First Eastern CountiesCompanies House extract company no 257815
/ref> is a bus operator providing services 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 Nort ...

and

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 L ...

in eastern England. It is a subsidiary of

FirstGroup FirstGroup plc is a British multi-national transport group, based in Aberdeen, Scotland.East Anglia East Anglia is an area in the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, a people whose name originated in Anglia, in ...

. The five operating areas are

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 Episcopal see, See of ...

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line r ...

Great Yarmouth Great Yarmouth (), often called Yarmouth, is a seaside resort, 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 ...

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 so ...

and

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, ...

History

In July 1931 the Eastern Counties Omnibus Company was formed. It was a combination of the four existing bus companies in

East Anglia East Anglia is an area in the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, a people whose name originated in Anglia, in ...

. Eastern Counties Road Car Company of

, Ortona Motor Company of

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge beca ...

and

Peterborough Electric Traction Company Peterborough Tramways served the city of Peterborough from 24 January 1903 until 15 November 1930. Infrastructure From its southmost limit, the Market Place (grid reference ), the network had three routes: * along Westgate and Lincoln Road to a ...

all owned by Tilling & British Automobile Traction and

United Automobile Services United Automobile Services was a bus company, which operated local and regional bus services in County Durham, Cumbria, Northumberland, North Yorkshire and Tyne and Wear, England. It provided bus services across a wide geographical area, str ...

' East Anglia services and commenced with 534 buses. Upon completion the major shareholders were

(43%), Tilling & British Automobile Traction (28%),

London & North Eastern Railway The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) was the second largest (after LMS) of the "Big Four" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain. It operated from 1 January 1923 until nationalisation on 1 January 1948. At that ...

(24%) and

London Midland & Scottish Railway The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMSIt has been argued that the initials LMSR should be used to be consistent with LNER, GWR and SR. The London, Midland and Scottish Railway's corporate image used LMS, and this is what is generally ...

(3%). Also included was the

Eastern Coach Works Eastern Coach WorksCompanies House extract company no 318856
...

. By the end of the 1930s the Eastern Counties Omnibus Company purchased another 50 operators. In September 1942 Tilling & British Automobile Traction was placed in administration and its Eastern Counties Omnibus Company shareholding transferred to

Tilling Group The Tilling Group was one of two conglomerates that controlled almost all of the major bus operators in the United Kingdom between World Wars I and II and until nationalisation in 1948. Tilling, together with the other conglomerate, British Ele ...

. In November 1948 it was nationalised and placed under the control of the

British Transport Commission The British Transport Commission (BTC) was created by Clement Attlee's post-war Labour government as a part of its nationalisation programme, to oversee railways, canals and road freight transport in Great Britain (Northern Ireland had the se ...

and in January 1969 became part of the National Bus Company. In preparation for bus deregulation, in September 1984 the company's operations in

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 ...

were transferred to a separate company, Cambus Limited. The company's coaching operations were also transferred to Ambassador Travel,

. In February 1987 the company was privatised in a

management buyout A management buyout (MBO) is a form of acquisition in which a company's existing managers acquire a large part, or all, of the company, whether from a parent company or individual. Management-, and/or leveraged buyout became noted phenomena of ...

. In July 1994 it was sold to the

GRT Group :''This article describes the bus group, for the Grampian Regional Transport bus company and successors/predecessors, see First Aberdeen'' GRT Group was a bus operating company in the United Kingdom from 1989 until 1995. It was formed when Gra ...

who in June 1995 merged with Badgerline to form

FirstBus FirstGroup plc is a British multi-national transport group, based in Aberdeen, Scotland.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, ...

based services were sold to

Norfolk Green Stagecoach in Norfolk (formerly Norfolk Green) was a bus operator based in King's Lynn in Norfolk, England. It operated public bus services in the counties of Norfolk, Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire as well as numerous school and college servic ...

Divisions

First operates out of five main depots. Each division provides services to the area around its depot.

