Rail replacements

[Nicholas King]

I have been asked to post this message from a valued reporter who, for professional reasons, prefers to remain anonymous.

                I hope this may help in generating reports on the current regular weekend closures of the North Kent line.

 

Nicholas King

 

Significant works continue on the 'North Kent' line necessitating rail replacement services which mainly bring double-decks into the Club area on Sats/Suns currently (though not every weekend). The advertised closure is Gravesend/Rochester but buses run Gravesend/Gillingham. There's also a Gravesend/Higham/Strood shuttle.

 

Minimum PVR looks to be about 14 plus standbys on the main service, plus 2 'minis' on the 'Higham shuttle. Generally speaking, operators' contributions cannot last an entire day without re-fuelling, so there can be different am and pm vehicles with changeover at around 1500.

 

The majority of the Go-Ahead contribution on 1/6/24 seemed to be normal service buses rather than the more expected contributions from their Commercial fleet.

 

Virus-free.www.avg.com

[JFO]

I checked this out again on the 22nd, and the operators observed in use were Travelmasters, Nu Venture Buses and GO Ahead who brought out a wide variety of vehicles including EE135 LG23FAU, the first "MMC City" I've seen on RR with GO Ahead, though Southern Transit Buses in Sussex have an 18 plate pair that sometimes turn up in Hastings.