The Goodbye

This decision will ultimately hurt but it's time for the blog to close down unless any one decides to take it on most people will know I'm in hospital, this will be for some time I will keep the pages up for reference.

Clive

Hi everyone;

Can I ask you all to remember Clive, the owner of this blog in your thoughts and prayers. An entry on his Facebook page states he is in hospital after attempting the ultimate step. Thankfully he was unsuccessful, and I'm sure I speak for everyone when I say to Clive don't give up, mate. You have more friends you can call on than you realise. Get yourself healthy again, in body, mind and spirit and we look forward to you picking up the reins again.

In the meantime I'll try and keep the blog ticking over whenever anything interesting happens in Ipswich.

Steve.

IBT BRISTOL RE FLASHBACK

A chance to delve into the archive with a flashback of two Bristol RELL's with two different livery schemes, at the top heading into the Cricketers lay by is 119 TRY 119H, near by is a Leyland Atlantean advertising the Britannia Building Society now i believe absorbed into what is now the CO-OP bank, the Greenwich route is still run by Ipswich Buses as the X1 in competition with First Ipswich, the picture below it is of sister 121 TRY 121H which run initially in Leicester livery with the maroon band painted green which was almost identical to the Ipswich livery carried by Atlanteans 1-35, 120/21 were fairly early casualties, the last being 118 which exited Constantine Road depot on a late duty on the 8 to Whitehouse on a June afternoon in 1987, 118 is preserved today in Economic livery which it carried whilst finishing it's career up on Tyne and Wear.

FIRST IPSWICH POSITIVE MOVES

First Ipswich ADL E300 67774 SN62 AXO seen parked up today at Ipswich Depot,prior to transfers being applied.

I'm not going to elaborate to much into the changes as if you go to Steve's Bus and Train Page you can read a full write up there http://busandtrain.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/ipswich-area-changes.html. I see these changes as very positive within Suffolk i particularly like the idea of the 68 to Kesgrave as one of my great grinds when travelling to Woodbridge was having to divert every hour around the narrow roads, the reinstatement of an every hour service to Aldeburgh linking in with trains at Saxmundham, with one Park and Ride bus per hour going through to Rendlesham, Woodbridge retains an once every 30 mins service with these changes, the only minus being the loss of the Rendlesham to Leiston section which will only be served at peak times, further changes announced on the First Norfolk and Suffolk pages, sees the 60/61 Ipswich town service re timed from Tower Ramparts to Greenwich/Gainsborough changed to, 00/10/20/30/40/50 past each hour, the 66 to Martlesham has evening journeys changed to link in with train arrivals at Ipswich Station, as well as an amendment to times on Saturdays to improve punctuality. The 77 Ipswich to Landguard Fort will now serve the Leisure Centre and the Seafront, 7 days a week, there will also be minor changes to the timetable during the afternoon,the X7 as previously mentioned will now only operate at Peak Times only

Route Number	Route Details	Operator	Service Change
63, 64, 65, 65B	Aldeburgh - Woodbridge - Ipswich	First in Norfolk & Suffolk	The 800 (Ipswich Park & Ride) now operates an hourly service between Ipswich and Woodbridge/Rendlesham. This has affected the 63, 64, 65 services and has resulted in the need for a revised timetable. The Sunday service 65B will remain unchanged.
68	Kesgrave - Ipswich	First in Norfolk & Suffolk	Similar to the First in Norfolk & Suffolk service 68 that was cancelled in August 2015 it will operate hourly off-peak journeys between Ipswich and Kesgrave, Monday to Saturday.
70, 70A	Woodbridge - Grundisburgh - Ipswich	First in Norfolk & Suffolk	All journeys will now operate directly along Tuddenham Road through Ipswich. This has resulted in a revised timetable.
X7	Felixstowe - Ipswich	First in Norfolk & Suffolk	Service has been reduced to peak time journeys Monday to Friday only.
800 (Ipswich Park & Ride)	Rendlesham - Martlesham P & R - Ipswich Town Centre - London Road P & R	First in Norfolk & Suffolk	The Ipswich Park & Ride service will now be operated by First Buses. Journeys will extend once an hour to Rendlesham via Woodbridge. All journeys will operate as through journeys from Martlesham to London Road P&R sites with a 15 minute frequency.
62	Snape - Hacheston - Wickham Market - Woodbridge	PF Travel	Some journeys will now operate via Snape and Easton. Timetable and routing has been revised.

