First Eastern Counties 36901 (YN69 XZD) in Peterborough - 21 Mar 2024 (P1170752)

Thursday 21 March 2024 (1239) – On board First Eastern Counties Buses 36901 (YN69 XZD), the first of the 19 Alexander Dennis (ADL) Enviro400 City bodied Scania N250UDs delivered in late 2019 for the upgraded Norwich to Peterborough ‘excel’ service. 36901 arrived in November 2019 with the others arriving the following month. All 19 are allocated to King’s Lynn garage which is almost mid-way between Norwich (approx. 44 miles) and Peterborough (approx. 35 miles).

The route diagram on the stairs panel shows the ‘excel’ service variations (A, B and C).

Seen in Peterborough bus station the bus had arrived spot on time (1217) as the 0900 service B from Norwich and was about to return as the 1240 service C on which I travelled to Guyhirn (1310).

Earlier I had travelled from Wisbech on sister vehicle 36904 and had chosen the front offside seat above the driver. During the journey I thought the seat was a little more upright for my comfort and had negative thoughts about this type of bus for a long journey. However, my return ride on to Guyhirn I sat in one of the single seats near the top of the stairs which was far more comfortable being slightly more reclined. Studying the front seats (left) I saw that the more upright aspect of the seat was due to the compact space between the front bulkhead and the stairs bulkhead.