The mighty US coach brand came to the UK in 2009 when First Group (one of the other big 5 bus groups in the UK) who own Greyhound in the US, launched in the UK between Portsmouth and Southampton, and London.

It’s great watching Greyhound try out all sorts of new ideas and thinking laterally about the product. They recognise the Island as a big potential market for travel up to the smoke. We met up with Alex Warner, Greyhound’s UK boss before I headed for the snow a couple of weeks ago, discussing how we could work together. Ventnor to Victoria is the idea - buy a through ticket from anywhere on the Island to London. We’re getting back together again next week to tie up some details - good news for Islanders and ‘integrated transport’…and his coaches look stunning!

It’s a fair while since i’ve blogged now, but times have been busy. Squeezed in a quick holiday at home with the family for half term before helping out our sister company Marchwood Motorways. They manage a large contract for Go South Coast (our regional business that incledes Southern Vectis) for group coach travel, and this time of year is busy with ski-ing holiday work. Each coach requires two drivers, so drivers are in high demand. A number of staff volunteer from across the region to head off to the snow, and Mr SV is one - enjoying a bit of ski-ing. Plenty of snow in the French Alps, great for ski-ing but not for driving coaches!

Anyway, we’re back now, but to about 400 emails, and the mother of all tenders to complete for IW Council this week. This contract is IW Council’s huge new contract for transporting school children from September and requires all manner of information to be provided. It’s good in that it raises the standard of competition for contracts, but the completition of the tender documentation takes many many hours of staff time.

We’re busy now with Bestival and Festival planning, and as well as being the official bus operator on the Island for both events, we are also managing direct coach travel to both events from a range of towns and cities across England and Wales.

For Festival we are already arranging buses to hire in from mainland operators to make up the number of extra drivers and vehicles we need.

We are also responsible for all coach transport for the 2011 Island Games which are being held on the Island, and are already beginning to book coach operators for this event too.

Having caught up with blogging. i’ll blog in more detail about these subjects shortly!

For January February and March we’re offering half price Rover Tickets on Sundays - Adult Child and Family. The idea is to persuade people to try our buses on a quiet day, filling up empty seats. We hope they’ll find it a great way to have a day out without the car. I like to do it myself and the kids enjoy it too. Counting sheep doesn’t always send them to sleep, but invariably works on me. Being upstairs on one of our double deckers you can see so much more of the Island. It’s amazing just how many hedges you can drive past every day in a car, oblivious to the sights that exist just behind them!

We’ve run the offer for two weeks so far and the take-up has been good. It’s a great way to take the whole family out for a tenner. Family Day Rovers cover up to 2 adults and 3 children and are just £10 on Sundays while this offer is running.

As well as the bus offer, we’ve teamed up with some of the Island’s attractions to offer half price admission.

All the details are here http://islandbuses.info/saveonsundays.shtml

If you use the offer leave a comment here on the blog and tell us how you found it!

0400hrs Thursday. It’s still dark and very cold, but we need to get moving and try and get some buses running today. Our regulars need to get to work etc. so we need to make sure that we can start running as soon as it is safe and practical to do so. We’re losing track of which day is which by now – it’s Thursday! Schools are still closed so our coaches are staying tucked up – the problem with that is that they tend to run their batteries down when unused for days on end because of the electrical equipment that runs constantly on a trickle, and they will need some oomph to get them started in clod weather. Checking they all start will be a job for later if it looks like schools will be open on Friday.

For now though, we need to check the main routes as soon as possible. This can only really be done in a bus, and the decision on whether it is safe to run has to be a careful ‘risk assessment’. There are handful of Managers and senior supervisors who undertake this task and whose decisions will determine what we can run. Our drivers are all instructed to report to either Ryde or Newport at their normal times so that we can get things moving as soon as any roads are declared okay.

Our supervisor from the school coach fleet is up but has no school coaches to run, so the two of us will be commencing trials shortly. If anything the road conditions are worse due to overnight freezing, but the Council have made a valiant effort to get the main roads open. Mr SV has driven in from Ryde, the normal route across the Downs and through the back lanes still impassable to all traffic. Newport Bus Station is like a ploughed field, with tracks iced into the snow. As the sun comes up staff will be used to clear the pavements, but the roadways will remain like it for the rest of the week!

