Another Year Begins

A lot has been reported in the past day or so about Konect taking over Anglian's routes in Norwich but what has seemingly gone un-noticed is the linking up of Anglian's routes 7 and 61, giving a through service from Southwold/Kessingland/Lowestoft and Yarmouth to Norwich. Or so the timetable says. So off I went today to have a look and see how it was working. I went from Halesworth to Yarmouth via Beccles, so caught gas bus 110 to Beccles, and was then somewhat surprised to see Solo 904 operating on the 81's. I saw another Solo on the route too so is this now going to be a regular Solo operation? If anyone from Anglian is reading and knows then let me know please!

Anglian 110 AU13 FBJ at a very wet Beccles

Now according to the timetables the 61 and 7 link seemlessly at Yarmouth - guranteed connections, no change of bus and all that. But you'd never know it. The destination screens show no indication whatsoever that it is indeed a through service. The 61 from Kessingland just shows Yarmouth with no "for Norwich", and the 7 from Norwich just shows "Yarmouth via Thorpe and Acle" with no "For Lowestoft and Kessingland" so no one will have any idea they can stay on the bus. Anglian have a pretty poor record in promoting new services and this doesn't look like an exception. However it seems that there will be quite a mix of vehicles on the route.

Anglian 110 AU13 FBJ having made the return journey from Beccles passes Omnicity 462 YN03 WRJ at a much sunnier Norwich

Apologies but took this pic vey quick and too blurred to identify this Solo on the 7 this afternoon

Also spotted this afternoon by pure chance was a new National Express branded coach operated by Ambassador Travel of Yarmouth. BF63 ZSL is a Volvo B9R Caetano Levante and by method of deduction is fleet number 210. A pic of 212 can be seen on Norwich Bus Page.

Ambassador Travel 210 BF63 ZSL passes Anglian 462