To avoid confusion with the Lowestoft to Norwich route which will continue to be numbered X1, First Eastern Counties is rebranding the X1 Peterborough – Norwich section EXCEL with XL appearing as the service number from February 4, 2018.
The change is part of a package of alterations that the company says is being introduced as a result of feedback from passengers, drivers and stakeholders and are designed to mitigate the effects of growing congestion on the A47 road.
A consistent half-hourly timetable is promised across the main part of the day, Monday to Saturday, with departure times from key points that are easier for passengers to remember. Sundays will have a standard hourly timetable.
Bus times on weekday morning peak journeys will be more closely tailored to match common work and education start times at key locations along the route.
The villages of Hockering, Terrington St John, Walpole Highway and Thorney will be served on an hourly basis across the day to maintain essential links despite there being relatively limited use of the service from those points.
“The time gained by journeys using the faster A47 route has been used to further help ensure our buses can run to time in increasingly heavy traffic conditions along the whole route,” said the company.