As Mr Coach heads off to Ryde, Mr SV heads up to Cowes. These are our busiest routes and cover the biggest employers, so are our priority. The word from Ryde is that route 9 can commence, but not via Staplers. In Cowes the challenge is to find a way of turning across the town. At this stage we decide that we can do so using Granville Road – the hill down into town is still impassable. The journey back to Newport is slow, and hopeful passengers are dotted at stops along the road. We’re only route testing, but can’t leave these people behind, so soon have a few grateful passengers on board. Then a Southern Vectis yellow jacket is spotted, a member of staff (like many) setting off on foot to walk to work to get our buses moving. In this case it’s a member of our marketing team who is on duty to update the website, twitter and the media, making the long trek, but luckily now on the bus. The record for walking actually goes to one of our Customer Services team who I forgot about in part 2. We made arrangements on Tuesday to open our call centre that covers Go Ahead’s south coast bus companies at 0600 on Wednesday in case of bad weather on the mainland. Little did we know what the Island would be like on that morning. Anyway, our ex forces call centre operator left to walk from Shanklin to Newport for 0600 – now that’s dedication!

Once we pass Northwood slowly there are plenty of people in sight – mainly hospital staff walking too to get to work. Again, we can’t drive by, so before long we have a bus full of grateful people hitching a lift to St Mary’s and the town. The verdict of the trial is that we can start running a limited service to the edge of Cowes.

From Newport we’re straight off again testing the East Cowes route. Again, we’re picking up those walking early, and again our own dedicated staff hiking to work. There are still cars abandoned along the roads.

By the time we are back in Newport again the first buses are running through from Ryde, but all fifteen need to go to our Newport Depot as they come in to fuel because we still can’t get to our depot in Ryde. It’s Thursday afternoon before we can physically get buses from Ryde Bus Station to our Garage in the town.

Our Inspectors are working hard now. Normally our drivers and buses are running in a regimented fashion, swapping buses and routes according to their set routes and timetables. Today though, and indeed for the next three days, the Inspectors are having to juggle all the buses and drivers manually.

Through the afternoon, we are able to start running more services, but only in parts. We’ve managed to get the test buses through most of our routes, but our judgment is that it isn’t either safe or practicable to do so in service. Some hills are barely passable, on some there are still abandoned cars, and meeting oncoming traffic will impede buses. There’s nothing worse that having to stop half way up a slippery hill and not being able to get going again!

Ventnor is still impassable, as are the residential roads we use. By the evening icing roads have limited what we have been running again. On the whole it’s been another busy day with plenty of challenges, but at least we are now getting people around again where we can.

By tea time we know that schools are closed again on Friday, so we can head off home again. The plan for Friday is to start off running what we’ve been running today, and then once we reach daylight, to retest all the routes we have still not been able to open up.

…to be continued

Spirits are still high in the Travel Centre, where we have between 40 and fifty marooned passengers. We’ve found enough chairs for them and some are now asleep on the floor. Teas and Coffees are being served by two of our drivers, whose jokes are keeping those still awake amused.

Before we know it it’s 0700 Wednesday and it’s light. We’ve got a fair few Newport based drivers still at Ryde and vice-versa - they’ve slept there overnight too. There is no traffic moving in Newport and most of our local drivers have made it to work so far but those living outside of town are struggling through. Those who are in are all in our two staff rooms at Ryde and Newport, brewing finest bus drivers’ tea.

We still haven’t had any reports of road conditions in the South Wight and have passengers still waiting to get back to Sandown Shanklin and Wroxall (luckily none for Ventnor!). At 0700 we set off on a route test. There’s a lot of snow on the roads, but by 0800 we have visited all three areas and we decide that it’s okay to send a hardened volunteer out to repatriate the last remaining customers. As we crawl back to Newport our buses pass at walking pace in Wroxall! Back into Newport Bus Station, where it promptly starts snowing hard again. There are now no customers still with us, although there are a few hardy souls looking for buses. The Bus Station is now full of staff, suitably filled with tea, and playing pool and watching Sky TV.