Network Norwich

First Eastern Counties operates services branded as the ''Network Norwich'' within the city centre of

and to towns and villages within approximately a radius. Their fleet consists of

Volvo B7TL The Volvo B7TL is a low-floor double-decker bus chassis which was launched in 1999 and replaced the 2-axle version of the Volvo Olympian (its 3-axle version was replaced by the Volvo Super Olympian). It was built as the British bus operators seem ...

and

Dennis Trident 2 The Dennis Trident 2 is a 2-axle low-floor double-decker bus chassis originally manufactured by Dennis, which was unveiled in 1997 and replaced the Dennis Arrow. It was built by TransBus after Dennis was incorporated into the group in 2001, t ...

double deck buses with

Plaxton President The Plaxton President was a Low-floor bus, low floor double-decker bus coachwork, body built at Northern Counties Motor & Engineering Company, Northern Counties plant in Wigan, England and branded as a Plaxton product for its main production ...

bodies, Volvo B9TL double deckers with

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 ...

bodies, some new Wright StreetDecks,

Wrightbus Streetlite The Wright StreetLite is a low-floor midibus introduced by Wrightbus in 2010. It was originally available in only one body style (wheel forward) before the door forward and StreetLite Max variants were introduced in 2011 and 2012 respectively. ...

s, and Volvo B7L and

Volvo B7RLE The Volvo B7RLE is a low-entry single-deck bus chassis manufactured by Volvo. It was superseded by the Volvo B8RLE in 2013. Specifications The Volvo B7RLE is similar to its predecessor, the B10BLE. In essence the B7RLE is the front section o ...

single deckers with Wright Eclipse bodywork. On 23 September 2012, First Norwich relaunched its bus network with new colour branding for its routes. Most buses in the fleet have now been painted in a colour at the front to reflect the line that they work. On 22 March 2017, First announced that they are to introduce a direct bus service between

and

Bungay Bungay () is a market town, civil parish and electoral ward in the English county of Suffolk.OS Explorer Map OL40: The Broads: (1:25 000) : . It lies in the Waveney Valley, west of Beccles on the edge of The Broads, and at the neck of a mean ...

. The new service will be numbered X41 and will be part of the Charcoal colour line, alongside service 40 to Poringland, which the new service will also call at.

First Great Yarmouth

First Great Yarmouth operates services within the towns of

and Gorleston as well as dedicated routes to

and

(CoastLink). The Great Yarmouth services operate out of the old Blue Bus depot on Caister Road which still retains its original frontage and is a listed building which dates back to the mid 1900s. The fleet consists of Alexander Dennis Enviro 400s that work the CoastLink services,

deckers with Plaxton President bodies accompanied by some Alexander ALX400 examples and

s, both on Volvo's B7TL chassis and the 2008 B9TL versions which work the Coastal Clipper services and The 2012 B9TL Versions. Single deckers in the fleet, like Norwich, are Wright StreetLites. First Great Yarmouth also operates 6 open-top buses. One is a Plaxton President-bodied Dennis Trident painted in the Coastal Clipper Cabriolet livery,3 Semi Open top Wright Eclipse Gemini-bodied Volvo B7TLS in Coastal Clipper Cabriolet livery and a Fully open Top Wright Eclipse Gemini-bodied Volvo B7TL in Coastal Clipper Cabriolet livery

First Lowestoft

First Lowestoft operates services within the town of

as well as dedicated routes to

Beccles Beccles ( ) is a market town A market town is a Human settlement, settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular marketplace, market; this d ...

and

. The Lowestoft services operate out of Britain's most easterly bus depot, situated on Gordon Road, just a few hundred meters away from Ness Point. The double deck fleet consists of Volvo B7TLs with Alexander ALX400 bodies and Volvo B9TLs with Wright Eclipse-Gemini bodywork. The single deck fleet is made up of Dennis Dart SLF Alexander Pointer 2s and Alexander Dennis Enviro200s.

First Ipswich

First Eastern Counties bus 32491 (AU53 HKJ) 2003 Volvo B7TL Transbus ALX400, Ipswich railway station, 7 May 2011

First Ipswich operates within and around the town of

to a radius of about . The Ipswich services operate out of one depot situated on Star Lane, just a few minutes walk from the

Old cattle market bus station Ipswich is the county town of Suffolk, England. It is a medieval port and industrial town with a strong transport history; the urban area has a population of 122,000 and currently offers urban transport services for cars, cycles and buses. In add ...

