S is for Southern Vectis

Saturday 26th August 2023

Until now I’ve avoided featuring bus companies owned by large transport groups for this series, preferring to write about some of the smaller ‘unsung hero’ bus companies, and while Stephensons and Safeguard are two obvious candidates for S, I decided to break my own self imposed rule because Southern Vectis is one of my favourite bus companies to visit and I always enjoy a trip over to the lovely Isle of Wight.

My most recent trip was on Wednesday of last week on a glorious sunny day with the Island buzzing with holiday makers and buses enjoying excellent custom, which was really good to see.

Southern Vectis has been in Go-Ahead ownership since the management buyout team (from National Bus Company days) sold the company on in 2007. It’s been managed as part of the Go South Coast empire with head office in Poole and is run by the hugely admired and much respected passionate managing director, Andrew Wickham.

Not long after Go-Ahead’s purchase a revised network was introduced with the Island’s bus routes centred on Newport which has certainly stood the test of time since then. It’s a simple network to understand with low numbered routes depicted very clearly on a colour coded route map with colours feeding through to timetable pages in the popular timetable book, now published twice a year.

The timetable book is readily available all over the island as well as at ferry terminals on the mainland with passengers often seen consulting it and gaining ideas of where to travel. Quite why some other bus companies running buses in popular tourist areas don’t see the benefits of a timetable book as Go South Coast, Stagecoach in the Lake District, Transport for Cornwall and some other notable successful companies do, simply baffles me. Holiday makers don’t want to be faffing around with individual unattractive route leaflets.

Southern Vectis also produces a second booklet containing its five individually branded summer routes aimed at the tourist market.

Another notable very positive characteristic about the Island’s buses is the long standing tradition of running a substantial bus service on Christmas Day from early and into the evening. A small number of other bus companies are now catching on to this potential market, but Southern Vectis was the pioneer.

The company uses the standard layout website from the Passenger company with its easy navigation showing timetables, maps, bus tracking, ticket prices, service updates, news and other features including ‘things to do’. The company also has an app with mobile tickets and ‘tap on tap off’ both taking over from the ‘key’ branded smartcard which is being phased out.

The current timetable booklet doesn’t give details of ticket prices, possibly because these weren’t finalised when it went to print, or possibly the £2 fare makes different fare levels superfluous for many passengers. Day tickets have always appeared quite pricey on the Island (it’s currently £10) but residents can obtain substantial savings by buying tickets in bundles – for example 30 one day tickets on the app cost £104.

Bus stops all over the Island are clearly marked with branded flags and have clear departure information in timetable cases.

As already explained, the bus network is very easy to understand with route 1 linking Newport with West Cowes and route 9 linking Newport and Ryde both running every 10 minutes making them the most frequent and busiest routes albeit alternate journeys on the 9 take slightly different routes leaving Newport as do buses on route 1 at the Cowes end of the route.

In both cases there’s an N1 and N9 with journeys into the small hours on Saturday and Sunday mornings (as late as between 03:00 and 04:00 on Sunday mornings).

Routes 2 and 3 both run between Newport and Ryde but the long way round via Shanklin and Sandown and with the latter also taking in Ventnor and running a slightly more direct route between Sandown and Ryde than the former.

Both run half hourly with coordinated departures on the main common section of route. There are nighttime journeys as an N3 as per the N1 and N9.

Routes 4 and 5 are the East Cowes routes with the former running hourly to Ryde and the latter every 20 minutes to Newport with some N5 journeys too.

Route 6 is one of the least frequent routes in the network running just six times a day between Ventnor and Newport taking in Niton, Whitwell, Blackgang Chine, Chale and Chillerton. It’s a lovely route but had to be changed in 2014 when a landslip forced the closure of the main A3055 Undercliff Drive between St Lawrence and Niton.

Route 7 is half hourly and links Newport with Yarmouth and Alum Bay with alternate journeys via Shafleet or Newbridge.

Route 8 runs half hourly from Newport via Arreton and Winford to Sandown with an hourly service continuing northwards via Bembridge to Ryde. It’s an hour and 50 minutes delightful ride full of Island variety.

Route 12 is another favourite of mine linking Newport with the villages of Sharwell and Brighstone with Compton Bay, Freshwater and Alum Bay running six journeys a day.

Then there’s a range of localised routes running three or four off peak journeys on two or three days a week in Shanklin (24), Ventnor (31), Cowes (32), Ryde (37) and Newport (38 and 39) with the latter two towns having a Mondays to Saturdays timetable.

And finally there are the open top Breezer routes aimed at tourists; most famous of all being the half hourly Needles Breezer …

… which “will simply take your breath away” with the marketing hype close to reality for once as it explains the “cliff-hugging, dizzy climb from Alum Bay right up to the Needles Battery, high up where the vistas out to sea are intoxicating”.

The route runs between Yarmouth, Freshwater, Totland and Alum Bay.

The Downs Breezer runs an hourly circular tour from Ryde via Sandown and Bembridge and the Island Coaster takes nearly three hours on its two/three journeys a day Island coastal tour from Ryde via Bembridge, Sandown, Shanklin, Ventnor, the Military Road, Freshwater, Alum Bay and Yarmouth. It really is a must do route is you want to say you’ve “done” the Island.

Building on recent trials, this year there’s a Summer Links four journey a day high season (two in low season) link between Newport and Yarmouth via Tapnell Farm Park and in Shanklin there’s the well established Shanklin Shuttle linking the railway station and the town’s main bus stops with the sea front Esplanade every half hour to hourly.

The Southern Vectis fleet is dominated by double decks with 55 ADL Enviro 400s and 15 Scania OmniCitys supplemented by 11 single deck Optare Solos. Three further Scanias and two Volvo B7TLs are in open top format for the Breezers.

There are also a number of coaches in the fleet but these are much reduced compared to a few years ago when a large fleet of Vectis Blue branded vehicles were used on school contracts. This reduced following Council cutbacks and buses previously in blue livery are now in Southern Vectis green.

The fleet is almost all now based centrally at the bus garage in Newport …

… with a long closed garage in Ventnor still in situ much as it was in National Bus Company days.

The marketing, publicity and information provision all over the Island is superb.

A travel information office can be found in both Newport (pictured above) and the recently revamped Ryde bus stations (below).

Not only that but Newport bus station has excellent information at each bus stop including a number of large network maps and details of where to catch your bus.

Ryde used to have similar information before the refurbishment and I’m sure it will be back on display again soon.

There are also very positive messages about bus travel at bus stops and on buses including lots of coverage of the £2 maximum fare.

Every visit to the Island is a delight, experiencing well presented buses, courteous and helpful staff, plenty of information and high profile positive attractive marketing.

Exactly as a bus company should be.

Looking to the future, I understand a fleet of seven new double decks are due in October for use on route 1 which will be a welcome boost for that busy route.

Well done to Andrew Wickham and the Southern Vectis team for consistently maintaining the highest of standards in this award winning bus company.

Roger French

Previous AtoZ blogs: Avanti West Coast, Blackpool Transport, Chiltern Railways, Delaine Buses, Ensignbus, Faresaver, Grand Central, Hull Trains, Ipswich Buses, JMB Travel, Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire, Lynx, Isle of Man Transport Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Nottingham City Transport, (London) Overground, Preston Bus, Reading Buses.

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