We know we can’t get our school coaches out safely in Rookley Wellow Newchurch, or even from our depots at Ryde and in Cowes, so we’ve announced in all the right places taht there will be no school services running. As it happens all schools are to shut and remain closed for three days!

The snow sets in for the whole day - we’re busy keeping IW Radio updated and our website and Twitter accounts up to date, unable to run any buses in the continual snow which is building up on the roads, hopeful that when it abates and melts we’ll be able to start up services again. By 1400 we’ve bconcluded that there is no way we’ll be able to run anything for the rest of the day / night, and that’s a clear message that we can get out to the wider world. We’ve been at work for 30 hours now, so on the basis of that decision we can send our staff home for the day and get off for some sleep ourselves once we’ve sorted a few things ready for Thursday. One is a hope that w emay be able to get the 15 buses stuck in Ryde Bus Station to our garage in Park Road for fueling and cleaning and ready to roll in the morning. It’s impossible though, and they all need fuelling daily - we know that even if the snow melts we’ll need to do that before we can commence services on Thursday. Anyway, Mr SV has the cat to feed, so we’re off after a marathon day eventually at 1600.

So, it’s getting on for half eight and it’s been snowing pretty consistently for three hours, and we’re finally back in Newport Bus Station. I’ve been very honest with the customers I’ve taken back from route 8 and told them that nothing will be going anywhere until the roads are clear of gridlocked afternoon traffic and are passable.

Newport Bus Station is where we control all our buses from, and it’s good to see our other operational manager is there and in control, assisted by no fewer than three of our supervisors, the snow having arrived as two were about to go home when the late man arrived – so we’re blessed with lots of staff, all working on without a thought of going home. In fact, we aren’t able to go home now, which we’ve readily accepted. Their efforts are entirely aimed at locating those vehicles now stuck out on the road, checking their positions and status, and how many passengers they have on board. That process will continue throughout the night.

We’ve decided that nothing will run until the snow has stopped, the rush hour traffic has finally dispersed, and roads are safe for passage. I’ve told the passengers who are now holed up in the (extreme) warmth of Newport Bus Station travel centre this, and am pleased that our Route Manager has already sent out to Stotesbury’s Fish and Chip shop for food for our trapped customers. The travel office staff and two of our drivers are busy making teas and coffees and arranging for them to use the phones. So, we’re at least under control and the customers are happy and know what is going on.

While this is happening Twitter is coming into it’s own as our pretty much instant communication channel with the outside world, and we have continual contact with IW Radio, who are keeping listeners informed. Indeed, it appears that the vast majority of the Island has IW Radio on tonight!

It’s becoming clear that those buses that are still stuck out there aren’t making any progress. By 2200 there are still 15 buses stuck out there. Some are empty – passengers having got off and walked home or to friends’ houses, but some have passengers on.

I have the tally of stuck buses still ingrained in my mind now…

• One 7 at Yarmouth heading back to our Wellow base, but going no further;
• Three 7s all stuck between Shalfleet and Newport in the middle of nowhere, cars in front, behind and alongside, and on the hill in front of them;
• Three 1s in Cowes, one having slid while stationary and resting on a car in Victoria Road, 1 at the Co-op and 1 resting on the lamp post on the traffic island in the middle of Terminus Road;
• One 5 stuck in Whippingham where lorries are blocking the road
• Four 9’s between Binstead and Wootton
• One 8 unable to get up Long Lane trying to get back to Ryde
• One 38 stuck at the top of Whitepit Lane hill
• One 6 across the bottom of Whitepit Lane hill, where a driverless car has spun it across the junction.

Our priority is to get the passengers and staff back safely as soon as we can, but roads are still blocked by cars trying to get home, and the snow doesn’t stop falling for another hour or so.

It’s clear by about 2300 that we can’t just leave drivers or passengers out there on their stranded buses, so it’s time to plan a rescue mission! We’ve been on the telephone and arranged with the landlord of the Fleming Arms in Binstead to feed and water three of our drivers stuck nearby and their passengers. It’s a feature of the night that everyone we ask to help us is so obliging!

