with 37569 at Guyhirn running 28 late and K4 right behind it (37568) on time. The earlier late running meant that 37160 was turned out for K16-XL03 at 16.00 from Lynn to Lowestoft to replace 37158 and the latter then replaced an ailing 37566 on K17-XL04.

My apologies for the lack of appearance of the promised archive feature which should appear soon.

Wednesday 31st July 2013 ~ Changes Imminent

I've been holding back doing a blog update recently because I thought there might be a report of movements in connection with the transfer away from the X1 route of the Geminis. This has not happened yet, but there have been a couple of related events. Firstly, one of the Enviro 400s acquired from Ensignbus , 33423, has gone away to have a tachograph fitted to enable it to work the X1 route and Norwich's Gemini 36180 has had its all over wrap for Vodafone removed, making it a more suitable candidate should it be required for X1 substitutions during the changeover. Thanks to Zak for confirmation of the latter. 
It would seem likely that the use of the Enviro 400 will initially be restricted to an internal King's Lynn diagram, K3-XL09 being the prime candidate.
To bring us up to date, we firstly go back to Saturday 20th July and roadworks in North Lynn caused tailbacks to affect traffic in the bus station area. Eventually the queues spread back to the Southgates roundabout and onto its approach roads and by 13.20 everything had come to a standstill.

 The situation slowly improved and things had returned to normality by 14.30. Sightings at the Southgates in this period were as follows :

13.27 L11 37158 ex Peterborough  -4
13.28 K15 37563 to Peterborough -39
14.01 L12 37572 ex Peterborough -8
14.03 K17 37570 ex Lowestoft -28
14.12 37571 empty Vancouver Avenue to Bus Station for K18 (in picture above)
14.16 K18 37575 ex Lowestoft -11
14.40 K19 37567 ex Lowestoft -5

What a friendly driver ! 37579 departs Walpole Highway on Saturday as the 08.15 ex Lowestoft.

37563 heads westbound at Walpole on K15, running almost 40 minutes late due to congestion en route.

37157 arrives at Wisbech working Saturday's K3-XL09 17.42 Peterborough - King's Lynn

Sunday services normally run fairly well, but the popular 09.50 from Lowestoft is an exception. On 21st, 37573 was the bus on this turn and it passed Bruce at Walpole 15 late at 13.28, returning 17 late at 15.26.

.... and here is 37573 getting away from Yarmouth on Sunday taken from the rather unusual viewpoint of Yarmouth Vauxhall  signalbox. Photo : Richard Adderson.

Monday 22nd passed seemingly without incident and Tuesday 23rd's timekeeping was excellent, with a small blip around 16.00 when K1-XL07 went west 12 late with 37565 and K2-XL08 with 37571 departed Wisbech on time  late passing me at 16.20 heading for Peterborough, but to my surprise reappearing at 16.26 and turning left over Wisbech town bridge to gain the route via Wisbech St. Mary, presumably due to a queue on the normal route. Worst performer on Wednesday 24th was 37158 which was 21 late on K16-XL03 13.49 Wisbech - Peterborough, while L10 10.15 King's Lynn - Peterborough failed to appear and Christine who was waiting at Thorney had to wait for L11 to turn up with 37159. 

32202 earning its keep on an X1 short, photographed by Sam Larke on Wednesday 24th.

