100 British Bus Routes: Route 36
King's Lynn to Fakenham ("Coastliner")
18 April 2022
ABOVE: Lynx Optare Tempo 26 (YJ60 KAX) in Fakenham at the end of its almost two-and-a-half-hour journey from King’s Lynn.
All pictures in this article were taken on Saturday 16th April 2022.
All pictures in this article were taken on Saturday 16th April 2022.
Operator: Lynx
Runs: Daily, no evening service
Weekday frequency: Hourly
Estimated Peak Vehicle Requirement: 5-6 buses
Off-peak journey time: 145 minutes
Estimated route length: 44-48 miles
Runs: Daily, no evening service
Weekday frequency: Hourly
Estimated Peak Vehicle Requirement: 5-6 buses
Off-peak journey time: 145 minutes
Estimated route length: 44-48 miles
It’s amazing what a difference a sunny day can make. The only previous time I visited King’s Lynn bus station, in Norfolk, I was just passing through on an Excel service towards Norwich. It was distinctly wet and the whole place looked run-down, deserted and downright miserable.
Today, on a bright, sunny Saturday morning, it looks very different. Lots of people are milling around the town and it feels vibrant. The bus station is also buzzing with both passengers and buses.
ABOVE: King’s Lynn Bus Station, with First East of England‘s Excel service and the local Community Transport Operator’s Go to town accompanying Lynx buses, including, on the extreme right, the bus that will become my 36 to Fakenham.
The 36 is direct if you want to go from King’s Lynn to Hunstanton. It’s equally direct if you want to go from Hunstanton to Wells-next-the-Sea, and it’s a direct route from Wells to Fakenham. But put the three legs of the journey together, and it’s basically an inverted U-shaped route.
If you want to travel from King’s Lynn to Fakenham, you would probably use Lynx routes 49 / 49A, which take less than an hour to complete the journey and incur half the mileage. But these are low-frequency, irregular services and there will be times when the 36 is quicker.
The section to Hunstanton is supported by routes 34 (half-hourly) & 35 (hourly), which combine with the 36 to provide a quarter-hourly service on weekdays along this section, albeit with some minor route variations along the way.
I’m in for the long haul, though. Neither the bus nor the timetable in the bus station admit that the service runs to Fakenham. The timetable and departure displays at the Bus Station only mention the service as far as Wells...
...and the bus arrives similarly adorned for “Hunstanton for Wells-next-the-Sea”.
ABOVE: Lynx 26 (YJ60 KAX) pulling onto the stop at King’s Lynn Bus Station
The bus, a full-length Optare Tempo, has been on the stand since my arrival just under an hour before, suggesting that they are using six buses for the service where you could probably get away with five – a sensible precaution on such a long route.
When I board, I specifically ask for a ticket “all the way to Fakenham”, to make clear to the driver that I know what I’m doing! No problem at all – my ticket is issued and I’m settling down for the journey that will take two hours and 25 minutes, mostly through places I have never ever visited before.
The bus is very warm – probably a bit of a greenhouse effect after an hour on the stand. There are something like 20 passengers on board as we leave town, a mix of people of all ages. The “Two-Trip” ticket is popular. It’s a return, technically, but can also be used for “two one-way journeys between the same points”. An interesting variation.
As we pull out, the incoming service that is pulling in is a bright, modern double-decker, with branding for the route (d’oh)!
We’re just a few minutes into the trip when we pass the port, leading out into The Wash, that famous ‘indentation’ in the coastline of Eastern England that separates East Anglia from Lincolnshire. King John is said to have lost some of his jewels here in 1216 (or “lost his clothes in the wash”). None of them seem to have washed up in the port this morning.
We join the Hunstanton Road, which is initially very slow for no obvious reason. We soon speed up and we’re passing through dense woodland as we head towards Dersingham. We’re within a couple of miles of the Royal Sandringham Estate (the 35 goes even closer).
We’re also very close to the sea, but there’s no sight of it thus far. A sign tantalisingly indicates that we are close to Snettisham Beach, and we turn even closer when we pull off the main road to serve the village of Heacham, where signs for the South then North Beaches still don’t bring us to any visible water.
Finally, on the outskirts of Hunstanton, a hillside view gives us a clear image of the bay.
ABOVE: Subtle marketing on the rear of 27 (YJ60 KBF) at Hunstanton Bus Station
There’s been steady trade all the way so far, and we even have a couple of dogs on board now. We reach Hunstanton Bus Station, where one passenger seems confused about the presence of another number 36 right in front of us (it’s going the other way). We lose a number of people here but gain more to replace them.