Two of the drivers in Cowes have managed to walk home, but a third is stuck there and lives in Wroxall. A call to the Fountain Hotel in Cowes reveals that they are already full with stranded people, but they very helpfully suggest the Rawlings Hotel  in the town. A call there sorts our problem – the proprietor agrees to put our driver up and feed him and do anything we need. Another top man! www.rawlings-hotel-cowes.co.uk  In the end our driver is stuck there for two days with no buses running at all on Wednesday.

We’ve managed to retrieve the bus from the bottom of Whitepit Lane in a set of moves akin to a performance of ‘holiday on ice’ and its back in the bus station with minor damage that we can repair overnight.

Our first priority is the three buses on route 7 stranded between Shalfleet and Newport. We know that they all have passengers on board, and one of them is an 86 year old lady. Just as we’re loading our by now ‘snow chained’ truck up with salt and shovels one of the three buses arrives in the bus station. The Council’s gritter has made it through and the first bus has been able to clear the abandoned cars and eventually get enough grip to get up the hill in front of him. Within the next fifteen minutes the next two arrive. The lady has been taken to our garage by her driver to warm up and her daughter is coming to fetch her, so that’s good news!

The weather is still dismal and at 0230 we finally head out towards Cowes, with three passengers in our truck dropping them off on the way. We find the three buses. One is resting on the back of a car downhill and out of harms way – we decide that one is best left until the morning. As the night goes on we also establish that the one at the top of Whitepit Lane is safe off the road, and so is the one in Yarmouth Bus Station – they too can wait until the next day.

In the centre of Cowes though, are two buses. One is sort of ‘parked’ outside the Co-op and this is retrieved with a bit of digging and some spinning of wheels, but without too much trouble. The second though is more of a challenge. It’s blocking the main highway into Cowes town centre, and is vulnerable to being hit (for a second time) by other traffic so we really need to move it. With much scraping, spinning and revving it’s simply getting nearer and nearer to a block of flats at the bottom of the hill! Eventually we manage to get it to move crab like across the road where it gets some grip. Eventually it gets enough to grip in reverse to power its way backwards up the hill for a few hundred yards to freedom!

Sincere apologies to the residents of the Terminus Road and Carvel Lane area if we woke you up!

The next stage was to head out to Ryde and East Cowes. I don’t think we’ll ever forget that drive. There is a really eerie silence, no-one to be seen and nothing moving. Everything is completely white. It reminds us of the picture painted of the day after a nuclear war! All along the roads are articulated lorries at peculiar angles, some parked up on verges, one lying at 45 degrees in a hedge, two at different angles across the Crematorium roundabout. There must be a dozen of them in total, all parked up where they finally became stuck, curtains drawn in their cabs with drivers presumably sleeping inside.

After meeting no-one and no traffic we turn off to East Cowes, and on the first incline come across a row of abandoned cars, stretching as far as the eye can see. At the bottom of Whippingham Shute though, there is a surreal change – a hive of activity - cars and lorries still queuing to get back to East Cowes, and those heading out of East Cowes stuck behind one of our buses, the two queues of traffic unable to pass each other and the abandoned cars.

Our driver has been there for seven hours and has one young lady on board heading toward Newport who he has ‘rescued’. With careful guidance and checking the stability of the verges, we are able to get the bus past a lorry and off gingerly off toward Newport.

As we head on towards Ryde, we are passed by one of our buses that has been stuck while operating route 9. Her journey, scheduled to take 35 minutes, has taken her 9 hours and 20 minutes! We’ve had a call from Newport and know that our member of staff who lives along the route has two drivers at her house, and that having served up hot drinks; she has persuaded 4×4 drivers to take all the stuck passengers home. On that basis we’re now satisfied that the only person still stuck on a bus is our driver at Quarr, whose air lines have frozen, jamming his brakes on!

We pass a bus at a funny angle in Wootton High Street, but we’ll come back for that one later as it is blocking one side of the main road and the pavement. At Fishbourne is another of our buses, but it’s parked out of the way, being kept company by a Wightbus, whose driver has made it home on one of our buses that has managed to get moving.