. Their double deck fleet only consists of

Alexander ALX400 and Wright StreetDeck due to the height of their garage. Their single deck fleet is slightly more varied though with a couple of Alexander Dennis Enviro200s, Alexander Dennis Enviro300 ,some

Wright Eclipse Urban and some

Wright Eclipse 2 The Wright Eclipse is a low-floor single-deck bus body that was built by Wrightbus between 1999 and 2019. The second-generation Eclipse 2 was launched in 2008, followed by the third-generation Eclipse 3 in 2015. The Eclipse, and its sister desi ...

. Having operated Ipswich's park & ride service from 2008 until November 2013, in July 2017 First Ipswich resumed operating the service.In 2019, First rebranded their Ipswich operation to 'Ipswich Reds' and introduced a new red livery for Ipswich's services.

Excel

A number of services are operated under the

Excel ExCeL London (an abbreviation for Exhibition Centre London) is an exhibition centre, international convention centre and former hospital in the Custom House area of Newham, East London. It is situated on a site on the northern quay of the ...

brand, most notably the ''excel'' itself 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 ...

and

and the X1 between

and

. Prior to July 2014, the ''excel'' and X1 operated as a single service straight through from Peterborough to Lowestoft, end-to-end. The ''excel'' is operated by King's Lynn outstation - the only service operated by here - whilst Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft depots operate the X1 and related services, branded as CoastLink, all using 2013

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

s with older

-bodied Volvo B9TLs as spares.

Heritage Buses

First Eastern Counties celebrate their heritage with three specially liveried

and one Volvo B9TL buses. Those at Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft commemorate the former municipal operators in each town, while the one usually based at Ipswich carries the Eastern Counties post-National Bus Company scheme of Post Office Red with orange and cream bands. Another three vehicles, this time two Volvo B7Ls and a B7RLE on Wright Eclipse bodywork were all painted in variations of the post-National Bus Company scheme. All three of these vehicles operate in Norwich.

Coastlink services

First Eastern Counties currently provide a number of Coastlink branded feeder routes at the eastern end of the main

service, operated using the

ADL Enviro400 The Alexander Dennis Enviro400 is a twin-axle low-floor double-decker bus that was built by the British bus manufacturer Alexander Dennis between 2005 and 2018. It replaced the Alexander ALX400, Dennis Trident (from which the Enviro400 was de ...

s formerly used on the core route. Prior to February 2018, the Excel ran all the way from

. Coastlink services replaced the Excel between

and Lowestoft after this time. The X2 operates between Norwich bus station and

bus station, as with the X1; however, it stops more frequently and is routed via Gillingham,

, Worlingham and

Carlton Colville Carlton Colville is a civil parish and suburb of Lowestoft in the English county of Suffolk. It is south-west of the centre of the town, in the East Suffolk district. The area lies along the A146 Lowestoft to Beccles road. Carlton Colville ha ...

rather than via

Acle Acle ( ) is a market town on the River Bure on the Norfolk Broads in Norfolk, located halfway between Norwich and Great Yarmouth. It has the only bridge across the River Bure between Wroxham and Great Yarmouth.Ordnance Survey (2005). ''OS Explorer ...

and

as with the X1. The X2 operates every 30 minutes from Monday to Saturday daytimes. Minor variations of the route of the X2, known as the X21 and X22, operate somewhat more infrequently to serve surrounding villages along the route of the X2, including North Cove and Whitton; the X21 three journeys in the morning peak and five in the evening peak, while the X22 runs every hour from Monday to Saturday daytimes. The X11 operates as a variation of the X1, shadowing the route of the X1 between Norwich and Gorleston-on-Sea via Great Yarmouth, before diverging at James Paget University Hospital to serve and terminate in Belton rather than continuing onwards to Lowestoft. The X11 operates every 30 minutes from Monday to Saturday daytimes.

References

External links

Company website
{{FirstGroup Bus operators in Norfolk Bus operators in Suffolk FirstGroup bus operators in England Former nationalised industries of the United Kingdom Transport companies established in 1931 1931 establishments in England