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.

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