ABOVE: Hunstanton Beach
The seaside town is bustling, as one would expect on a nice spring day, and we pick more people, and three more dogs! I’ve never known so many dogs to be on one bus before.
ABOVE: The Orange Tree Inn & Restaurant in Thornham was presumably once known as The King’s Head, as an ancient sign still identifies it. This picturesque spot has All Saint’s Church as its backdrop.
We’ve turned east now, and are heading along the North Norfolk coast – but just sufficiently far inland to not be able to see the sea.
There’s another busy show of new passengers at Holme-next-the-Sea, which is relatively remote. Further along, at Brancaster, we welcome another group, with dog number six!
ABOVE: St Mary’s Church, Burnham Deepdale. Behind the church is mainly National Trust land, for about a mile to the sea, including the Scolt Head Island National Nature Reserve
The next sizeable place is Burnham Market – still classed as a village but with lots of people out-and-about. Another double-decker passes on the opposite service (d’oh)!
ABOVE: Burnham Market
There’s still not much sight of the sea – we’re just a little too far inland (about a mile). The scenery is now what I would expect to find in this part of North Norfolk – flat, wild, wide-open spaces with limited development.
A glance across into the timetable case at a stop in Burnham Overy Staithe suggests that we are six minutes late at this point. Few of the bus stops around here have timetable cases, but those that do have clear, attractive and comprehensive information.
There are some intriguing house names on the edge of Wells-next-the-Sea: “Ants Nest” followed by “The Bolt Hole”.
There’s a huge queue for a fish and chip restaurant on The Quay, in the centre of town. We offload quite a few of our passengers here, and are down to single figure passenger numbers for the first time since leaving King’s Lynn.
The Quay is dominated by a strange overhead structure across the road from what looks like an old factory. This is a Granary building with a loading gantry (see a picture from Google Streetview here). The Granary was built around 1905 and was used to store grain and other cereals. I presume the loading gantry took the products from the factory to the boats.
For the first time this trip, and almost two hours into it, we turn down a road that is actually pointing towards our destination, Fakenham – then promptly turn off it again! Another 36 passes the other way, and it’s another double-decker – but this one isn’t branded and isn’t in Lynx colours. It’s been three single-deckers and three double-deckers on the route today, and I just pulled a short straw.
We’re turning inland now, for the last part of the journey, heading down narrow, tree-lined country lanes, with open countryside spread out in all directions. There’s very little oncoming traffic, which is just as well; whilst cars can pass easily enough, the bus driver has to slow right down when we meet a lorry and there’s only just room to get past.
We come to Walsingham – an historic village / town famous for the ruins of the medieval Priory of Our Lady of Walsingham. You can’t see much from the road but there are some striking cottages, some of which look like their origins are quite ancient as well. A check on the timetable confirms that we have made up all of the earlier lost journey time.
We pass East Barsham Manor, a striking Tudor house, originally built in the 1520s but looking like it was built yesterday.
Soon after this, I repeat my old trick of finding a road sign where both the origin and destination of the bus are in the same direction – but at least that’s the way we go this time!
ABOVE: The quirks of bus riding: both the origin and destination of route 36 are in the same direction from here!
The service has really quietened down on this last leg and only six of us remain on board as we pull into Oak Street in Fakenham, just off the Market Square.
As we pull in, I spot a chippy that looks quite inviting, but I discover that it closes between 2 & 4pm and it’s now 1.57pm! I buy a sandwich at Tesco over the road instead!
ABOVE: Lynx 26 in Fakenham, at the end of its long journey from King’s Lynn – and loading for the return run.
My Optare Tempo has been really comfortable – good legroom, wide windows, and the initial heat in the vehicle has soon dispersed once we have got going. It’s a very smooth vehicle as well. I’ve not used many Tempos but, overall, my impression is of a good quality vehicle (Optare’s well-catalogued failures to deliver on time have lost it a good share of the market, I suspect).
Similarly, Lynx has presented itself as a professional operator with smart, clean buses and good, customer-focused drivers.
I just wish I could have made this trip on a double-decker. The passenger numbers, for such a rural service in an area that is pretty remote by British standards, have been really healthy on this lunchtime service. Today is a nice day, in a holiday weekend, and capacity has been tight at times.
But we’re nowhere near the summer tourist season yet. I suspect, when it comes, that single-deckers will struggle, as many more will flock to the 36 as a means of getting around. The current mixed allocation of single- and double-deckers will hopefully soon be replaced with a full double-deck allocation; I think it could be a good move.