Daily Bus Allocations
and Timetable
With EIGHT Excels to cover EIGHT routes/diagrams (it is easier to refer to them as diagrams to avoid confusion) it was of course impossible from a maintenance side to provide all eight buses for service!
Therefore, from the beginning of Excel operation it was important to allocate two non low-floor vehicles alongside six Excels. The chosen route/diagram numbers for non low-floor were 442 and 446. This meant one bus every hour was a high floor vehicle. Notice on the timetable above that the 0818 and 0918 from Tesco’s do not have a wheelchair symbol above the timings.
The 0818 was route 442, and 0918 was 446.
On paper this meant all 44B workings were worked by Excels, although during high availability periods it was possible to find seven, or even all eight vehicles in use!
For more information on what workings each bus worked, click the diagram ('Mon-Sat' or 'Sunday') pages on the left <<<
On weekdays four buses began their days work in the town centre at the Abingdon Street timing point, routes 443 and 444 headed southbound at 0700 and 0715, and 441 and 442 began there heading north at 0735 and 0750.
The other four diagrams, 445-8 ALL began at Mereside Tesco’s at 0703, 0718, 0733 and 0748.
445 and 447 were 44B duties, the 44B usually using Marton Mere terminus rather than Tesco’s, these two workings (at 0703 and 0733) were the only 44Bs that ever used the Tesco’s terminus.
On Saturday mornings, 441, 442, and 443 all left depot later, and begun their diagrams from Marton Mere (441 and 443 at 0803 and 0833), and Tesco’s (442 at 0818).
This left 444 as the only one to start from town, at the same time of 0715 as during the week.
After tea time the 44A and 44B service finished for the day, four Excels staying out late to work 333 and 444 routes.
Below is a summary of what happened to the diagrams at tea time:
441 = 1757 Marton Mere to Depot empty
442 = 1812 Tesco’s to Depot empty
443 = 1728 arrival at Cleveleys Park, waits til 1735 for 333 service back
444 = 1743 arrival at Cleveleys Park, empty to Fleetwood The Mount(!) for 1805 333 service back
445 = 1758 arrival at Cleveleys Park, waits til 1805 for 444 service back
446 = 1813 Cleveleys Park to Depot empty
447 = 1727 arrival at Marton Mere, waits til 1748 for 333 service
448 = 1742 Tesco’s to Depot empty
Of the 4 that stay out, they finished as follows:
443 = 2348 Marton Mere to Depot empty
444 = 2318 Marton Mere to Oxford Square, then empty to Depot
445 = 2333 Cleveleys Park to Depot empty
447 = 0018 Marton Mere to Depot empty
In the evening all services used the Marton Mere terminus, 443 445 and 447 had been using that terminus all day on 44B’s anyway – 444 being the only diagram to come from the 44A buses from that day.
447 was the only Excel to work in passenger service beyond midnight – this being the 2305 Fleetwood-Marton Mere, leaving Abingdon Street at 00:00, Winter Gardens at 00:01, Laurel Avenue at 00:09, Junction of Penrose Avenue and Cherry Tree Road at 0013, and arriving at Marton Mere at 0018.
443, 444, 445, and 447 were nearly always Excels; it was very rare for a Delta to be on any of the night time services, and non existent on Sundays!
SUNDAYS
On Sundays, just three buses were needed, as the 333 did not operate to Fleetwood.
Two buses (342 and 343) began at Abingdon Street heading for Cleveleys at 0906 and 0936.
The other vehicle, 341 unusually began its day at Gynn Square, working an 0922 service to Marton Mere.
Again as per the weekday evenings, Marton Mere Leisure Park was the southern terminus, Tesco’s not being used.
341 finished by working the 2318 Marton mere to Oxford Square (as worked by diagram no.444 in the week).
342 arrived at Marton Mere at 2348 before heading for Depot.
343 was the only Excel out after midnight, working the 2335 333 service from Cleveleys, and arriving at Marton Mere at 0018 before heading for the Depot.