The other two that were stuck there have meanwhile made it to Ryde. It’s 0300 and as we come round the corner at Quarr our stranded driver immediately spots the truck. He’s out of the bus like a shot! A few tricks later and we’ve got the bus to release the breaks. It’s managed to find some grip, and Mr SV isn’t risking stopping, so it’s heading back to Newport, a bizarre drive weaving slowly around abandoned trucks and cars, including a lorry that the police are now trying to straighten up at Wootton Bridge so that traffic can pass.

From Newport we’re off again. It’s 0400 and having been to Ryde we’re happy to run our first bus there very slowly, driven by a volunteer driver who wants to get home! We follow him in the truck in case he gets stuck, but all is well. In Ryde we find 15 buses parked in the bus station filling it – the depot is inaccessible. The bus at Fishbourne has been retrieved by its driver and is at Ryde, but the one in Wootton is well and truly stuck and the driver is now sleeping on the sofa. This is another of our embarrassingly noisy recovery efforts, so apologies to the residents of Wootton too! We’re shoveling salt, digging snow and slithering around in the bus to get some grip when suddenly a ‘bus spotter’ appears to take some photos – at 0430 in the morning!!!

The bus suddenly grips, and once again we’re off back to Newport.

…to be continued

Or should it be ‘a week we won’t forget’. We knew the forecast last Tuesday evening was for snow, but no-one really expected what was to come.

We have a pretty basic plan for dealing with adverse winter weather. Snow and icy roads tend to arrive or be predicted for overnight. If our morning Inspector finds snow laying on roads at 0430 when he starts work, he has to obtain authorisation from one of three senior managers before any buses can take to the road at 0510. That normally means an early wake-up call for Mr SV, although when we have an adverse forecast managers are usually up at around 0400 to check for themselves in the areas in which they each live.

Last year snow arrived during the early morning after buses were already out on the road. This is bad news for us, with the predictable array of buses stranded on various Island hills.

Last week was far worse!!! Right in the middle of the afternoon rush hour. The only thing that could have been worse would have been if it was an hour earlier during the afternoon school run!

It’s 4pm and the phone rings. It’s raining (not even sleet so were feeling good!) but the windscreen wipers have detached themselves from one of our double deckers operating school services. It’s dropped one group of students and is on its way to Carisbrooke Schools. The depot only has two small single deckers and it’ll take both of them to accommodate all the students – can someone go and drive them while we sort out the double decker. Mr SV and one of the operational managers are off for a quick school run. Late to the school, but the staff there are kindly keeping the students informed and waiting. Give it just over an hour and we should be back at Newport garage for cuppa before we start our ‘end of day’ routine. Thats the point at which the phones stop ringing and the offices empty out – it’s a good time to get on with things in the ‘quiet’.

Little do we know what is heading toward the Island! We are only just into the school run when we encounter a blizzard of sleet. It’s not easy to drive in due to the volume, but it’s nice and wet! We make it to Sandown and consult on the road works that held us up on the way. We’re unanimous that we’ll head back ‘across the Downs’ as the quickest way. By now there’s no rain, sleet or anything at all – nice dry roads! Off we go but little more than a mile down the road we’re in a hailstorm the like we’ve not seen before. Almost immediately the roads are covered in a thick layer of hail, which then turns to snow in blizzard conditions. Luckily we just make it up ‘Bully’s Hill’, one of the Island’s severest hills, before the roads become a problem to negotiate. The snow continues unabated and cars are already strewn across junctions and on steep hills. Within half an hour we’ve got to the outskirts of Newport but are at a standstill. Or rather the other traffic is but our buses aren’t. Despite being stopped with handbrakes on, both buses are on an incline and gain a life of their own, requiring drastic maneuvering to bring them to a halt, Mr SV’s bus now being broadside across the road firmly resting its back wheels against a kerb.

In front we can see a Mercedes single decker operating route 9 with a motorcycle having slid into the front, and a double decker on route 8 stopped behind in thickening snow. The first task is to attend to the motorcyclist. Before long the ambulance service are on the scene, followed by the police. The road is now closed and none of us are going anywhere, with the snow still falling rapidly.

