North Devon 2225 (C923 HYA) in Mildenhall - 1 July 1993 (199-21)

Thursday 1 July 1993 – North Devon Limited 2225 (C923 HYA), a Plaxton Paramount 3500 bodied Leyland Tiger new in May 1986 to the related Southern National Limited - both companies were formed when the Western National Omnibus Company was split into four smaller companies.

Now, even though a North Devon coach appeared in Mildenhall on alternate mornings, this was not a North Devon working at all. (Even though North Devon did once work through Mildenhall on the 747 service some years previously but hadn’t done so for some time).

On Sunday 23 May 1993 National Express introduced their Summer schedules which drastically reduced what had been service 747 east of Cambridge which was renumbered 347. Premier Travel Services was responsible for what trips remained other than the Saturday Cambridge-Lowestoft extras worked by Richard W Chenery in the height of the summer.

One of the Premier trips was the 0620 service from Thetford to Cambridge which on alternate mornings was worked by a North Devon coach from Ilfracombe depot but driven by a Premier Travel driver. This arrangement came about as a result of the 346 Cambridge-Ilfracombe service being shared between Premier Travel and North Devon. Each company provided one coach which ended up in the care of the other partner on alternate days. After working into Cambridge from Thetford the coach then departed at 0840 for the West Country driven by a Premier Travel driver as far as Bath who then brought the westbound coach back to Cambridge. A North Devon driver would drive from Ilfracombe to Bristol and return with the westbound service. The Bristol-Bath-Bristol segment was covered by local drivers out of Bristol.