37575 arriving in Norwich on L8-XL14 this afternoon (24th). Photo :  Sam Larke

So not too much awry then until Thursday 25th which began badly with 37565 failing at North Burlingham on L10-XL16 with a coolant leak. It was eventually repaired and got to King's Lynn in time to relieve 37578 which had broken down at Tilney on Y9-XL15 with a loss of gears. L10 was cancelled over the western section (for the second day in a row ?)  and 37565 then took the turn eastbound from Lynn at 13.00. 37569 on K17-XL04 left Wisbech westbound at 14.22 (3 late) and then 37579 passed through eastbound on K15-XL02 at 15.04 (14 late). K18 finally appeared past me 38 late at 15.28 Peterborough bound with 37157 and on its tail just 4 minutes behind was K19 (37577) 12 late. Over at Lowestoft Y7-XL13 came in 21 late with 37572, getting away westbound just 12 late.
Friday 26th was actually quite a good day for punctuality with just a few services running notably behind time including K16-XL03 which had 37577 and was 18 x 22 late at Wisbech and K18-XL05 went to Peterborough 24 late on the 14.49 departure. Over at Lowestoft 37573 came in 30 late on Y7-XL13 and left 'not in service'. Some of this delay can be attributed to tree cutting at Mattishall which affected some services badly and which Des encountered on Y13-XL19 08.15 from Lowestoft making the service 14 late at Hockering. The knock on effect was a 17 minute late arrival in Lynn. 37160 made a comeback to traffic today and it is now a lovely quiet bus - yes it has had its noisy fan fixed.
Saturday 27th was considerably better than a week earlier with almost everything running on time, but once again Sunday's black sheep was the 09.50 ex Lowestoft which this week was 12 late westbound through Walpole with 37575.
Nearly up to date then and Monday 29th saw several services running fractionally early, the 09.19, 15.49 & 16.49 departures from Wisbech to Peterborough were noted thus and the 16.35 arrival at the Southgates from Lowestoft (K4-XL10) arrived at 16.32 with 37577.
A collapsed drain on the A47 between Thorney Toll and Guyhirn ruined the timetable on Tuesday, July 30th - the day had begun very well with - very unusually - B7s on K2 (XL08) and K4 (XL10). 37158 was on the former before being swapped at 18.30 for 37563 and K4 came past me at 09.18, nearly 2 minutes early with 37159 on the 08.38 Peterborough - Lowestoft. From around 10.00, the delays began to accumulate though and returning services from Peterborough were typically 20 - 30 minutes late. At the eastern end Malcolm Hicks reports Y6-XL12 arriving 18 late and departing 10 late with 37573, though Y7 and L8 were noted 'right time'.
Repairs to the wretched drain involved the use of temporary lights on Wednesday 31st. Things were already being affected at an early hour with K2-XL08 07.33 from Peterborough running 7 late through Walpole with Karen F and 37576 . K4-XL10 with 37568 passed Bruce at 10.02, 28 late while 37160 came back on K5 past me at 10.21 (31 late). Going westbound, Cheryl had some different scenery going to work when to avoid the delays, her driver took 37566  via Wisbech St. Mary, Murrow and Parson Drove to reach the A47. Westbound services continued to depart Wisbech on time, but by the more orthodox route and the first sign of anything amiss was the reappearance of 37160, this time working L12-XL18 11.12 from King's Lynn. In the end not content with a double trip to Peterborough, 37160 turned up again on K2 15.42 Lynn - Peterborough on which it was running 19 late - Cheryl had intended to catch K1 this afternoon, but this was cancelled over the western section owing to driver displacement and she had to suffer the indignity of watching 37160 depart Thorney for Peterborough and then wait for it to come back. The lady was not amused I can tell you and the 'First' Twitter feed was getting a bashing ! There were lots of bus swaps of course including 37579 which came off Y7 at Lynn at 11.49 to be replaced by 37574 which then became further delayed arriving in Lowestoft 28 late and departing 19 late.
Afternoon eastbound services from Peterborough gradually returned to timetable after the temporary lights were removed and passed me as follows ; K14 37157 @ 14.38 (18 late), K15 37575 @ 15.28 (38 late), K16 37158 @ 15.35 (15 late), K17 37565 @16.08 (18 late), K18 37159 @ 16.28 ( 8 late) and finally K19 with 37570 just 5 late. 
This was far from the end of the story on what turned out to be a disastrous day for the operators. Des reports "37569 K3-XL09 09.37 Southgates to Lowestoft - Late to me (Thorney Drain problem) - Take over into Lynn. Depart Lynn -24 (09.54), -24 (10.28) Swaffham, -32 (11.09) Dereham (Further delayed because Konnect blocking stop with 8 to Toftwood and 11 to Watton. I always pull in front of both parked buses to load. Today I was moved on by police for causing an obstruction and told to drive around Market Place until a stop became vacant!!!!), -33 (11.53) Norwich - Acle straight closed, -51 (12.51) Yarmouth, arrive Low -48 (13.28). Bus departed at 13.39 with 12.55 driver". 

An all too familiar sight on the Acle Straight, photo taken today by Joe Leathers

Coming up in the next few days, we have one of our occasional archive features so watch out for that !