Wightbus

Infobox Bus transit
name =

logo_size = 250


image size =
image_caption = Bus number 5805, a Dennis Dart/Plaxton Pointer in Newport.
company_slogan =
founded = 1970s
headquarters = Newport
locale =
service_area = Isle of Wight
service_type = School and public services on the Isle of Wight
destinations = Whole of the Isle of Wight
fleet = 27
operator =
ceo =
website = [http://www.iow.gov.uk/council/departments/engineering_services/transport_fleet/Wightbus_Homepage/ Wightbus homepage]

Wightbus is the other bus operator on the Isle of Wight, the main operator being Southern Vectis. It is owned by the Isle of Wight Council. Annually, Wightbus is used by over 1 million passengers. [ [http://www.iow.gov.uk/council/departments/engineering_services/transport_fleet/Wightbus_Homepage/ Wightbus profile] ]

History

The name 'Wightbus' is the trading name of the Isle of Wight Council's own bus fleet, and is a relatively recent term. Before 1997, the fleet was in a yellow livery, with 'County Bus' along the sides. The current name seems to reduce the perceived connection between the Council and the company. Exactly how closely tied the two remain is sometimes unclear.

Current operations

The main work Wightbus undertakes is on school journeys. As many settlements on the Island are small, while most are large enough to support at least one primary school, there are few state-run high schools (and even fewer private ones). Because of the Island's 3-tier school system, there are also middle schools, which are located in most towns but not in any of the many villages. Because of this, there is an extensive 'network' of school bus routes, all operated under contract from the Council, to get a few primary school pupils from remote areas to the nearest larger settlement, to transport middle school pupils between nearby towns, and to move large numbers of high school students, sometimes halfway across the County.

A few of these school routes are not available to the general public and operate with destinations such as 'School Bus' with no route number, however many are available for anyone to use, showing a route number and appearing in the Council's own Public Transport Handbook.

When these buses are not in use for school journeys, they may be used on the handful of normal routes the company runs in various locations. Some of these (notably the 16, which has a dedicated vehicle running in a modified Wightbus livery) are operated during school journey periods and so additional buses are required beyond those purely for school purposes.

In the period of Cowes Week, Wightbus run the "Sailbus", a free route linking the car parks and the main events of Cowes for visitors. This uses three spare buses - not working due to Cowes Week being in the school Summer holidays - to maintain a five minute frequency.

More recently, Southern Vectis have set up several new routes shadowing some of the Wightbus school network, with some controversy over this. [ [http://www.iwcp.co.uk/News/STOP_RIDICULOUS_GHOST_BUS_WASTE_1.aspx Isle of Wight County Press - Stop Ridiculous ghost bus waste] Accessed 1 July 2008]

Regular routes

The public network [ [http://www.travelinesoutheast.org.uk/se/XSLT_SELTT_REQUEST?language=en Traveline Wightbus Timetables (enter "Wightbus" into "operator name" box and press "submit")] ] [ [http://www.iwight.com/council/departments/engineering_services/transport_fleet/images/IOWApril2008Timetables.pdf Isle of Wight bus timetable] Accessed on 31 July 2008] (as of 31 August 2008) is as follows:

Dial-A-Bus

Wightbus also operate several 'dial-a-bus' services enabling passengers to book a service in advance. These routes do not use numbers, they only have 'dial-a-bus' displayed on the front. The following services are in operation from 3 April 2008: [ [http://www.iwight.com/council/departments/engineering_services/transport_fleet/images/IOWApril2008Timetables.pdf Isle of Wight bus timetable] (page46) Accessed on 31 July 2008]
* Ryde - Wootton - East Cowes - Newport (Mondays only)
* Freshwater - Totland - Yarmouth - Newport (Tuesdays only)
* Bembridge - St Helens - Sandown - Shanklin - Newport (Thursdays only)
* Cowes - Newport (Mondays and Fridays)
* Ventnor - Whitwell - Niton - Newport (Fridays only)

Subsidised Fares

Students under the age of 19, in full time education on the Isle of Wight now receive discount fares through a "Student Rider" scheme. Initially, students only had to pay 50p for a single journey on any of the Island's buses or trains anywhere, at any time. This includes through journeys where all buses are run solely by one company, either Wightbus or Southern Vectis. However this was later increased to £1 per journey after the unprecedented success of the scheme lead to the Isle of Wight Council being unable to continue the same level of support.

As well as this, anyone living on the island who is over 60 or has a disability, will now be able to travel on the Island's buses for free, under the Government's scheme.The introduction of these subsidised fares has resulted in a boom in passengers using the buses.

See also

*List of bus operators of the United Kingdom

References

External links

* [http://www.iwight.com/council/publicServices/serviceDetail.aspx?servID=1435 Wightbus details on the Isle of Wight Council's website] - iwight.com
* [http://www.iow.gov.uk/council/departments/engineering_services/transport_fleet/Wightbus_Homepage/ Wightbus website on Isle of Wight Council's website] - iwight.co.uk