Two route 100s for the summer

Tuesday 27th August 2024

When I set out to ride and blog about all Britain’s 26 bus routes numbered 100 at the beginning of the year I explained I was ignoring school journeys and sightseeing specials (eg Chester) which often don’t even display the number but use it for administrative reasons.

However two additional route 100s operating only during the school summer holiday period were launched at the end of last month, so for completeness, I thought I’d take a ride on them especially as they both operated in the same part of the country; in Norfolk.

First up, from 22nd July and operating through until this Saturday, 31st August is the “WHERRY 100 SERVICE” operated by Our Hire Ltd (trading as OurBus) in Great Yarmouth.

It’s a one bus, one driver operation linking the town’s railway and bus stations with Vauxhall Holiday Park and the seafront including Britannia Pier.

A half hourly frequency operates for nine hours daily between 09:40 and 18:35 with an hour interval between journeys for two half hour breaks for the driver at 12:25 and 15:25.

There’s a £2 single fare and £4 day ticket (up to 19 years £1.50 and £2.50) and a £10 family day ticket with concessionary passes valid.

The service also ran in 2023 with funding again provided by the Wherry Lines Community Rail Partnership and support from Greater Anglia. The timetable has been devised to provide convenient connections with hourly trains arriving into Great Yarmouth from Norwich.

The bus stop is immediately outside the exit to the station and it’s so pleasing to see this facility being used as I well remember years back a negative notice at this stop telling passengers simply “No buses depart from here”. Well now (and for five more days) they do.

I caught the 11:07 arriving train from Norwich which was absolutely packed and almost everyone walked off into town and towards the seafront except for five who waited at the stop for the 11:15 bus departure.

I was just thinking what a shame so many people missed the opportunity of a handy ride to the seafront saving a 20 minute walk when the bus arrived and, goodness me, it was full and standing with holidaymakers from the previous stop at Vauxhall Holiday Park.

Scott, the very friendly driver, squeezed two of the five passengers waiting on board telling the others he’ll be back in 30 minutes.

I decided to walk to the Market Gates bus station and have a mooch around before Scott reappeared on the next journey which he did with another fully seated load. The service is obviously appreciated by the Vauxhall Holiday Park residents

Most alighted in the bus station and the rest all got off at Britannia Pier which just left me on board for the return to the station.

With my train departing at 12:17, I didn’t risk heading out to the Holiday Park as the bus is not due back until 12:15 but I saw it heading towards the station while I was sitting in the train at the platform and it had another good load of passengers on board. The service is definitely proving popular with holidaymakers from the Holiday Park but perhaps not so much from the railway.

It was good to see a supply of timetable leaflets on board as well as a poster giving details of the service.

Scott has only just joined OurBus after stints working in London (for Stagecoach, Metroline and Arriva) and he seemed to be thoroughly enjoying his new life in Great Yarmouth; last week being his first week on route 100. He was certainly doing his best to help passengers in challenging overcrowded circumstances – which is always a nice problem to have especially on a service of this kind – but only for a few days more.

After that experience it was back to Norwich to take a ride on the First Bus City Clipper open top bus tour which displays the route number 100 in the destination display even though it’s not mentioned in the colourful leaflet or bus stop displays.

Norwich has had a number of open top sightseeing tours over the past couple of decades including Eastern Counties in the 1990s but this is the first time for the company since then and it’s using a bespoke liveried Wright Gemini bodied Volvo B7TL (previously used on the ‘Coaster Clipper’ in Great Yarmouth) with two recorded commentaries played on alternate journeys giving varied and interesting background and historical information about all the sights passed on the route.

Except that vehicle went in for a service on Friday 16th August and as at last Wednesday (21st), when I travelled, had not reappeared from the engineers.

Instead, one of the open tops allocated to the Great Yarmouth seafront service branded as Coastal Clipper Cabrolet with details of frequncies and ticket prices for that service was in use and the driver apologised as I boarded that there’d be no commentary.

It does seem odd to have liveried up an open top bus and arranged a commentary for a time limited service – seven weeks between 20th July to 31st August – not to have rescheduled the vehicle’s mechanical service to outside of this time period.

Never mind; these things happen I suppose, but if the service is deemed a success and worthy of repeating next summer it might be worth rescheduling the vehicle’s maintenance programme. Just a thought for the guys at First Bus.

Luckily the trend in First Bus to not give passengers printed timetables – even in printed promotional leaflets for leisure type services (as in Cornwall) – has not been adopted in Norwich with a colourful printed guide containing a map, brief information about the route AND a timetable – wow; what a treat. There were even copies on board to pick up.

And I’m pleased to see First’s latest obsession with AI software has been kept at bay as the timetable miraculously has the same departure times each hour for City Clipper’s eight hour operating day between 09:30 and 17:23.

It’s almost as though First Bus want to encourage passengers to use this service.

Fares are reasonably priced too (for services of this kind) with a day ticket at £10 and £8 for youngsters and concessions and £30 for up to five in a group (maximum two adults).

I took a ride on the 13:02 departure from the bus stop (H) by Norwich railway station which, unusually for central Norwich, had no other information about what routes stopped there other than posters for the City Clipper.

The tour takes a kind of figure of eight route passing by the city’s main tourist highlights including the castle, city hall, cathedral, and no end of churches.

It took me down roads I’d never travelled along before and it was fascinating to see parts of the city that were new to me.

The main pick up point is at Castle Meadow where there’s a seven minute pause between 23 and 30 minutes past each hour and at 13:23 we changed drivers with the lunch time relief driver being replaced by the regular driver allocated to the operation for the summer who told me she was thoroughly enjoying the role.

Six passengers were on the bus for the first 20 minutes but the following 30 minutes, from Castle Meadow at 13:30, saw 11 adults and 10 children come aboard.

It was a shame about the missing commentary – and I see there are two versions too…

… maybe it would have been nice for a printed version, or a synopsis of the highlights, to have been handed out, but I enjoyed the leisurely ride around which was not rushed at all and included several prolonged stops, including outside the rather magnificent City Hall.

They don’t build municipal buildings like that any more.

Nor churches. So to conclude, here are eight churches I spotted on the tour – all within a square mile radius. I wonder how many ‘passengers’ they each get attending on a Sunday morning?

Roger French

Blogging timetable: 06:00 TThS with Summer Su extras including the last this Sunday for this summer, before reverting back to the winter blogging timetable.

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