ANOTHER SHOT ACROSS FIRST'S BOW

ANOTHER WARNING SHOT FOR FIRST IN IPSWICH

 

 

 

One of the two latest arrivals of Dennis Tridents 20 Y436 NHK seen awaiting passengers for the soon to be extended service 17 to Ipswich Hospital.

IB Dart 84 on service 11 last Thursday a now common occurance on the 5/7/11/15 routes usually the preserve of the fleets double deckers.

Ipswich Buses are to extend their new service 17 to Broke Hall Shops which currently terminates at Ipswich Hospital, the service will continue to work off peak from 0942 to 1509 from Tower Ramparts at intervals of every hour, this will restoke the current bus war between the two companies, it will now be interesting to see if First respond to this currently they seem to be ignoring these new developments and have yet to do anything on the Stowmarket  and Saxmundham corridors with both Stephensons and Anglian running over two of their main routes.

COMPETITION ON THE BUSES!

COMPETITION ON THE BUSES

65674 SN51 UYH one of the 4 hard seated Scania Wright Solars which can pop up on town and country routes such as the 64 which First are now competing with Anglian on.

Not a great amount to talk about this week as the dreaded Winter cold struck me down anyway the 164 Anglian service from Saxmundham to Ipswich started off this week usual fare seems to be any of the Scania Omnicities from the ex Metrobus 03 plates to the newer 07 plates which are somewhat of an improvement from what First group use on the route anything usually from the worn down P reg Scania batch 65541-44/46-50, even on the odd occasion a Dart SLF although the remaining 3 can now be mainly seen on town routes.

IB'S Enviro 300 dart SK07 DYA deputising for the usual ex Stagecoach London Darts on the 13th December

SATURDAY IN IPSWICH

A SATURDAY IN IPSWICH BRINGS VARIETY

Not taken today but on Tuesday was IB Trident 21 on the 4 which usually uses a dedicated dart, bringing back memories of travelling on the top in those younger days.

Unusually for a Saturday i ventured into Ipswich Town Centre due to the previous day being a wet and windy Friday and i quite glad that i did, as quite a bit was happening, unusually First were using mainly the OLD scanias on towns with only 65690 bring any relief, usually there is at least 4 of the Volvo B7rles on the town services but today there was none are First running down  the Town services? noted today was 65528,65550,65588,65590,43477,43488 and 65690 as mentioned. IB had two tridents out on the 3 to Ravenswood one being the East Lancs Lolyne 10 and one on the X5 to the Hospital, again both routes are usually Dart operated. On Tuesday a unusual visitor to the new 17 service to the Hospital was Trident 19 now equipped with a LED display from ex Olympian 39 it can presumably now operate on towns services, although it is worth mentioned that after the 17 service finishes at around 1500 it then picks up at St Albans school for a 11A school duty. Recent changes on the town network for IB have seen a 10p rise in the basic fare to £1.30 still cheaper than First on certain routes, the 6A now sees a regular duty for an Optare Solo instead of the Enviro 300 which is now to be seen on the 3 to Ravenswood. In fleet news Carters have yet another dart in the form of ex Metrobus Dennis Dart/Marshall LT02 ZDO which Metrobus took over from First in the Orpington area with fleet no 41460  and surprisingly retains Firsts red livery and group interior.

DECEMBER CHANGES

CHANGES TO COME IN DECEMBER

IB Scania 70 found its way on to the 11's on the 16th November a change from its Chantry workings

Not too much too report further to last weeks blog, however at long last you can now obtain copies of the changes that First Ipswich are making to local services, just go to the First Norfolk and Suffolk site and go to the timetables page, then forthcoming timetables, in brief the 75 to Felixstowe will now revert to its previous routing via Spring Road which will bring it into contact with Ipswich Buses new service 17 to the Hospital, service 88/A to Stowmarket will now only serve Ipswich Hospital off peak, will Stowmarket Town service will be routed to serve the Violet Hill medical clinic. The two new tridents for IB are numbered 20/21 Y436/58 NHK, 20 has already entered service on Tuesday on the 8 to Whitehouse thanks to IB's Twitter.

ANGLIAN TO COMPETE WITH FIRST ON X22

 MORE COMPETITON FOR FIRST IN SUFFOLK/NORFOLK

Though strictly not within our boundary of area it's worth remarking on further competition for First on their X22 from Norwich to Beccles beginning on December 3rd, when Anglian will now directly run their previous 525 service now renumbered to 146 over exactly the same route as First, maybe Go Ahead are now upping the game and are trying to further their ambitions with new services around the Norwich area, timetables will be availiable directly from the Anglian website at the end of the month.

69432 AU58 FFV the last Volvo B7RLE/Wright Eclipse with an overall advert for the Cooperative supermarkets at Tower Ramparts on the 12 th November

IPSWICH BUSES REROUTE SERVICE X3 TO JOHN LEWIS/WAITROSE

IB route X3 which previously served Ravenswood has now been rerouted to serve the new John Lewis and Waitrose superstores as of last Friday, while service 1 and 3 will still Ravenswood as will First's service 70, still unavailiable to me so far are new timetables and routeings for the changes First are making in December on the Stowmarket and Felixstowe routes

IB trident LG02 FEM one of the two buses involved on new service 17 yesterday

ANGLIAN TO GO UP AGAINST FIRST

FEC Dart SLF 43488 at Tower Ramparts 5/11/12 whilst on a 56 to Broke Hall

Anglian have registered a 164 Saxmundham to Ipswich service which will go head to head with First's 64 and will operate Monday to Saturday, service will begin on the 10th December and i'm presuming here, will operate to a route very similar to First's, no timetables are availiable yet so i am not sure to what frequency they will operate. Stephensons X14 to Bury St Edmunds is being run with a little help from Ipswich Buses, if you buy a return ticket for £7 you can travel back home for free if you present your ticket to the driver.

IB SERVICE 17 STARTS

Service 17 to Heath Road Hospital began today, with very few if any passengers using the service, one of the new ex Stagecoach London Tridents for the route did appear whilst at Tower Ramparts on test and was 17458 Y458 NHK previously allocated to their Barking Depot



As the two ex Stagecoach London Tridents are not available yet IB used DAF lowlander 56 PN52 XBF was one of the 2 in service today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FIRST BROUGHT TO ACCOUNT

FEC 69010 AUO5 DMY a Volvo B7RLE at Broke Hall Shops on a 56 to Tower Ramparts

First in Ipswich are to be brought in front of the Traffic Commissioners over poor service levels on Felixstowe routes, by Felixstowe Town Council who say buses have failed to show up with buses going through Trimley St Martin halved in frequency, First have admitted that the roadworks currently taking place in and around Ipswich Town Centre have caused severe delays at times, you can read more about this from the Ipswich Evening Star http://www.ipswichstar.co.uk/news/felixstowe_anger_on_the_buses_as_complaints_are_taken_to_commissioners_1_1674351