The route between Peterborough and Norwich is very easy to describe - take the A47! There are a few bits of dual carriageway and bypasses of the four intermediate towns ...
... after which the A47 becomes the Norwich outer by pass and zooms on to Great Yarmouth.
The current Excel calls at all the four towns with occasional diversions via some villages ...
... an an all journeys excursion via Wendling and Scarning.
This gives a relatively simple service of buses every half hour end to end with the diversions offering an hourly call at the "occasional" villages.
From 16th February, Sunday and evening services follow a similar "four towns" pattern, but basically hourly, calling at all stops.
The normal Monday to Saturday daytime service then splits into " B " and " C ".
" B " eschews Walpole Highway and Terrington St John as does the current ten past the hour from Peterborough.
" C " misses Thorney village at the Peterborough end (see above) and zaps past Dereham on the approaches to Norwich.
Both these changes will obviously speed up services considerably, but, looking only at the two through schedules, they would deplete Dereham of half its service.
Enter route " D ".
This is a brand new half hourly non-stop (nearly) frequency from Dereham to Norwich.
P.S. Dereham is, historically East Dereham, but the location of West Dereham is lost in the mists of Norfolk!
Not really. There it is, near Downham Market and well to the west of East Dereham.
And what about fares. The leaflet shows returns between the main towns ...
The day ticket, valid all day (surprise) on the Excel routes, makes the shorter journeys seem expensive.
Yet again, with the company's pricing policy, the weekly ticket seems laughably cheap.
Just under £11 for a day but only £24 for a whole week. Even if you just "commute" and don't travel on Saturdays and Sundays you are travelling for half price for "longer" journeys.
It does seem that bus companies are happy to heavily discount regular travel to the detriment and discouragement of the occasional and shorter outing. Is that why Bristol, for example, is cutting frequencies off-peak?
But here we have some faster journey times long distance and more buses to (East) Dereham and faster buses to boot - 35 minutes on route "D" as opposed to 40 mins on the previous Excel. Some would say that this is a "courageous" move in these straitened times, but whatever its long term future, it signals that First Bus is not all doom and gloom despite its problems at board level.
Cheers all round and with two more "launches" on the way, more cheers to come.
When will we get something similar in Sheffield?
It does seem that bus companies are happy to heavily discount regular travel to the detriment and discouragement of the occasional and shorter outing. Is that why Bristol, for example, is cutting frequencies off-peak?
But here we have some faster journey times long distance and more buses to (East) Dereham and faster buses to boot - 35 minutes on route "D" as opposed to 40 mins on the previous Excel. Some would say that this is a "courageous" move in these straitened times, but whatever its long term future, it signals that First Bus is not all doom and gloom despite its problems at board level.
Cheers all round and with two more "launches" on the way, more cheers to come.
When will we get something similar in Sheffield?
Next Heathrow blog : Tuesday 4th February
It would seem there is an error on the staircase graphics down in yesterday's blog, which seem to show the D starting at Peterborough. I wonder if this will be corrected before the buses enter service?
ReplyDeleteThe former X1 route (Peterborough - Lowestoft) was split at Norwich in 2017. This was confusing for people in Norwich and the Peterborough - Norwich section was "renumbered" as XL in February 2018. Remember the dreadful fatal accident in April 2018 when much of the uninformed press reported that the XL bus was an X1 and/or a coach.
ReplyDeleteWill the A/B/C/D route identifiers be shown on the bus indicators?
@Ray Stringer - the Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth to Norwich section was split off as the X1/X11 some time ago
ReplyDeleteAt the time of the split into 2 sections, the Great Yarmouth/Lowestoft end was increasing passenger figures but suffering from timimg reliabilty. The 08:15 ex Lowestoft departure went to Peterborough & the return journey meant it was the 15:45 Norwich to Yarmouth/Lowestoft. Due to the route length & traffic conditions, it never made it's 15:45 Norwich departure! This was happening on many of the Norwich, to the East, departures. Reliability of service on the Eastern section was deemed to be more important than the convenience of being able to travel a long distance without changing buses. The split in the route has meant a bus from Yarmouth (Belton & Gorleston) every 15 minutes. Lowestoft to Norwich is covered by X2, X21, X22 via Beccles and the X1 (every 30 minutes) via Yarmouth. Reliability on the X1/X11 is very good and passenger numbers are rising. Look out for a new 'Fleet Launch' on the X1/X11 in the future?
ReplyDeleteI rode from King's Lynn to Peterborough last week and the electronic scrolling display inside the bus still said "Welcome on the First X1 Service", which doesn't help.
ReplyDeleteThe service in 2020 is vastly better than fifty years ago. For instance, on a Sunday in 1971, there were three journeys each way between Norwich and Peterborough, changing at Kings Lynn. Leaving Norwich at 1035, you arrived at Peterborough at 1509. a journey of four and a half hours. Now there is an hourly service and you would leave Norwich at 1030 and arrive at 1350.
ReplyDeleteOur esteemed blogger opines about " It does seem that bus companies are happy to heavily discount regular travel to the detriment and discouragement of the occasional and shorter outing. Is that why Bristol, for example, is cutting frequencies off-peak?"
ReplyDeleteThe reality is that because of the poorly funded ENCTS formula, it means that pensioners get a freebie and the operator is left getting a fraction of the fare. Fine if you're getting massively more 40% fares but that isn't what happens.
So instead, the onus would fall on the fare paying public. That hardly seems proportional - disadvantaging one group of people for another. So companies are faced with having to increase "walk on" fares (where the reimbursement formula comes from) but holding down fares for regular travellers.
So is this why First West of England are cutting off peak frequencies? No. It's simply because off peak, the buses are largely used by pass holders so the revenue doesn't match resources. Of course, they're aren't cutting peak services as they do have plenty of fare paying passengers.
Not a slight on ENCTS users - just an accurate reflection of the facts. Of course, were ENCTS pass holders elect to not use their pass for 1 in 5 journeys (and pay the full fare), that disparity in adult fares wouldn't be so pronounced....but will that happen? Experience says not