Thursday 13 February 2014

Brundall Buses (& Trains!)

Unbranded First Volvo B7L 66329 MV02VBD stops in Brundall
before continuing to Norwich and its final destination of Wymondham
In response to an email today from Brian Moore of Brundall, I decided to visit the village which is located just east of Norwich just off the A47 trunk road

Before visiting I thought I would suss out what operators served village. First Eastern Counties provide a basic half hourly service from Wymondham via the village to either Blofield Heath or Lingwood as Green Line routes 15 and 15A respectively

Konectbus Optare Versa 303 AU08DKN on its way to Eaton
Brian tells me he is 'amused to see the list of First Volvo B7Rs allocated to Green Line services.  These vehicles are decidedly unreliable so that we see unbranded B7Rs almost as much as branded ones.'

He adds 'that the fitters have obviously put a lot of effort into these vehicles as the gearboxes now work reasonably smoothly for the most part.'

So, as to prove his point, this afternoon  an unbranded Volvo B7L in the shape of 66329 MV02VBD arrived at the Budgens stop in the village just after 2pm on its way to Wymondham!

Additionally Konectbus runs an hourly service runs through the village from Blofield Heath to Eaton and return and I was pleased to get a photo of ex Anglian AU08DKN heading west now in Konect colours

Other Brundall bus services include a daily out and back 7a service provided by Anglian and the infrequent 292 route provided by Our Bus

A class 156 unit enters Brundall station on a Great Yarmouth to Norwich service
Brundall is also catered for by a rail service and I paid a quick visit to the station to get a photo of a Great Yarmouth to  Norwich Class 156 unit passing Brundall Junction signal box. I understand the box is to close during 2016 under the East Anglia Signal Box Closure Programme

Brian also comments on my Acle Adventure post, and the photo of the Brush Class 47 in particular. Blog readers 'may like to know that these are to be replaced by a set of two English Electric Class 37s and three Mark 2 coaches, formed Class 37+BSO+TSO+TSO+Class 37 and it is said the Mark 2s are through wired.  Abellio Greater Anglia drivers are being trained'

Thanks for the email and update Brian and I hope that First's bus reliability improves very soon. A response has subsequently been received from First and brief summary appears under the Comments section below

3 comments:

  1. Unbranded vehicles are schedules to the Green Line, they do not appear due to breakdowns. First aim to have 65% of each of the allocations on "line" route branded.
    After certain runs on 14s and 15s, these turn into other routes in the evening. For this reason, if every bus was Green branded, the wrong colored bus would appear on the wrong route.

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  2. I understand that Kieran and I have subsequently had a detailed explanation from First as to why it happens. My contact also tells me that the use of 'unbranded buses has nothing to do with unreliability, indeed these Volvos are quite reliable.'

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  3. Good news on the short set will be looking out for that I read that in Rail mag earlier but it was only a rumour then good post Roy

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