I really can’t stay,
Baby it’s cold outside,
I gotta go away,
Fine…. Whatever …. Have you seen the 10 foot snowdrifts covering the downstairs windows?
Despite being occasionally on the Isle of Wight, I rarely remember to check the changes to bus services and hope that TheDuckBill is still keeping well. That, of course, is an obscure reference that only a few people in the world will understand, and in keeping with the obscurity of the Hampshire Bus Update.
For those that are brave enough to live on the Isle of Wight in the Winter, or for those even braver to visit as a snow-bound tourist; you might want to know what Southern Vectis are up to in terms of running buses. For as long as I can remember, the Isle of Wight has had a pretty good seasonal service with a large network of services running their lifeline service even on Christmas Day. I feel that it is one of the big things that Southern Vectis were good to import under GoAhead ownership.
Southern Vectis is quite simply a microcosm of normal-ness in an otherwise shut down time of year.
Christmas Eve
Southern Vectis, as far as I know, is one of the few big companies that will be running a full Friday day service on Christmas Eve. Now I say day service as the overnight buses on the night bus network (which I think are still Friday and Saturday only anyway) will not be running; presumably so they don’t impede on Santa’s progress.
I dread to think what the insurance claim would be if a bus hit The Sleigh!
Christmas Day (Saturday)
Southern Vectis have a reputation for running more buses on Christmas Day than most. They kept going when even London Buses gave up. This year is no exception with buses running right up until Midnight. Like most other Christmas Day operations, the service plan just seems to work, so it is the same as the last few years. All of the timetables are available here.
Service 1 between Newport and Cowes will run hourly from 9am to 9pm (from Newport)
Service 3 around the Island from Newport to Ryde (via Rookley, Ventnor, Shanklin and Brading) runs hourly from 8am Newport /8.30am Ryde to 10pm/10.30pm
Service 5 from Newport to East Cowes has 5 round trips
Service 7 from Newport to Shalfleet, Yarmouth and Totland (no Calbourne, Wellow or Needles today) also has 5 round trips
Service 9 from Ryde to Wooton and Newport will hourly from 8am to 9pm from Newport
For those looking for Christmas Day bus pictures, it looks like the 3 and 9 interwork, giving the driver a 2 hour round trip.
Boxing Day (Sunday), Monday 27th & Tuesday 28th December
Sunday services will run on all routes across the Southern Vectis network.
Wednesday 29th, Thursday 30th and New Years Eve (Friday)
Normal weekday timetables will run across the rest of the week. This also includes the Friday nightbus services that cover routes on the East side of the Island.
New Years Day, Sunday 2nd January & Monday 3rd January
A full Sunday service runs on all Southern Vectis routes.
Tuesday 4th January
Normal service resumes.