7 new double decker buses – described as being the best in the country – are arriving on the Isle of Wight following a near £2million investment by Southern Vectis. The Scarborough-built ADL Enviro 400 MMC vehicles – which cost around £290,000 each – will primarily run on the Route 1 service between Newport and Cowes. They are the first buses in Southern Vectis’ fleet to be equipped with digital cameras instead of wing mirrors and a specially designed floor that is dementia-friendly. Passengers will soon experience the newly designed seats which provide not only a comfortable ride but USB chargers too. Extra luggage space has been created for those travelling with bags. 
At the rear of the bus, the 5 abreast configuration has been reduced to 4 with flip-up seats in front to allow people to put their feet up without damaging the moquette interior. Andrew Wickham, Managing Director of Southern Vectis, has said:
“We are incredibly proud of these new double decker buses – and this is good news for both commuters and leisure passengers across the Isle of Wight. “It is vitally important to us that we make sustainable transport a more attractive proposition, in order to entice people out of their cars – and this investment is a huge step in that direction. “Reducing congestion and helping to improve air quality is a responsibility we all share, and we’re delighted to report that each of these new double decker buses carries a Euro 6 engine – cleaner than the latest generation of diesel cars. “I’m very much looking forward to seeing these new vehicles out-and-about, and welcoming even more people on-board – whether they’re travelling with us for work or play. And, with the £2 fare cap for any single journey still in place, there’s no better time to experience bus travel on the Isle of Wight.”
I’m going back in to get the stuff from my car so I’m just waiting for the truck and I’ll come pick you guys when you get off the bus
Big opportunity missed to go electric , though a step in the right direction.
Build the best bus in the world it won’t change the fact being in my own comfortable car away from other humans is the option I will always choose to take.
Perhaps they could run a couple Havenstreet way and extend the 37 to running after 1700 hours,possibly even running a Sunday and bank holiiday service!
Was there one this morning that had broken down and stopped at Parklands Avenue in Cowes ?
Doesn’t bode well me thinks ….
Nice to see new transport, but why, there is never enough passengers to warrant a double decker, unless they are used for school transport, why were hybrid or even elecctric transport not considered as they all do short journeys.
What a shame. I would have thought the money could have been better invested in reinstating the routes, savagely, cut by Southern Vectis, which left so many elderly people isolated, to the extent that some sold their properties in order to move nearer to the bus routes.
The only busses that I’ve seen anywhere with protection against overgrown hedgerows that make the road narrower, for larger vehicles, are on the island, wonder why that is?
That will be all the money that the council gave them
Have no doubt some scum bag will christen the seats with their feet, common as muck on this island!
…. and what is a specially designed dementia-friendly floor for heaven’s sake ???
And the poor will still stay poor
Good. They;re a cancer on society lmao
A complete waste of money, so many Double Decker buses pollute the island with
hardly any passengers on them.
Why is this news? As soon as the £2 subsidy ends it’ll be straight back to some of the most expensive bus journeys in the UK.
Of course only on the route to and from Cowes, anything for the posh old bastards.
Pity they couldn’t have invested in some new single-deckers for route 1 so that they could actually make it under the archway to the Red Jet terminal once again.
Too far to walk from m&s I suppose
Nice and shiny new double deckers. Why not single deckers though? Doubles are just smashing the roads to pieces. It’s not often you see a double full up outside of the school run.
Well can they use just a little to clean all the filthy bus shelters on the island as they are disgusting.
Starting with the one outside Morrisons in Newport.
I don’t know what visitors must think.
See island roads
Isn’t Southern Vectis founded from the IW Council to the fact of a few million a year? And I believe Island Roads maintain the bus shelters and even pay for the road markings (Bus Stop in yellow) another Micky take from a private company that lives off us tax payers!!!
How much of the investment was from the goverment as a grant?