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 either 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
Blogging timetable: 06:00 TThS
Excellent article. SOUTHERN VECTIS are very special. Lovely company. They manage to do many things right when running a bus company.
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I didn’t see you there, Roger! That’s my B7, freshly outshopped in NBC colours (seem to be polarising the crowd with that choice!)
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Nice one, Martin. Looks good.
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I haven’t seen leaflets in racks shaped like buses before so that’s a nice addition.
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A quite magical place, which has somehow managed to retain its charm since my first visit in the mid-1950s. There are probably less summer “Relief” workings these days than then, but the network of almost 100% double-decker routes criss-crossing the Island, even on Christmas Day (TfL please note!) puts many to shame. I am astonished these days to see Winter loadings at times almost at Summer levels during the peak at the major points. Whilst things have improved recently across the water and in plain sight in Portsmouth, being crammed needlessly into single-deckers on most routes is not an experience to be savoured, and quite a contrast.
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I was very pleased to see high loadings on all SVOC routes I travelled on (except the new 33, and surprisingly an end of pm peak route 38), whilst evening trips on the 3 and 8 saw loadings consistantly above 20, albeit were on Friday and Saturday nights. But it does seem to work, provide reliable decent frequency services and passengers will use them. The only thing I find annoying is the refusal to use suffix letters to denote variations. Routes 1,7 and 9 all have alternate journeys that go via quite a substancially different routeing.
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A SDO Weekday journey would have been more representative of the loadings on this route which again has the 2nd departure of the day potentially carrying not a lot of passengers from Newport as the time is too close to the arrival , it may pick up to ryde given the time of the last return from ryde and 40mins in Newport might be enough to do one or two afternoon task there for the last return.
Both SDO and NSD services need a couple of late evening returns – the railway I think runs some evening special event services inc santa etc , or once again are the towns of Ryde and Newport berefit of an evening economy after 5pm ?
A fair try but to provide an alternative to car and taxi use I think evening service is needed.
I also note that the heritage railway has no real chance of serving Newport again (I think the bus route runs on roads that were on part of the trackbed) but looking at a flat map would an extension to East Cowes be achievable ? ,
JBC Prestatyn
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I am surprised that a 33 journey cannot be provided after the bus has performed it’s afternoon school service. Incidentally, although not on their public timetables, I am told that most, if not all, school and college routes are now open to the public after many years of that not being allowed under the Vectis Blue scheme, and most buses used on school routes not being equipped with ticket machines. Certainly I saw nembers of the public boarding routes 63 and 68 (school journeys on 3 and 8) in Newport Bus Station.
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I notice that the display screen on both pictures of the Optare Solo’s interior is showing ‘Southern Vectis’ – another company not taking its responsibilities to PSVAIR seriously and operating unlawfully then?
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I had a ride on the 33 on Friday, and as with every other Southern Vectis bus I travelled on, the audio announcements and displays were working perfectly. The only exception was when buses were diverted because of roadworks (route 37) and the Sunday hotel fire in Sandown (route 3) where it got a bit confused, as would be expected. I also very much liked the regular announcements on all the buses about keeping noise down and using headphones to save others anxiety. Another thing of interest about the Solo on route 33, was two ceiling mounted fans in the passenger saloon (not on, as not needed). Never seen that on a service bus before. Talking about route 33, I understand that it was extremely busy on Saturday, because of the beer festival at Havenstreet Station.
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Sorry, that was a reply to an e-mail group, got no idea how it got sent here !!
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And at Portsmouth Harbour Wighlink
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I neant to say that my Friday 1145 ex Ryde trip on the 33 was fairly lightly loaded. I boarded at Haylands, where 3 people were already aboard, 2 others boarded in Haylands, and one more joined us in Havenstreet Village. I had forgotten that the bridge at Havenstreet was only 13’3″, so unsuitable for the modern double deckers in the fleet. But of course the previous SVOC 33 had been double deck worked, as was the period it was incorporated into the route of the round the island 7 & 7A routes (a 3½ hour mamouth circular). Incidentally my previous comments about the beer festival causing heavy loadings referred to the last bus on Saturday where the driver had to choose between considerably overloading his bus, or leaving people stranded.
