Southern Vectis is to operate all school bus services from September, after successfully winning contracts from Isle of Wight Council again.
Under the new contracts, the council has determined that there will be fewer bus routes than in previous years – with a number of pupils likely to miss out due to not being eligible for statutory home-to-school travel. In view of this, Southern Vectis is working to provide additional resources on its existing commercial network, to accommodate any displaced students.
Key changes include the lack of any school buses going to Cowes Enterprise College.
Richard Tyldsley, General Manager at Southern Vectis, says:
“We are pleased to have been awarded all the work available in the school buses contracts. The feedback we have received acknowledges our quality of service and reliability as a stable, award-winning and well-established operator.
“Our team is highly experienced in providing excellent services to schools across the Isle of Wight, and this is just reward for their efforts.
“Unfortunately, many students who travelled last year will not be accommodated on the new contracted services, but we are planning to run additional buses along some of our key commercial routes – linking to schools. We are also looking at providing our own dedicated school buses. The impact of COVID-19 has inevitably complicated matters as we look to ensure everyone who wishes to, can travel safely on our buses.
“We will publish full details of these services shortly, but I advise parents and guardians to plan journeys now – based on the existing bus network. Southern Vectis offers a variety of great value tickets for those students who are displaced – and they are available directly from us, rather than from the local authority.”
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What a surprise as its a forgone conclusion Southern vectic have the council in there pocket no one else gets a look in
There was i thinking Yellow Buses might run it.
erm who else runs a Bus company on the island……
OMG… Duh…because this contract can go out to tender to the usual 3 possible can’t it?… NOT!… what concerns me most is that they admit the contract does not include all school children that need a bus… am I missing something…