A Handful Of Happenings At Heartsease (3)

Unthank : So Thanks Again

Having failed to identify the above tram because of his Unthank Road budner, fbb compounded the error by failing to print correspondent Peter's correct location pictures.

The pub near the tram is now The Pear Tree ...

... and has been up-fettled quite a bit since the days of the "white" route to Unthank Road.

Again, thanks to correspondent Peter for his kind efforts!

6. Hartsease 1970

fbb spent most of yesterday adding the curved corners to his route diagram of Eastern Counties buses in Norwich City, under the guidance of Mr K.

A street map showing this complex of services to Heartsease arrived, for which fbb was very thankful but still a touch confused.

This little lot consists of SIX numbered bus services. Four of them congregate close to a little park in the centre of the estate, seen below on Google Earth.

The church (centre left) is simple but well cared for.

There is no Heartsease shopping centre as such, just a few retail premises here and there. Here is the Co-op.

The main shopping centre, however, is on the Plumstead Road ...

... where you will also find the Heartsease pub.

So with a repeat of the fbb diagram, we can now summarise how this estate was served in 1970 thanks to noble advice from Mr K..

The 92 and 92A ran every 10 minutes from city, then alternately each way round the wiggles.

The 94 and 95 ran every 30 mins via Plumstead Road then each hourly:-

the 94 to Woodside Estate

and 95 via the Heartsease "central" stops

(and yes, fbb has got the 94 and 97 numbers muxed ip! Too late to correct for this blog.)

The 97 and 97A ran every 30 mins via Salhouse Road and then each hourly

the 97 via Woodside Estate

and 97A via the Heartsease "central" stops.

If fbb's maths is right, that is TEN buses an hour to "greater" Heartsease.

By the time privatisation was very much on the agenda, photographs show service 19 ...

... and service 20 to Heartsease.

But it is a revelation to see what First Bus has done with the services to the estate as a result of its grand reorganisation to Network Norwich with colour coded routes.

7. First Bus in 2023

Heartsease is part of the Red Line 23 and 24.

These days it has posher branded buses.

First now give us toute maps for all its coloured services.

To the west of the city centre the routes serve Costessey and newer development at Queens Hills.

To the east the routes split with 23/23A to Heartsease ...

... and 24/24A to Thorpe St Andrew.

So what is today's frequency to Heartsease? Remember it was ten buses an hour in 1970.

It is just THREE buses an hour in 2023!

Now we have a somewhat more wiggly one way loop with 23 and 23A being the same at Heartsease; the difference is at the other end!

All the Red Line buses run via Plumstead Road with the other "half" finding their more complex way to Thorpe St Andrew.

There is also the out-of-town 14 and 14A along Plumstead Road. They are part of a horrible cobbling together of bits and pieces to provide the Green Line  ...

... and you have to wonder whether this assortment really makes sense as one very non-unified brand!

Fom a comprehensibility point of view the 14/15 group certainly doesn't cut the mustard.

Mustard? Norwich? Gettit? GROAN!

Off to the North West tomorrow.

 Next A, D and G blog : Thursday 16th March