Local people and visitors to the Isle of Wight are being encouraged to find out how easy and convenient it is to travel by bus.
To mark Catch the Bus Month – a nationwide campaign running during September 2023 – Southern Vectis is helping to raise awareness of the benefits of travelling in this way, particularly among those who don’t normally use public transport.
Southern Vectis managing director, Andrew Wickham, has said:
“Catch the Bus month offers us an excellent opportunity to demonstrate the many benefits of leaving the car at home and travelling with Southern Vectis,”
“Almost two-thirds of the nation’s public transport journeys are by bus – and they are the primary mode of access to our city and town centres, contributing £21 billion to the economy each year.
“Not only are they an important contributor to our local economy, they’re good for the environment too. Just one fully-loaded double decker bus has the potential to take up to 75 cars off the road. And that’s very important because a brand new diesel car with a single occupant can emit more nitrogen oxides than one of our new buses carrying 50 or more passengers.
“Helping to improve air quality across the Isle of Wight is one of our primary aims. We have recently invested in brand new, low emissions, buses to operate our services across the island.
“Aside from all these benefits, for many, buses are a vital lifeline – an affordable and accessible form of transport. That is why we signed up to the £2 fare cap – part of the Government’s Help for Households initiative. It means our customers can travel with us on any single journey for £2 or less.
Article continues below this advertisement “Paying for travel is easy – thanks to contactless ‘tap on, tap off’ ticketing by phone or card. Or people can use our app, which they can also use to save regular journeys, mark bus stops and track exactly where their bus is at any given time. Of course, those who wish to, can also pay our drivers directly with cash.
“With all this in mind, we’re keen to encourage more people to leave their cars at home this Catch the Bus Month, and find out how easy and convenient it is to travel across Southern Vectis’ extensive bus network.”
If you live in places like St Lawrence, Havenstreet etc, you try ditching the car and catching the bus.
The buses don’t run early enough for me to catch for work.
They’ll claim it saves the environment, that it’s time efficient or they enjoy not having to drive.
But deep down we know people take the bus because they are poor.
Can they even be considered my equal as “humans”?
i would but buses dont go to havenstreet so its the car
Just in time for the fare increase in October….
A veiled sales pitch to increase profits, but still the same rubbish service
Try catching a bus to Havensyreet.
Comvenient?! It’s a ten minute walk to the nearest stop, they don’t arrive and leave on demand, I have to share it with teenagers and obnoxious phone calls, always on speaker, and it doesn’t stop exactly at my destination. Plus, it takes twice as long as the car. That’s if they turn up on time, or at all. And if there’s roadworks you can’t access lots of places, or there’s a long diversion.
Oh and they’re massive and block the islands small roads.
And some of the SV drivers need a lesson in smiling.
Tell me again how convenient the bus is?
Not to mention the upcoming 3rd rise in fares in 18 months.
A good rule of thumb when embarking on a bus trip is to have either headphones or ear buds to hand for ready access to some soothing music and also in neutralising the odd banal discourses that tend to encroach on the sensibilities.It makes the experience fairly enjoyable on the longer journeys i find.
Summed up, higher profits for southern vectis
Absolutely. Using the environment is just a verbal mask for the real reason they want you to use their services. If they truly gave a damn about the environment, there wouldn’t be as many double-decker buses going about with very few passengers aboard.
And catch every disease going in the process…. no thanks.
Drop the prices have a reliable service then islanders might use it
Easy and convenient…? Maybe, but it takes forever to get where you want to go… 🙁
No thanks i will stick with my van
Me too, cheaper in the long run.
I brought a car largely because I got fed up with Southern Vectis and their overpriced fares, buses constantly being late, leaving me in the pouring rain and their habit of breaking down left right and centre.
Yes those buses could potentially get 75 cars off the road, but that is very wishful thinking.
Hot slow and full of rude ignorant folk…yea why not
The pictured bus stop is f-ing horrible. Poor villages in Eastern Europe have better ones, come on!
Be absolutely delighted to catch a bus to: Havenstreet and Porchfield – if only there was one.
But please can Southern Vectis put a bus on to go along Forest Road from Gunville traffic lights to the top of Hunnyhill and/or St Mary’s Hospital. Absolute madness NOT to have a bus service along Forest Road to serve Parkhurst Fores, Forest View Garden Nursery and Cafe, Hunnyhill School and the Prison estate.
