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.

January February and March are our quietest months. We think there’s a good opportunity to get extra people out on our buses on Sundays, so for these three months we’re introducing a special offer.

Every Sunday during January, February and march, we’ll be selling our Adult Family and child 24hr Rover tickets for half price - thats £10 for a family (up to 2 adults and 3 children), £5 for an adult and £2.50 for a child.

We’ll be trying to persuade people not to take the car out for a Sunday drive, but to jump on a bus instead and enjoy the views and cut their CO2 emissions.

Keep an eye out on the website for further information.

We are involved with a lot of organisations and groups on the Island. ‘Green Tank’ is one of those www.greentank.co.uk - these are excellent forums to meet people who share our aims and principles, and we have built partnerships through them - a fair few of them are leading to real initiatives.

Anyway, out of Green Tank came an invitation to a Friends of the Earth screening of ‘The Age of Stupid’ last night at the Quay Arts Centre. Quay Arts is a lovely place - including the popular cafe on the edge of the river/quay at Newport.

Back to the film - really thought provoking stuff - everyone should watch it!!!