Service Alterations Registered ~ 31st December 2025

Our last post of 2025 concerns today’s Notices and Proceedings Report, published by the East of England Traffic Commissioner. It contained no entries regarding changes to local bus services. The full Report can be viewed here soon

Finally, a very happy new year to all.

Roy

Ultaviolet 8's

Last day of the year is upon us, and a couple of recent arrivals at Yarmouth were noted out on town duties today rather than their usual X1/X11 workings.

 35673 MF22SYC is pictured heading the James Paget Hospital along Sandringham Avenue in Newtown.

 

35674 MF22SYE also noted heading to the JPH, this time in Caister On Sea along Yarmouth Road.

Finally a late addition to the post was another unusual working this time in my home village of Ormesby St. Margaret with Streetlite 47503 SN64CPX working the 1 service to Lowestoft. The route is rarely single deck operated.

Apologies for the very bright low winter sun shots!

Happy New Year to all!

Grahame 

Final trip of the year to Norwich

My usual end of year trip up to Norwich today, the low sun on the way up was not looking good for the camera but I did manage a few half decent winter shots to add to the collection.

 

One of the more recent Streetlite arrivals was noted in St. Stephens, 63170 SN64CJX was working the 16 route.

 

Another of the re powered Streetdecks is 71023 XIG1723 (ex SK16GVZ , 35200) seen here working the 26 service to the N+N Hospital.

 

One I was glad to catch was Sanders Volvo/Evora M20FXO which is named after England footballer Lauren Hemp who comes from North Walsham.

Konectbus 272 YX61DVP an Alexander Enviro 200 seen here in Castle Meadow still in Chambers/Hedingham livery.

 

Another Konectbus vehicle, 623 SN65OAB is wearing an allover advert for Connecting Communities and was working the 5B route out to Stalham.

Final shot sees Ambassador Travel Caetano Levante BV22VSZ leaving the Bus Station and heading to Heathrow Airport on the 727 service.

May I wish all our followers a very happy and safe New Year, thank for the continuous support. A big thanks to Roy for allowing me to still be part of the blog after all these years! (15 and counting!)

All The Best Grahame. 

Ipswich Exile In Derby

Just before Christmas I heard from Tim Robertson in Nottingham regarding a former First Ipswich double decker

Tim writes: 'I’ve followed the blog here for a couple of years in order to keep track of the fates of the Volvo B7TLs at First Eastern Counties. I thought you might be interested to know that former Ipswich-based AU05 MUO/32651 has pitched up in Derby with Hawkes Tours, where it sees sporadic use on football home match shuttles. It’s been there most of the year but I’ve only recently seen it for myself.

'As is evident in the attached photo, it remains in as-withdrawn condition by First, right down to the adverts and painted-over fleet names, which isn’t unusual for Hawkes as they also have a few other double deckers in unaltered First livery. The photo shows it on Pride Parkway in Derby on the 20th of December.'

'As far as I know, 32651 is the only surviving example of the 26 low height ALX400s delivered to Eastern Counties – and by extension the sole survivor from First’s final batch of ALX400s. For a long time I’ve been hoping that one of this batch makes it into preservation, so I’d be more than willing to assist if you know anybody who is interested in trying to save it. The only thing preventing me from having a go by myself is that I already own one ALX400 and don’t have the resources for two!'

My thanks to Tim for the report and photo. If you would like to discuss the preservation of a low height ALX400 contact Tim direct by email at timothyliam3@gmail.com

Roy

Christmas Eve In Norwich

A couple of photos taken on Castle Meadow in Norwich on Christmas Eve by Dan High.

The first is of a Coastal Clipper liveried Wright Eclipse Gemini bodied Volvo B9TL which are rarely seen in the city. This is First 37572 AU58 ECW on the 13:20 service 7 to Great Yarmouth via Fleggburgh and Caister.

Often visiting the Norfolk coastal area are members of the Alfa Travel fleet and this is their Mercedes-Benz Tourismo A108 BV19 YFC on its way to Cromer after visiting Norwich.

Thanks to Dan for the photos

Roy

Boxing Day Back Track

Happy Boxing Day Readers, hope you all had a fantastic Christmas Day, all full and rested i hope!

I am taking you back to Norwich in August 2005, sounds very odd saying that it is now 20 years ago.

 

First up is a new arrival for First that year, 32652 AU05MUP an Alexander Dennis ALX400 which was wrongly delivered in Park & Ride Blue livery before being repainted in the corporate Barbie scheme, in fact the whole batch of these arrived at Great Yarmouth Depot in Blue. The Park & Ride vehicles were then made up of 53 plate ALX400's from the fleet.

Sanders ran a few DAF/Ikarus vehicles around this time and P127RWR is seen in Castle Meadow heading out to Holt a the 44 service. This was new to Luton Airport, it moved onto Brylaine in Lincolnshire after service with Sanders.

Norfolk County Council had begun running some of the City Park & Ride sites, one of these being Postwick where this photo was taken. AU05FKG was in a White scheme as a dedicated spare vehicle covering all sites, NCC ran Agoralines in Green, Yellow & Purple schemes for the various sites at Postwick, Sprowston & Norwich Airport.

 

A unique loan vehicle was operating for First at the time, 32850 T850LLC, A Dennis Trident with Plaxton President bodywork appeared on the 25 service, This type was to become a fixture in the fleet from 2009 along with more Volvo B7TL's from London. 32850 did return to Norwich in Barbie colours before moving on to First Essex.

 

Finally adding to the new colourful Park & Ride fleets were Konectbus who operated the Thickthorn site using VDL/Wright Geminis, YJ05PXD is seen heading out of the new Bus Station which was yet to be completed at the time if i recall.

Enjoy the rest of the festive celebrations, hopefully i should be up to Norwich again before the end of the year.

All The Best, Grahame.

Season's Greetings

Well another twelve months has shot by so quickly with many comings and goings for many of our local operators’ fleets. You are able to view all the posts of the year (and previous years’ too!) in the blog archive located at the bottom left hand side of the web site. There’s also the search facility at the very top of the web page if you are looking for a particular item.

The blog has amassed almost eight million page views with much of its success down to our many contributors. Daily views are in the thousands each day with visitors from USA, Hong Kong, Brazil, India and Uzbekistan being notable. Thanks for your continued support.

Thanks also to each and every one of our contributors as the information is very much valued and appreciated. Again this year I feel I have to acknowledge the continuous updates and photos from Dan High on the Norwich bus scene. As well as our regular correspondents it is pleasing to see so many new names appearing too.

Once more my very special thanks to Grahame Bessey for his input and support despite being a very busy man. I understand he is to venture out with his camera over the holiday period so looking forward to that.

Finally, both Grahame and I would like to wish all readers, contributors and supporters a very merry Christmas and a happy, healthy and prosperous 2026.

Roy