Southern Vectis route 8

Southern Vectis route 8 is a bus service operated on the Isle of Wight by Southern Vectis between Newport and Ryde. The route travels via Pan Estate, Robin Hill, Arreton, Winford, Lake, Sandown, Yaverland, Bembridge, St Helens, Nettlestone, Seaview and Pondwell. The general daytime frequency of the route is every hour each direction. Double-decker buses are normally used to operate the route.

There are several points of tourist interest along the route, including Robin Hill, Amazon World, Isle of Wight Zoo, Dinosaur Isle and Whitecliff Bay

Route 8 before April 2006
For many years until 1992 service 8 ran between Ryde and Shanklin via Bembridge. In latter years it was extended to Godshill and then variously on to Newport, or back to Ryde via Robin Hill and Havenstreet. In 1993 service 8 was continued as a summer-only service via Robin Hill, but thereafter was assigned to the Haylands-Ryde-Seaview route. For 1999 only this was extended to Newport via Wootton New Road and Fairlee along the route of former service 10.

By 2001, changes to a road layout in Havenstreet forced Island Explorer route 7 and 7A to be diverted between Newport and Ryde via Wootton, over the route of Service 1. This is turn caused route 1 to be diverted between the two towns via Fairlee over the route of service 8. Route 8 was therefore withdrawn between Ryde and Newport, but was extended to Ryde Tesco, reverting to being a local service between there and Seaview via the town centre, run with single deck buses in the Oxford Blue and stripes "squiggly lines" livery.

It was only after the network revision in 2006 when the route number was moved to part of its current route (Newport to Sandown), taking on some of the old route 2B previously operating under the Route Rouge branding. The previous route 8 is now restored partly to run between Ryde to Seaview. Route 3 now serves the Tesco store.

April 2006 - December 2009
When the route first started operation in April 2006 between Newport and Sandown, Newport bus station was still being redeveloped, so buses departed from Newport's temporary Litten Park bus stands, along with most other Southern Vectis bus routes. Once the bus station was completed and in full operation, it began to depart from stand A.

Nightbuses were run hourly on route 8 as service N8 on Friday and Saturday nights until 30 September 2007, when 24-hour buses were introduced and the last bus was at 01:00 from Sandown and 00:35 from Newport. With a drop in local government subsidy, the route suffered slightly losing some early morning journeys and its last bus in each direction.

On reaching Sandown, every other bus used to turn into a route 22 and continued to serve Perowne Way and Shanklin, which removed the need for Southern Vectis to send a dedicated bus to the area to operate the service. However from 30 August 2009, due to a significant cut in payments for concessionary travel by the Isle of Wight Council, the route was withdrawn from Southern Vectis' network and taken over by Wightbus.

Current route
From 20 December 2009, as part of further cost-cutting measures the route was amalgamated with route 10 and was extended through Yaverland and Bembridge. From here it now continues to St Helens and then via Nettlestone and Seaview to Ryde on the former route 16, similar to the route run by Southern Vectis between 2001 and 2006 numbered 8. Previously for many years, ending in 1996 route 8 ran from Ryde to Shanklin via Pondwell, Nettlestone and Bembridge, so the latest changes in some measure restore this former route 8 in its Ryde to Lake section. Until September 2010 the route ran at a half-hourly frequency, with the route just described alternating with one that ran via Tesco Store and Oakfield between St Helens and Ryde.



The precise routing of the section from Bembridge to Seaview has lately been the cause of some controversy, with local residents in two areas wanting to have the service run through their locality. The problem initially started when the former route 16 was extended to Bembridge and buses ceased to travel through Pondwell, instead leaving Ryde and travelling along Seaview Duver. Local residents stated that it was too far to walk to the nearest bus stop the service then served from Pondwell. When route 8 took over the routing buses were once again re-routed to include Pondwell on the journey through to Seaview. However this then meant Seaview Duver was left without a service. As well as local residents losing out, businesses too became worried about the loss of custom the changes could result in. Although residents have said their preferred option would be to alternate the route between the two locations, operations manager Marc Morgan-Huws has stated this would not be commercially viable, and it would further complicate the routing variants.

Since the start of the amended route, the 8 hasn't served the centre of Seaview. The 16 was run with short single-deckers, whereas the 8 needs double-deckers to cope with loadings elsewhere on the route. As a result, after Southern Vectis agreed with the Isle of Wight Council the new routing for the service around Seaview, the council was meant to paint yellow lines at the junction of Church Street and Madeira Road. However, this still has not happened, and buses only travel as far as Somerset Road, missing out the central Seaview stop in Ryde Road.

A short-term diversion on the route occurred from 26 January to 30 June 2010. Furrlongs in Pan Estate was closed, meaning buses could not serve the area. The diversion for route 8 was Coppins Bridge, Snooks Hill and Staplers Road to rejoin the normal route, which operated in both directions. Over February and March 2010, numerous sets of roadworks along the length of service 8, including at Apse Heath and Whitecliff Bay, caused delays and affected reliability of the service.

From 5 September 2010, the general daytime frequency of the route was reduced from half-hourly to hourly as part of cost-cutting measures as part of reductions in payments for unprofitable routes by the Isle of Wight Council, with route revisions as described above.

As part of the 23 October 2011 timetable changes, the route 8 was significantly retimed to improve reliability. Buses had 10 minutes extra running time in both directions and extra layover time at Ryde, Sandown and Newport.