Eventually we’re underway again, but the 8 isn’t going to make it through the road we’ve come down. The passengers recognise that the conditions are making progress impossible, and we offer them a lift back to Newport to sit out the snowstorm. We’re only a mile or so out of town, but progress is slow, and eventually halted by attempts to allow a gritter to do its work on Snooks Hill. First the police escort is abandoned as it fails to gain any adhesion…then the gritter gets stranded sideways across the hill. It’s some while before a JCB arrives to clear the road and numerous cars are pushed out of the way.

So three and a half hours after leaving Sandown, we’re finally back in Newport, but only as far as the Bus Station. The poor passengers from the last 8 to leave Newport are now back there two hours after they left.

…to be continued

So, as 2009 comes to an end what are we up to?

One of the best things about working for Southern Vectis is that so many things happen in quick succession. With the summer season and a long list of big events, there’s never really time to stop.

The two week period spanning Christmas and New Year has been a bit of a breather this year (albeit a short one!). The timetable chnage on 20 December was well timed, clearing the decks before the festivities began, and we don’t anticipate any big changes perhaps until Whitsun now.

So most of the chiefs at Neslon Road are enjoying a couple of weeks away from the office (although most keep sneaking in to keep a check on their desks and emails!!!) which makes for a nice change. Will our quiet spell continue….not a chance!

Next week we start our preparations in earnest for IW Festival, arranging buses, coaches, staff, accomodation, ferry slots etc. Walk the Wight is already in the planning stage, and we’ve been working closely with Bestival already, expecting more detailed work in the New Year.

So here we go again - 2010 beckons!

Sunday is timetable change.  We’ve been busy for weeks now.  While nothing may look too busy on the surface, much has to happen behind the scenes when we change our timetable.  In the last eight weeks we have to produce and print the timetable booklet, get it to the Beacon to deliver across Island homes, and our customers need it two to three weeks prior to it starting.  That used to be a real struggle, but we’re much better at organising it nowadays.  The school bus guide for schoolday routes doesn’t change until schools are back in January, but with schools finishing today we were keen to get it to schools earlier this week.  Our leaflet explaining the changes has also been out for about three weeks.  All good stuff!

With around 1200 timetables at all our bus stops, we’ve been busy creating the new versions, printing them off and laminating them.  Tomorrow 18 staff will be busy (and no doubt cold) changing all of them across the Island.

We’ve spent the last week changing a host of bus stop plates too, those where there are changes to route numbers and end destinations.  They we all made by our suppliers (recycling surplus stops from previous changes!) a week or so ago.  There are still some to change but the important ones, where the information would be really confusing, have been changed.  There are a few locations where buses will no longer call and today and tomorrow the bus stops have been removed in these places.

Ryde Bus station needs some signage changed and this needs to be done overnight betweeen Saturday and Sunday.  It’s all ready and prepared but will mean overnight work for our contractors.

Next week we’ll be following up the change by starting to update any further bus stops signs, but also by replacing our standard bus stop signs with different ones to denote stops only used by buses on school days.  The first few are up already.

Aside from all that which is visible, our traffic team have been flat out producing the new rotas and the daily work duties for our drivers.

We’re off to an early start for the two busiest 2010 events on the Island. We usually don’t get too organised until the New Year, but this year we have been working with both event organistaions much earlier.

I’ve already blogged about Bestival, and behind the scenes we’ve been busy discussing new proposals and ideas for easing the pressure on travel from the mainland through to the site and back again. Bestival certainly ‘came of age’ in 2009 from a transport point of view, and for 2010 we need to really change up a gear to manage the transport on the same scale as IW Festival. With the numbers now travelling, ther is now a need for significant infrastructure which there hasn’t been before, and for much more pre planning.

Festival has been at that level for the last couple of years now, but we’ve been spending some time looking afresh at what we do to see if we can offer better transport solutions for those attanding the event. From a discussion with Festival we’ve grown our input into that event too, and for 2010 we will not only be the official bus operator, but also the official UK coach operator. With Festival tickets already on sale we’ve geared ourselves up early, and we are already advertising and selling coach travel to the event alongside our usual on Island shuttle buses on our website.

We’re also looking at a park and ride facility situated right by the side of the M25, with buses bringing people direct from there straight to the Festival campsite - no changes, no queueing, straight across to the event with the bus travelling on the boat. That one should follow shortly onto the website.