Wightrider + Beer & Steam boost Island’s newest bus route

Tuesday 13th October 2026

I popped over to the Isle of Wight on Saturday to sample yet another new bus route – this one introduced on 27th September by Southern Vectis thanks to the Isle of Wight Council’s Bus Service Improvement Plan.

Route 33 runs between Newport and Ryde bringing a bus service back to the village of Havenstreet after an absence of 11 years and, as a bonus, visitors to the Isle of Wight Steam Railway’s main station at the southern end of the village is also now reconnected back to the Island’s bus network.

This was all the more pertinent at the weekend as the Isle of Wight Bus Museum was holding its weekend Wightrider event involving a fleet of heritage buses providing free-to-travel shuttles between Ryde railway station and the Museum as well as circular tours of the north east corner of the Island, while the Steam Railway was running a Beer & Steam event attracting many extra visitors.

Not surprisingly therefore, fledgling route 33 being run by a 25 seat Optare Solo due to the narrow road through Havenstreet was doing a roaring trade on the five journey-a-day timetable carrying visitors to and from the railway.

For the past 11 years visitors to the railway, if not travelling by car, have wither had to use those journeys on route 9 which serve the western end of the line at Wootton or the Island Line railway which serves Smallbrook Junction at the eastern end. Havenstreet where all the action can be found including the booking office, shop, restaurant, cafe and museum has been off limits to public transport.

Both journeys I travelled on – the 11:45 from Ryde and 13:15 from Newport – were packed with a standing load. The latter journey took 23 passengers to the railway and picked up the same number on arrival for travel over to Ryde. In addition, on both journeys another half a dozen passengers travelled along the route including one boarding in Havenstreet itself.

At the Ryde end of the route the bus uses roads also served by local route 37 while at the Newport the route parallels journeys on route 9 via Wootton so it’s really only the village of Havenstreet that benefits from the 33.

Whereas the weekend and weekday school holiday timetable comprises five return journeys, on Monday to Friday schooldays this reduces to just three with the last two afternoon return trips cut to allow the bus to fulfill its school journey commitment.

The additional cost of laying on this service is therefore marginal with it being fitted around school journeys, which is just as well as numbers travelling in the week and on more ‘normal’ weekends are likely to be small in number. However I’m sure it will be appreciated by villagers in Havenstreet, in particular, as well as visitors to the railway.

While waiting for the bus in Ryde I was able to enjoy a dose of nostalgia watching some of the buses coming and going on the Wightrider trips, as well as some of the buses laying over near the Hoverport.

It looked like everyone was having a great time and I’ll leave you with some of the photos of those buses in action, but before that, as always with a visit to the Island, I always come away impressed by the quality of service provision. The company consistently ticks all the boxes of ‘how to provide a good service for passengers’ including travel shops in both Ryde (next to the railway station ticket office)…

… and in the bus station in the centre of Newport.

Inside there’s always a display of the company’s bus timetable book…

… which is also an exemplar of how to promote a bus network with many pages of easy to follow maps, timetables (including Christmas Day services) and details of the best tickets to buy.

The Island has recently seen significant investment in new buses…

… with a fleet of 31 Wrightbus Gen 2 Electroliner battery-electric double-decker buses entering service on routes 1, 4, 5, 9, 37 and 38 in the Spring…

… with 23 more new buses on order (including 20 double-deckers and 3 open-top electric double-deckers for the Needles Breezer) for delivery next year.

They’re a joy to travel on and no wonder a Saturday lunch time in October saw Newport’s bus station busy with passengers…

… and where you’ll find excellent information on display, including the full colour network map…

… as well as over at Ryde bus station, where it’s always attracting prospective passengers to take a look.

This is how you encourage more passengers to travel by bus.

And now, time for another dose of nostalgia…

Well done to all those involved in the organisation of the Wightrider weekend.

Roger French

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