Southern Vectis and Visit Isle of Wight could walk away with a top industry award today (Tuesday).
The UK Bus Awards take place later on, where the organisations will find out if they have won the best Marketing Initiative of the Year.
Playing strongly on the theme of sustainability, Visit Isle of Wight’s key card scheme, which runs with participating accommodation providers in conjunction with Southern Vectis, encourages visitors to explore the Island by bus.
The popular scheme has seen an incredible take up by hoteliers working with Visit Isle of Wight to provide bus transport for their guests around the Island, instead of using cars.
The aim of the scheme is to cut congestion by taking cars off the road, and improve the air quality, with many visitors expressing their pleasure at how easy it is to travel around the Island by bus.
Richard Tyldsley is the general manager at Southern Vectis. He says that the scheme could be unique in the UK:
“I’ve never come across anything quite like this, it is unique as far as we know and it is a really good positive message.
“The number of journeys taken, if they are journeys that would have been made by car before, that is definitely mileage we have taken off the Island’s roads, so less congestion, less pollution, better cleaner air.
Article continues below this advertisement “If you can come over without your car, that is the ideal solution for air and for congestion. If you use the bus, we like to think our network covers the vast majority of the Island for the vast majority of the day, we like to think we’ve got you covered and the majority of tourists that use our buses, we like to think we’re hitting that mark”.
Paul Judge is from the Leconfield Hotel in Bonchurch, one of the operators of the scheme:
“We’re very proud to have been part of the initiative, we’ve got guests who have been using it all year, it’s been very popular and I’ve had very very good feedback. I’m grateful to Southern Vectis and Visit Isle of Wight for the opportunity to be a member of this.
“It is a nice add on when they arrive and in many cases they stop using their car and end up all week using the buses”.
Nicola Rogers, Sustainable Travel project manager at Visit Isle of Wight, adds:
“It’s a project that we always get really good feedback from visitors who love traveling by bus, accommodation providers love it because they can give their guests the opportunity to travel by bus for free so it’s a win-win situation for all of us really.
“The partnership with Southern Vectis is very important, we couldn’t run the project without them, so it’s fantastic they’re so supportive of the scheme.
“I think it’s really important to us that we encourage guests to explore the Isle of Wight without a car, obviously for the environmental reasons but also so that they do enjoy more scenery and the views from travelling around by bus because the view from the top of a double-decker bus is just amazing, and you just simply don’t get that by driving a car”.
I hope not ive just seen a school kid get refused on a bus because she only had a £5 note the driver had no change
I hope they don’t win any award, they’re outrageously overpriced compared with the rest of the UK
Yes Bob I agree with you…. If you use the Southampton (there is three bus company’s) I use their buses a lot, a seven day rover was eight pounds, some difference with ours on the island!!!!
Firstly i have no connection with southern vectis. but here’s my 10 pennies worth? Ok take it from a business point thoses double decker buses only do around 6-7 MPG so fuel costs are a factor as well as maintenance etc etc….. also look at their time table it’s as good if not better than any major town or city in the UK and the fact there are buses running till midnight again you don’t get that in many big towns or some cities and the fact the isle of wight is classed as a “RURAL AREA” and majority of people that travel use free OAP passes. I think the island is getting a damn good deal and also there is not enough commuter compatition for any second company to come to the island so you get what you pay for. I’m sure if southern vectis ditched the night services and introduced a £1 fare you all maybe looking at maybe 2 or 3 buses a day to say freshwater or bembridge some services ditched completely. So if everyone wants thier cheap fare expect the services to disappear as well and am sure if that happened everyone would be on their high horse
£4:50 Newport to Yarmouth, same coming back= £9:00 X two (my wife and I ) total £18:00 Take the car, park all day if needed cost £6:60. They should win the highest fares award……..Green Island? with price structures like that, pushes people into cars, shame really.
It can be cheaper to take a Taxi if there are three or more of you. No waiting at a distant cold bus stop, taken right to your destination, and not sat with half wits, drunks, smelly people, fat slobs, and disrespectful brats, AND having to stop every few hundred yards, to pick up even more ‘care in the community odd balls’
@silent majority…
i have a key card – 30 trips cost just over £3 each. Permits me unlimited use of the bus all day for just over £3 – what is your problem.
I gave an opinion from a business side be as part of a massive global company am sure there will be tax/vat relief local/central government subsidies probably they get diesel at 1997 prices but again I don’t know. To be honest I don’t like buses nor the idea of mass commuting and I never use them nor never would and I agree if you have a small cheap car and maintain it yourself it can work out cheaper and it would give you for more freedom
And to add the fact that most jobs on the island are low paid taking a large sum of £25 for 7 day ticket must hit hard for those family and if they have children that rely on buses then that could double am sure they could do some discount for low paid families as that is a huge chunk from anyone’s wages
An Award for what ? Charging the most expensive fares in England
Over priced fares,some of the drivers need to learn customer care, pull off while people are trying to get to seats