The Grey Line Comes To Norwich

I have been mentioning for a few weeks that I had been told of a quite unexpected fleet movement within First Eastern Counties. I have now been given clearance to give details, which I'm sure will have a few eyebrows raised.

In order to speed up the repaint process in Norwich the Green line is being disbanded and replaced with a new Grey Line, using some of Ipswich's recently refurbished fleet. Former Norwich Volvo B7rle's 69005 - 69011 are having their Ipswich vinyls removed and will be transferred to Norwich to operate the Grey Line together with Streetlites as required. The current Green Line branded B7l's will be de-branded and move to Ipswich to operate predominantly Town Services.

66301, seen here in Yarmouth, will soon be in Ipswich

When I asked Chris Speed, Business Manager for First Eastern Counties the reasons for the transfers he said it had been considered for some time, and as Greater Anglian were refurbishing their Intercity coaches with mainly grey interiors, as the Ipswich vehicles already have grey fronts and grey leather seating it made sense, especially as the Green Line routes go past Norwich Station. He added that passengers on the Town routes in Ipswich are only on the bus for an average of 10 mins, and their bottoms could easily cope with the hard seats on the B7l's, although he couldn't rule out them venturing onto the longer routes too.

69006, at Wickham Market, will soon be back home in Norwich

I'm sure the good people of Norwich will be looking forward to comfy seats again and those in Ipswich the complete opposite. I have to say it's certainly different, but after all the effort that went into making the Ipswich fleet the pride of Eastern Counties to send several heaps down to Ipswich seems a bit of a backwards step.