Southern Vectis route 4

Southern Vectis route 4 is a bus service operated on the Isle of Wight by Southern Vectis between Ryde and East Cowes via Haylands, Binstead, Wootton Bridge, Whippingham and Osborne House. The general daytime frequency of the route is every 30 minutes in each direction. The route used to be operated by Mercedes-Benz Citaro bus 480 allocated to the route, with route 4 branding but this was later transferred to Go-Ahead North. It is the only main bus route run by Southern Vectis not to serve Newport, the hub of the island's bus network.

History
Route 4 itself was run before the 2006 network change with single deck buses in the old oxford blue with striped livery, which in 2005 changed to a lime green livery with flying triangles, resembling the old Southern Vectis logo.

Routes 4 and 5 have previously been marketed as The Victoria Line. By the summer of 2003 the Victoria Line branding had been dropped.

Little has changed on the route the bus takes, it running East Cowes to Ryde for most of its history, indeed the present routes 4 and 5 are the only Southern Vectis routes to remain as they were in the 1960s. From the network change of April 2006, the service ran from East Cowes, via Binstead Estate and Haylands to Ryde, then on to Seaview and Nettlestone. From the timetable change on 1 October 2006, it was re-routed to no longer serve Haylands and to travel directly to Ryde from Binstead Estate, cutting a large amount off the overall journey time. A new route 15 was created to serve the Haylands area. New route 16 also replaced the leg to Seaview.

However, with a cut in subsidy paid to Southern Vectis for free travel,  it was decided that from 16 March 2008, route 15 would be amalgamated with route 29, then operated by Southern Vectis, which was then remerged into route 4 again from 20 April 2008., meaning buses served both Haylands and Binstead Estate. The route stopped serving the Red Funnel ferry terminal from 16 March 2008.

However in November 2008 Southern Vectis announced that due to this, the journey time from Ryde to East Cowes was once again increased. This apparently damaged the end to end traffic on the route, made by full-fare paying customers, resulting in the route significantly under performing. This therefore caused a complete service cut to the Haylands and Binstead Estate area, as well as Hefford Road in East Cowes, with a replacement limited coach service run with a Moss Motors vehicle from Ryde to Binstead Estate and Haylands.

Despite the cut in journey time from not serving the Haylands and Binstead Estate areas and the cost of running the route being reduced, the Isle of Wight Council are continuing to reduce the amount paid to Southern Vectis for free travel. From the timetable change on 30 August 2009, the frequency was reduced to hourly during the day, only remaining at half-hourly during peak times. From the timetable change of 20 December 2009, the whole service was reduced to hourly.

Another result of the December 2009 network changes was that route 9 became operated by double deckers, with the seven Citaros new to Southern Vectis transferred to Bluestar. The two Citaros that were transferred to Southern Vectis in early 2009, bus 480 has gained route branding for service 4 this used to operate the route but now transferred to Go-Ahead's Northern Operations. The route is now operated usually by Scania Omnicities,but sometimes changes to Scania Omnidekkas, and a Dennis Dart SLF.

During 2010 the bus stop for Route 4 situated at the Umbrella Tree on York Avenue, was moved to coincide with the new Waitrose development taking place in Well Rd. The bus stop was then latterly moved further away from the development on Well Road now situated near St.James Church in East Cowes. This now has moved back to outside Waitrose now that the building works have finished.

Services
An hourly service is operated in each direction during the daytime. There is no late evening service with the last bus from East Cowes at 1909. A Sunday service is run with an hourly daytime frequency.