Suffolk Norse latest arrival is this Mercedes Benz Tourismo BN17 JJY seen this afternoon in Crown Street,Ipswich.

IB TRY OUT A SCANIA OMNICITY DECKER AND THE FIRST IPSWICH PARK AND RIDE BUS ATTENDS THE SUFFOLK SHOW

Well i had to manipulate this one with a software program to get the desired effect as the original was very dark due to the trajectory of the sun, anyhow Ipswich Buses have on trial ex Stagecoach London Scania Omnicity 15137 LX59 CNA, this has previously been with Borderbus. First Ipswich have launched the new Park and Ride livery at last weeks Suffolk Show with ex First Scotland East ADL E300 67776 SN62 AXU, these originated with the Borders division at Galashiels which has subsequently closed, the 7 seven as previously mentioned are now confirmed as 67752/60/63/73-76. Changes are due on the First Ipswich network, including the X7 to Felixstowe becoming a peak hours service only. Whether First Ipswich will receive anything further is anyone's guess, whilst the fleet is getting comparably old , the last new to Ipswich fleet were the 53 plate Volvo B7TL's  back in 2003, not withstanding the 58 plate Volvo B7RLE's which were bought specifically for Park and Ride back in 2009 are now 8 years old.

Copyright Stuart Ray

Below is the new map issued by First for the new Park and Ride.

Out with the old the final IB Optare Versa to be put into the new livery is 145 YK08 EPA.

BUT ONE DAY WE SHALL GET BACK

Copyright James Long Collection.

Sitting in A&E this morning with my mind in turmoil, due to a further Mental Health breakdown after the death of my mum and dad in short succession, for which i'm now getting the appropriate treatment, i never thought i would type in earnest ever again it just felt one step to many,but i need to do this as my favorite quote from Doctor Who is from the First Doctor is "But one day we will shall get back.Yes one day. So that's how i look at it, one day i will return to life
Above you will see a picture from Jimmy Long, of First Ipswich Volvo B7RLE 66957 when freshly painted back in 2014 this month will see the 5th anniversary of the blog, Jimmy was my Eastern Counties mentor and i'm very proud to been working on his collection for the museum, without his advice and of course his marvelous photos the blog wouldn't have been half the success it was during it's infancy, this year hopefully will see the naming of a First Ipswich bus with his name on the front, for which it is richly deserved, too many people have helped to make this worthwhile including Chris Speed at First. If you don't follow the Facebook page please do, as you will get the latest news quicker on there, suffice to say very little has happened while i was way, just the last IB Optare Versa 145 into fleet livery, at the Suffolk Show on Wednesday the first Park and Ride liveried ADL E300 will be launched the remaining ones will be arriving shortly here from Great Yarmouth for repaint at Simon Morris prior to launch on July 3rd.

PARK AND RIDE E 300 UPDATE

With thanks to Joe Thorpe.

A bit of a catch up this week as I have been without proper Broadband all week due to my old laptop developing a connectivity problem, I hope that normal service will resume in June, once I have completed my house move. Right as can be seen above Ipswich depot have received one of the seven ADL Enviro 300's in 67776 which when received was in X95 The Ridings branding from First Scotland East,when I saw it late on Wednesday this was slowly being removed. The other six which have arrived in Great Yarmouth are 67752/60/63/73-75 SN62 APF/AUC/AUK/AXH/K/O, one interestingly 67763 has already escaped the net and complete with Great Yarmouth vinyls slipped into service picture courtesy of Roy at the East Norfolk Bus Blog. One further piece of First news is that Volvo B7L 60916 YGO2 DKU from Norwich is also to be repainted into the same heritage livery as Ipswich's Volvo B7TL 32479, which was Eastern Counties Deregulation livery of Post Office Red with Cream and Orange stripes. Ipswich Buses have repainted a further Optare Versa 150 into current livery see below, whilst today I had the rare joy for my current route the 4 out to Martlesham Tesco in ADL E 200 78 which is usually on the 111 to Hitcham for which it has dedicated branding.