Excel is the brand name given to a number of bus services operated by

First Norfolk & Suffolk First Eastern Counties is a bus operator providing services in Norfolk and Suffolk in eastern England. It is a subsidiary of FirstGroup. It has seven depots which are part of five operating areas spread out across East Anglia. The five operatin ...

, covering between

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...

bus station in

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

and

Peterborough railway station Peterborough railway station serves the city of Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England. It is down the East Coast Main Line from . The station is a major interchange serving both the north–south ECML, as well as long-distance and local e ...

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and North ...

. Prior to February 2018, the route also extended from Norwich to

Lowestoft Lowestoft ( ) is a coastal town and civil parish in the East Suffolk district of Suffolk, England.OS Explorer Map OL40: The Broads: (1:25 000) : . As the most easterly UK settlement, it is north-east of London, north-east of Ipswich and sou ...

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

via

Great Yarmouth Great Yarmouth (), often called Yarmouth, is a seaside town and unparished area in, and the main administrative centre of, the Borough of Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, England; it straddles the River Yare and is located east of Norwich. A pop ...

; this section of the route has since been replaced by Coastlink branded services X1 and X2. As of June 2021, the Excel route itself operates between

Peterborough Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until ...

King's Lynn King's Lynn, known until 1537 as Bishop's Lynn and colloquially as Lynn, is a port and market town in the borough of King's Lynn and West Norfolk in the county of Norfolk, England. It is located north of London, north-east of Peterborough, no ...

and

, with variations ''A'', ''B'', ''C'' and ''D'' providing different levels of service to intermediate villages. In the year up to April 2009, the route saw a 15% increase in passenger numbers compared to the previous year. In 2013, the service received brand new buses in the form of high-specification

Alexander Dennis Enviro400 The Alexander Dennis Enviro400 is a twin-axle low-floor bus, low-floor double-decker bus that was built by the United Kingdom, British bus manufacturer Alexander Dennis between 2005 and 2018. It replaced the Alexander ALX400, Dennis Trident 2, ...

double-deckers.

Route and Frequency

The route is around 80 miles in length, mostly following the A47 road and only stopping at major interchange points in urban areas. In total, from

the journey time is around 3 hours and 25 minutes. Since July 2014, the route has been made up of two sections. Before this date, buses would run the entirety of the route, but since July 2014 services operate between

and

(as ''excel'') and

and

(X1) separately, with all services in both directions terminating at Norwich Bus Station. Passengers travelling further have to change. At that time, the "splitting" of the route was a temporary measure introduced in order to ease delays while major long term

roadworks Roadworks (called road work or road construction in the United States) occur when part of the road, or in rare cases, the entire road, has to be occupied for work relating to the road, most often in the case of road surface repairs. In the U ...

were carried out on the A47 at Postwick, east of

. From February 2018, the split became a permanent measure for operational reasons. There is a different frequency on each section of the route. In general, there is a 20-minute frequency from Monday to Saturday on the X1 between Norwich and Lowestoft and a half-hourly frequency from Monday to Saturday on the ''excel'' between Norwich and Peterborough.

Vehicles

The route is now mostly operated by high-specification double-decker

buses, which were introduced in October 2013 featuring

air conditioning Air conditioning, often abbreviated as A/C or AC, is the process of removing heat from an enclosed space to achieve a more comfortable interior environment (sometimes referred to as 'comfort cooling') and in some cases also strictly controlling ...

, free

WiFi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio waves ...

and

leather Leather is a strong, flexible and durable material obtained from the tanning, or chemical treatment, of animal skins and hides to prevent decay. The most common leathers come from cattle, sheep, goats, equine animals, buffalo, pigs and hogs, ...

seats. The older

Wright Eclipse Gemini The Wright Eclipse Gemini is a low-floor double-decker bus body that was built by Wrightbus since 2001, based on the single-deck Wright Eclipse design. The second-generation Eclipse Gemini 2 was launched in 2009, followed by the third-generat ...

-bodied

Volvo B9TL The Volvo B9TL is a low-floor double-decker bus built by Volvo from 2002 until 2018. It superseded the Volvo Super Olympian and the Volvo B7TL. The 2-axle version has been superseded by the Volvo B5TL in 2014 and the 3-axle version has been sup ...

vehicles which previously operated the main route are now mostly found on the X2, X11, X21, X22 and other related services. In February 2020, 19 new

Alexander Dennis Enviro400 City The Alexander Dennis Enviro400 City is a low-floor double-decker bus produced by the British bus manufacturer Alexander Dennis since 2018, produced as an alternative to the standard Alexander Dennis Enviro400 MMC bodywork. The Enviro400 City is ...

bodied

Scania N250UD The Scania N series is a line of low-floor bus chassis with straight-up, transversely mounted Euro IV or newer engine at the rear, built by Scania since 2006, replacing the Scania N94. It is available as the N UB (N230UB, N270UB, N280UB) two-ax ...

buses were introduced on the core excel route (Norwich - Peterborough).

Media

An unofficial

blog A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...

The X1 Blog
regularly reports on the latest workings of the service.

Accidents and incidents

In May 2009, an X1 bus travelling towards Peterborough was involved in a fatal accident in Thorney. The driver took avoiding action after a car drove into its path, causing the bus to veer off the road. On 23 February 2017, an X1 bus crashed into a roadside ditch and overturned near

Wisbech Wisbech ( ) is a market town, inland Port of Wisbech, port and civil parish in the Fenland District, Fenland district in Cambridgeshire, England. In 2011 it had a population of 31,573. The town lies in the far north-east of Cambridgeshire, bord ...

as a result of high winds, gusting up to 80mph in the area around the time of the crash, caused by

Storm Doris A storm is any disturbed state of the natural environment or the atmosphere of an astronomical body. It may be marked by significant disruptions to normal conditions such as strong wind, tornadoes, hail, thunder and lightning (a thunderstorm), ...

. Eleven people were injured. A similar incident almost occurred around the same time on the

Acle Straight The Acle Straight, also known as the Acle New Road is a major road between Acle and Great Yarmouth in Norfolk. It is part of the A47 trunk road. History The road was originally proposed as a turnpike on 3 May 1830 following an Act of Parliamen ...

between

and Norwich, resulting in the bus having to be evacuated, and services were subsequently suspended for the day. On 26 June 2018, an Excel bus was involved in a collision with a lorry on the A47 in

Guyhirn Guyhirn (sometimes spelled Guyhirne) is a village near the town of Wisbech in Cambridgeshire, England. It is on the northern bank of the River Nene, at the junction of the A141 with the A47. The population is included in the civil parish of Wis ...

. The bus driver and a passenger were killed, and fourteen others were injured.

References

Bus routes in England Transport in Norfolk {{Bus companies in East England