Chaotic Consideration Of Cringleford (2)

Find A Map Of Norwich Buses!

Looks promising. Surely the City will be encouraging folk to travel by bus.

Erm, no!! The only bit of "bus" was as below.

Helpful as ever, the City Council suggested tht Norfolk County Council has other useful services.

So an eager fbb clicked on the inviting "Transport for Norwich" link. This led to one panel about buses as below.

Norwich bus network

For those living in the wider Norwich area, First Eastern Counties runs a network of 10 colour-coded routes offering frequent, direct links with the city centre, rail station and many other popular destinations.  Discount fares are available for anyone under 20, and High5 tickets offer a day’s travel for up to five people (maximum two adults) at less than the cost of two adult return tickets.

Although he is not sure how he got there fbb did come across this, listed as the source of bus timetables.

There was also a map ...

... which, as you can see, offered every bus stop in Norfolk. fbb tried "Greenways" (Remember?) ...

Perhaps fbb might want a farm in Newton Flotman? But this useful facility did lead the old man to a stop in Greenways ...

... but with no information on what might actually serve the stop.

You will remember that fbb has been commissioned to draw route diagrams for the Norwich network in 1970 with information supplied by "Mr K", a very nice man.

Specifically, to enhance the background  to his labours, fbb wanted to see what operated in the area of Cringleford today. Here is a slightly enhanced version of a very small chunk of his preparatory work.

It was maybe worth using the internet (It's All On Line) searching for Norwich bus map. 

And there were bus maps a-plenty. Some looked out-of-date.

This was to First Bus "Overground" style, long since condemned to oblivion, but there it was, apparently current, on a non official site offering "details of Norwich buses". Looking closely at an over-enlarged corner, fbb discovered that was for 2011.

Then there was this, undated but actually from First Bus.

So fbb duly downloaded and attempted to explore.

Not terribly helpful for "exploring" Cringleford. A panel to the side suggested that an explorer would need "The Pink Line".

There was also a First map from a blogger telling fbb all about the company's new network ...

... and it seemed to show nothing to any of the "branches" operated by Eastern Counties in 1970. This withdrawal from School, Bluebell Estate and Greenways was further confirmed by a First Bus official map dated 2017.

There's Keswick Road where the 90 terminated at the School. NOTHING. And Bluebell Estate?

NOTHING. And Greenways?

NOTHING. 

Then fbb had a thought (rare but occasionally useful). The above map (It's All On Line) was dated 2017 ...

... so maybe there is a later version.

Off to First's Network Norwich web site. And here was a very similar map to the above. But on closer examination fbb discovered a pink line in the Keswick Road/School area ...

.... buses in the Bluebell Estate area ...

.... but still ...

... NOTHING to Greenways.

Presumably sometime between 2017 and today, First Bus has won back services to two of the three branches as part of a tender to Norwich City or Norfolk County.

But there were stops and flags on Greenways courtesy of Google Maps, were there not?

And clicking on the map's bus stop icon, fbb discovered that Greenways is now served by Konnect Bus 5B. And Konnect Bus had a map which, sort of, confirmed something.

Wonder where the 5A goes?

As fbb suspected, there are now no buses along Colney Lane but, after some diligent but infuriating research, the old man has satisfied his truffling instinct and found the modern versions of the 90, 90B and 90C which ran back in 1970.

The Pink Line from First will feature in one of the weekend variety blogs, but your author is sure you would love to know what the 5B is. Here is just an extract from the Konnectbus web site.

The 5B goes all the way to Stalham, where it performs a large alternate ways round loop.

This would be a nice £2 worth from Greenways, and, presumably, £2 back.

But, whilst the sources of the information are murky at best, we should perhaps be glad for the residents of Cringleford, Bluebell Estate and Greenways who, after 53 years of general decline in public transport, still have a reasonable bus service.

Such luxuries are by no means universal!

The main service along roads served by the 90s in the 70s is now provided by 11, 11A and 12 and they go the the Hospital.

Look! There's a Cringleford Bus Interchange! Wowsers!

None of that existed in 1970.

 Next Variety blog : Saturday 11th March