Looking At Lowestoft 1970 v 2023

At First From First, A Bit Odd?

Geographically, the A12 runs south via Kessingland to Southwold; The A47 goes north to Great Yarmouth and the A146 trundles westwards to Beccles and Norwich with a branch to to Bungay. Services along these main routes are shown on Mr K's network map, one of the delights of his latest book.

But if we look at today's Lowestoft network we find there is lots more stuff than on the Eastern Counties map. Here are local routes north of Oulton Broad (the wet stuff, not the community!) ...

... and south of Oulton Broad.

Either current incumbent First Bus has expanded dramatically since Eastern Counties days or we are missing something.

What we are missing, of course, is that Lowestoft Corporation ran, firstly, trams ...

... and later, buses.

As with many small municipalities, the buses were always shiny clean ...

... with just a few less usual vehicles to excite the bus spotter.

The corporation was finding it more and more difficult to cope with the steady decline in passenger numbers and joint working with Eastern Counties came in the early 1970s. 

In 1974 Lowestoft became part of the new Waveney District of Suffolk and for a few years the "new" council; continued to run the old council's buses.

In 1977 Waveney finally succumbed to the inevitable and sold out to the big boys.

So within Mr K's dateline there were Lowestoft town services which did not feature in the oeuvre of ECOC. To add to the "Contrast and Compare" challenge, the two 1970 "local" Lowestoft routes do not appear on Mt K's network map!

Service 3 to Oulton

Every 15 minutes

Can we find an equivalent on First's map and timetable for 2023?  The 105 (PURPLE) is probably the closest to he 1970 route.

Hmm. every hour off peak compared with every 15 minutes?

Whilst a direct comparison may not be possible, First's map shows three routes serving the "greater" Oulton area.

... with a second hourly frequency provided by the 102 (GREEN).

Service 3A/3B to Oulton Village

Every 20 minutes

Back in 1970, the equivalent of today's hourly off peak service 102 ran every 20 minutes!

At arly morning, evening and Sunday times the 102 and 105 are replaced by a portmanteau route 122 (YELLOW) ....

... so the whole thing is a huge come-down compared with 1970s!

Service 4 to Kessingland

Every 30 minutes

Service 1B to Southwold

Every Hour

Becomes branded route 99 ...

... every 30 min to Kessingland, continuing hourly to Southwold.

Not bad compared with 1970!

Service 2A to Gisleham and Hulver

OR Kessingland Beach

Alas, these communities appear to be bus-less in 2023 - no surprise, really.

Likewise, today, no bus runs to Kessingland Beach.

Service 2 to Beccles and Bungay

Service 17 to Beccles and Norwich

Irregular

This is another corridor not strictly comparable, but in 2023 there is a bus every 15mintes from Lowestoft to Beccles ...

... but these routes do continue to Norwich.

The 1970 service 17 to Norwich was also erratic!

One of the "interesting" developments in the modern bus business is the growth of frequent inter-urban services, strongly branded and using high quality buses ...

... which leads us neatly into ...

Service 1/1A (Great) Yarmouth

Every 30 minutes

Like the service via Beccles (above) this now runs through to Norwich. It runs every 30 minutes from Lowestoft and every 30 from Belton ...

... combining to run every 15 min via Gorleston and Great Yarmouth to Norwich.

So it is the same as the 1970 headway between Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth.

But still impressive.

Which leaves just one remaining service from Lowestoft in 1970.

Service 56 Somerleyton and (Great)Yarmouth

Irregular

You may wish to check on the network map above.

The great news (NOT!!) is that Somerleyton is now served by the North Lowestoft Buzzabout.

The PDF is about as useful as the archetypal chocolate teapot! Here, for example is the map.

And really all you need to know is how this service compares with a proper bus running at advertised times.

It gives you "FREEDOM" to hang around until the bus is available and it gives you "INDEPENDENCE"; although the leaflet is coy about what you are being "independent" from and for.

It certainly isn't cheap and fbb guesses that you don't get offered a £2 maximum fare.

And this "Freedom" service offers all the "Independence" of a minibus on Monday to Friday only and ...

... finishing well before any peak "commuter" requirements.

Bring back Eastern Counties service 56!

But, oddly, Traveline has a proper timetable for this Demand Responsive service - hourly from 1000 to 1600 ...

... and similar in the opposite direction.

So it appears to be an ordinary scheduled bus running hourly but one which you cannot catch unless you book in advance. The operation has strange definitions of "freedom", "independence" and "convenient"!

That's certainly "different".

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This blog really hurt fbb's brain - so tomorrow he takes a short break from the consequences of Mr K's excellent book and considers a possible Christmas prezzy c/o Northampton Alan.

 Next Book Review blog : Thursday 12th October