Southern Vectis - Buses on the Isle of Wight
The independent
transport videos cameras are no strangers to the Isle of Wight. Indeed our first UK video programme was
filmed on the Island – ‘Ride on the Isle of Wight’ - back in 1999. This present DVD programme looks at the
operations of the main bus operator on the Isle of Wight – Southern
Vectis. Now part of the GoAhead
group this former Tilling Group and National Bus Company (NBC)
subsidiary has been operating on the Island since 1929, always in a green
livery in some form or other.
This DVD
programme contains footage from the years of 1978, 1989, 2013, 2015 and
2020. 1978 represents the NBC years,
1989 the early deregulation years and from 2013 to 2020 the GoAhead
years. The programme opens with scenes
shot in Ryde, Sandown and Shanklin on cine film, with Bristol Lodekkas and VRTs
being the main stars of this section.
The 1989 footage is filmed at Ryde, Shanklin, Newport, Blackgang Chine,
Totland Bay and Ryde Bus Depot. Southern
Vectis buses are seen in NBC leaf-green and white livery with the double ‘N’
symbol removed and replaced with the new privatised logo instead. Also the first deregulated livery of
emerald-green and sand is much in evidence.
A number of mini-buses in a variety of liveries are seen operating, one
being transferred from the recently formed Solent Blue Line based across the
Solent in Southampton. At Ryde we see a
former Southern Vectis Bristol RE from the long established independent
operator Seaview that branded their Ryde to Seaview service as
‘Redlynx’.
Our 2013 filming takes place
at Cowes, The Needles, Ventnor, Newport and Ryde. GoAhead is firmly in charge now and
the buses are seen in a smart two-tone green livery. At Cowes we see Dennis Darts squeezing
through the small archway onto the pontoon on Service 1 from Newport. Look out for Scania OmniCity double-decker
1111 (HW58 ASW), as three days after our filming the rear end of the bus was
gutted by fire. It has been rebuilt as a
permanent open-topper and re-registered VDL 744 and is named ‘Phoenix’! ‘The Shanklin Steamer’ is seen in
Newport. This former GoAhead London Volvo
B10B training bus had been converted to semi-open-sided for a circular tour of
the Island. It has now left the fleet
and resides in the Isle of Wight Bus Museum as a ‘refreshment’ seating area.
The 2015 filming takes place at Newport, Sandown, Shanklin, East Cowes and
Cowes. Look out for ‘Vlad the Impaler’ –
023 (A174 VFM) a former Crosville Leyland Olympian that is the company’s
tree-lopper! The mainstay of the fleet
are Scania OmniCitys, most of which have now transferred to ‘morebus’ and
are based at Bournemouth and Poole. We
take a ride on open-top Volvo B7TL 1992 (GSK 962), formally registered HW52
EPL, - it can be seen earlier in this programme with its roof in place! At Cowes we see ADL Enviro200s squeezing
through on to the pontoon. In 2020 these
little buses operate in Salisbury, Poole and with Damory some still in
their green livery. Service 1 to Cowes no longer operates to the pontoon as
double-deckers are now used for ‘social-distancing’ due to the coronavirus
pandemic.
In 2020 we film in Newport,
Ryde, Shanklin and Sandown. ADL
Enviro400 and the MMC variant double-deckers are the mainstay of the fleet. Vectis
Blue buses are also seen, not just on school duties, but operating in
normal service. We finish at Ryde St
Johns railway station with some Xelabus double–deckers operating a rail
replacement service for the Island Line railway in December 2020. We hope you enjoy your visit.