Missed opportunity and time a “service” was provided.
Maybe incorperate the number 7?.
Please can someone explain to me , why Southern Vectis use double decker buses all over the Island. Generally they have very few people on them at any one time. Surely single deck buses would be far more suitable. Also they need to service the rural villages better.
Brilliant idea I live in Havenstreet can someone tell me what time the first bus is………… Oh there isn’t one I will take the car then
Why, what with the fares going back up. Catch the Bus month, and catch a cold month too.
I took advantage of a £2 bus trip recently, the bus stank to high heaven, the seats are not very comfortable and half way through it I was already wishing I’d driven my car instead. Once the price cap ends, S.V will revert back to being ridiculously expensive. Also when I’m in my car I know I’m safe, you can’t vet who will get on one of their buses and cause problems. No thanks, I’ll use my car.
When price cap reverts then 365 freedom pass (ride as much as you can) is still going to cost only 40% of average car TCO in Britain.
Being a bit of an ‘anorak’ I have a bus timetable from 1977. There were 6 buses a day from Porchfield in each direction on Route 35 back then, and a couple on Sundays. The skeleton service (as it became) was finally scrapped in 2015. If we had the services we enjoyed back in the 1970s, and if the prices were a bit lower, perhaps we would all be regularly hopping on a bus.
I keep reading about this air quality thing do they realise air moves around or do they think we are stupid. I have just gotten a small car after two years of the bus and it’s great.
Exactly.I live in Ashley and don’t drive.The 37 bus is one an hour but don’t bother making any plans to go out on a Sunday or any bank holiday as they don’t run and you are cut off.Also make sure if you want to come home the last bus back is 5pm and don’t bother thinking of going out in the evening as again last one out 5pm.It’s like a curfew.Ditch the car for the bus!! Lol.. not where I live.It’s insulting.
Mr Wickham if you just got out of the office to see the real countryside you might just find that certain areas would love to see a single decker bus don’t worry about your double deckers.You see here in Havenstreet there is a railway bridge because there is one of the largest tourist attractions the Steam Railway which attracts several hundred vehicles each week..Most of their customers drive through the village (some of them don’t understand it is a 30 mph zone) without pavements so a chance to use a bus service would be remarkable and get some cars off the roads.Even it was a 2 hourly service initially would be a great help.You will have to walk over a mile from the nearest bus stop and wear your wellies if it is raining mind the cars.
Take too long to get from A to B
On your bike.
Car for me anyday
Having a good laugh at this. Do you remember Wightbus Its routes served Havenstreet and Portchfield. Did you kick up a stink when whightbus was taken over by S.V under marc morgen hews. NO. and now your paying the cost of your silence.
Use the bus in September, just in time as the half hour summer service has gone back to hourly on the number 8. Keep the summer timetable and I might consider it.
Catching a bus is just not a practical proposition for a lot of people.
Try going to the shops or supermarket and coming back with 3 or 4 shopping bags and carrying those onto a bus and then walking home from the bus stop.
Try going visiting friends or relations who don’t live on a bus route and see how you manage.
How many of us really fancy waiting around at bus stops in the dark? The Island isn’t the place it used to be, it simply doesn’t feel safe a lot of the time.
I do use buses occasionally, but the number of times there’s unsociable, rowdy or rude people on board puts me off using them more often. Plus, it simply costs too much to use them regularly.
And sit with the great unwashed………Nah!!!!!
That’s my thought too, sat beside you,in front or behind, I have on occasion moved else where as my nostrils beg for air that’s half way decent…bring back 2 seater one side and on the other one seat. It’s bad enough walking behind them. SV need to ditch double deckers. They know there’s not the need by the amount that’s used.double decker going up to Gunville!! Or staplers. Joke..no common sense.
The shite of society gets free travel on buses and ruins it for all the law abiding decent working people.abuse of the islander cards is a joke. its the drivers i feel most sorry for
ONLY if Southern Vectis managing director, Andrew Wickham, takes a bus wherever he travels for the next 5 years.
Good leadership leads by example.
Inconvenient, expensive, smelly and full of germ ridden people. No thanks, car for me every time.