I haven't been over the Island since October 2007, and thought, pending delivery of the new Scania Omnicity deckers, it was about time I went back over. Held in this collection are 81 photos from Newport, Ryde, Arreton, Shanklin and East Cowes documenting all of the recent changes to some degree. Most of the photos are of excellent quality too. This collection can be accessed from Latest Updates OR the Southern Vectis page... photos will also appear in the individual type galleries over the next few days.

Contains:
Southern Vectis

Southern Vectis branded all of their Bristol VRs in 2003 with Open Top Tour branding. Since then sales in those services has risen, so 2 Leyland Olympians with Northern Counties bodywork have been converted for the Needles Tour and the VRs stay on the Downs and Sandown Bay tour. I managed to get all the SVOC Bristol VRs in the Tours livery; all are out of service now, being replaced by Open Top DAFs from Wilts & Dorset for the 2009 season.

GO TO THE NEW ISLAND BREEZERS GALLERY FOR THE LATEST LIVERY AND SERVICE.

502 (CDL899) is a Bristol K, which has spent its life in service with Southern Vectis. In 2003, it was allocated to the Downs Tour, route 41, but since then it has been allocated only to special duties. It can usually be found out of service in Ryde Depot. It is now renumbered 602.

Southern Vectis do not operate any coach services any more, but there are several coaches used for driver training purposes along with school duties and other contracts. A number of second hand coaches have moved over to the fleet - all wear either Fountain Coaches, West Wight, or Moss Motors livery - none appear in Southern Vectis livery.

Now an extinct bus with Southern Vectis, 2 Duple bodied 8.5m Darts were acquired from London United in 2000. Here are the pictures.

In 2004, Southern Vectis obtained 2 Dennis Dart/Pointer from London and entered service in the Blue swirls livery. They are usually found on routes 4, 5, 33, 38 and 39. 818 and 819, as they were numbered moved across the solent to Solent Blue Line in 2006.

3 ex-Brighton & Hove M reg Darts also entered service with Southern Vectis in 2007, and mainly appeared on the Ryde town routes. These have since been withdrawn and now 900 and 902 are in service with Wilts & Dorset.

This batch of Darts was originally for Jet Link services 91, 92 and 93, but they have disappeared and are now for route 1. They are numbered 810-15 and all have recent refurbishments, with brand new floors, seats and hand rails. 810, 811 and 814 have received new livery but these have recently been replaced by a batch of Scania Omnicity double deckers.

... and later Transbus examples. Southern Vectis bought their first Dennis Dart MPD in 2002 which is numbered 300 (HW52EPX). It arrived in the blue swirls livery. In 2005, with the arrival of the 14 new MPDs, it was repainted into the new Green livery. The new MPDs were numbered 301-14.

Another 6 MPDs, numbered 315-20, have moved into the fleet from Solent Blue Line. Collection link at the bottom of the page to see the buses in the old liveries.

The MPDs are largely allocated to Newport and mainly see use on routes 1, 4, 5, 38 and 39. Sometimes they do see service on other routes. Creative Master Northcord have made models of 300 in the blue livery, 301 in the new green livery, and 316 in the most recent livery.

Photos of the new and improved Open Top Tours over the Isle of Wight. 2 original Southern Vectis Olys and 5 from Solent Blue Line started the revolution from the VR - new Open toppers are expected next year. A new Blue livery accompanied the new buses - photos will appear here. These are:
642/3 - K742/3ODL new to SV
601 - N411JBV - from SBL and Go Ahead London
637-9/41 - R737-9/41XRV from SBL

Southern Vectis acquired 8 Marshall bodied Iveco TurboDailys brand new, and then in 2001, sole 239 (K172CAV) was acquired from Stagecoach Devon. Upon the arrival of new Dart MPDs, 240-4 were transferred across to the mainland to operate with Solent Blue Line, whereas 245-7 were kept by Southern Vectis for different purposes. 245 and 247 were renumbered 045 and 047 (respectively) and see service mainly as staff shuttles. 246 was the Pink Naughty Children's bus, receiving the Green livery before being withdrawn.

Southern Vectis also operated a number of second-hand Iveco TurboDailys that were transferred from Stagecoach Devon in 2001. All were withdrawn before the native Marshall examples; all are photographed in this gallery, apart from one late arrival from Marchwood Motorways which I never managed to photo.

This was the first batch of Northern Counties bodied Olympians acquired. They are registered K735-43ODL and numbered 735-43. They have all undergone a refurbishment since new and now 735-41 all wear the new Green Livery. 742/3 operated the Needles Tour and operate in the Yellow Open Top livery and photos of these will now appear in the ISLAND BREEZERs collection.

Southern Vectis acquired this batch, originally as F and G reg Olympians but were re-registered in 2000. All entered in the Emerald Green and Cream livery and between 1995-8 the majority were repainted into the Mushroom Green and Cream livery. Ollys 711 and 714 are represented in this livery by EFE and OOC respectively as models.

With the turn of the millenium, the Ollys were gradually repainted into the Route Rouge livery. Some (eg 715) had a second repaint prior to the introduction of the fantastic new Green livery for Southern Vectis, of which all received the livery apart from 723 which was an early transfer to Wilts & Dorset.

All have left SV now, now in service with Wilts & Dorset and Damory as Bristol VR replacements. Some still wear green but all will be repainted in the future. When I manage to get some, they will appear in the Wilts & Dorset Leyland Olympian collection.

Southern Vectis no longer have any ECW bodied Olympians, as they were all withdrawn and disposed of after the arrival of 7 Volvo B7TLs.

In Summer 2007, Go Ahead South purchased the first brand new buses for Southern Vectis. These were 7 Merc-Benz Citaro single deck buses, aimed at improving the quality of route 9 (Ryde-Newport). With them came an increased frequency (4 buses an hour to 6 buses an hour). They all were delivered in their own style of the new livery, accompanied with branding for route 9.

In 2009, route 9 was upgraded with a frequency increase from every 10minutes to every 7/8minutes, and with this came 2 more Citaros from Wilts & Dorset/Unilink - 479 + 480 - photo'd at the end of this gallery.

During 2008 and 2009, Southern Vectis are taking a delivery of 28 brand new Scania Omnicity double deckers. I photographed 1101, 1102 and 1103 in their first days of service on the island, but it took me a little while longer to get any more. Photographed now are a number of the Omnicities, including some from the second batch. All photos are from Newport and Ryde thus far.

In 2002, 7 Volvo B7TLs were acquired brand new, numbered 100-6. They were principally allocated to route 7, but since the service changes they are largely found on route 2 and route 9. All wear the new Green Southern Vectis livery which suits the buses extremely well.

In 2007, all B7s gained an extra '90' to their fleet numbers, in order to make fleetnumbering of Go Ahead South fleets easier. Put simply - ex-100 + 90 = became 190. All captions have been updated.

Southern Vectis acquired 7 M-Reg Olympians in 1995. These are numbered 744-51 although there is no 747. 748 and 751 appeared in Route Rouge livery whereas the others appeared in the Island Explorer livery. Since then, all have received a refurbishment and are to undergo repaints into the new livery.

The last batch of Olympians acquired by Southern Vectis were 752-9 (R752-9GDL) that were immediately painted into the Island Explorer livery. Since then, they again have all received a repaint into Island Explorer version 2 and all are in the Green livery. In 2008/9, these were replaced by brand new Scania Omnicity double deckers and will slowly move over to Wilts & Dorset where they will replace DAF/Optare Spectras. At the time of writing, some have been retained for schools but these will be replaced soon by coaches.