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That is more the number of passengers I would expect. I suspect a total of 100 to 120 trips per 5 journey day when the railway isnt running. Maybe a combined ticket Steam Railway to Newport could be provided ?
For the very busy events noted how flexible is Southern Vectis to duplicate buses?
JBC Prestatyn
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Unsure how many Solis are spare brtween school runs, as they already cover routes 22, 24, 32, 33 and 39 with them. But must be plenty available at weekends, guess depends on whether they haves spare drivers. Also as it is a contracted route, would they get paid for an extra bus.?
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I wonder if SOVC or “heritage” operators would be interested in strengthening existing services to support the Wolverton Manor Garden Fair weekend next September (from Newport, maybe with an interchange away from Newport also).
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Looks a bit too far from the 12 for most people to walk ??
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The nearest stop is at the outer limits of what would be viable (would need some encouraging signposting for the event for the best/shortest walking route–which is across the fields into the residential part of Shorwell and then to the main road)
ideally would be augmented by an additional bus on a loop round the one way system that is set up for the event (Corve Hill, Pound Land/Wolverton Lane past the front of the house, then onwards to Yafford Mill and loop back to Shorwell)
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I was very impressed by the organisation of the Wightrider (always think it should be called Wightryder!) event. Considering the very restricted space available at the bus museum, and despite inevitable minor delays with so many departures, the volunteers did extreemly well to provide a reliable operation. The star of the show was in my mind “Shouty Woman” (as on her t-shirt!) who was in charge of the waiting crowds and announcing (very loudly) the departures. Whilst maybe not to everyone’s taste, her funny quips and enthusiasm to ensure everyone got the bus they wanted made the day. How she survived the weekend without loosing her voice is beyond me! One bus owner (who I have a sneeky feeling may be related to her) had programmed the electronic display on his bus to show “Does she not have an off switch?, I am trying to sleep” whilst it was parked up. Indeed it was very impressive how many visiting bus owners had programmed their electronic destinations to be able to display the correct route and destination details, whilst many others has installed specially made blinds.
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I notice Roger, that all your photos of the Wightrider event were taken at Ryde Esplanade. I therefore assume you never travelled on any of the event services, a real shame, and I recommend some rides in the future. Out of interest,
over the weekend, I managed to visit all the places that are served by the special routes, yet not directly served by SVOC, namely Quarr Abbey, Brading Roman Village, Brading Station, Wight Knuckle Brewery, Goddards Brewery, Donkey Sanctuary, Amazon World and Sandown Airport.
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Incidentally Roger, whilst the 33 is indeed a new (reinstated) route, the 38 has been totally revised and now serves the new development to the south east of Newport. Was rather impressed by the number of temporary bus stops that SVOC must own – probably more than TfL given how rarely you see them in London. Incidentally next time anyone you are over in the island, I recommend a trip on the 1355 route 6 from Newport to Godshill. A lovely double deck ride through the very pleasant villages on the 6 route down to Niton, a trip round the narrow Buddle Inn loop, and then the only bus in either direction to cover the route between Whitwell and Godshill. Quite amazing that it runs in service over that section, but glad it does. I recall that many years ago there used to be a route 18 or 19 that went that way rather infrequently.
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When I first looked at the cut racks of bus timetables I thought the bus timetables themselves were bus shaped!
That would be a good wheeze but likely too expsensive for a mass print run to have custom cut sheets (although visually it could be mimiced without cutting on the cover of a standard “business envelope sized” leaflet/booklet with good use of colour.
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I still miss the old style timetables with very clever cartoon like covers. And don’t forget for a while SVOC published timetables for many other areas in the UK. The current ones are still very goid, and even included routes on the island not run by them (prrsumably paid for by the council (although a shame these are omitted on the web site
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There is also an information counter at Yarmouth bus station, and timetables are available from Red Funnel termini and Southampton’s Bluestar travel office.
Lazy “It’s all on the internet” operators, please note.
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The photos of the timetable books and network maps are a lovely reminder that the information is part of the journey, too. Having Havenstreet connected again opens up a simpler car-free outing. For a relaxed day around the steam railway, would you pair it with time in Ryde or Newport?
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