Yarmouth bus station

Yarmouth Bus Station
Location
Locale	Yarmouth
Local authority	Isle of Wight
Operation
Managed by	Isle of Wight Council
No. of stands	3
Operators	Southern Vectis
Travel centre	Yes (Summer only)
Rail connection	Ferry connection for Lymington Pier railway station on mainland.

The plant display promoting the Needles Tour.

Yarmouth Bus Station is a facility for buses and coaches to wait for passengers in the town of Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight. It is conveniently located next to the Lymington ferry terminal allowing passengers arriving from and departing for the UK's mainland to transfer from one mode of transport to the other with ease. The main provider of services is the island-based Southern Vectis.

Facilities

There is one main building, containing an unheated waiting room and a Southern Vectis information office, which is usually only staffed in the summer. Outside the office there usually stands a planter in the fashion of the open-top bus to the Needles Battery. Unless the office is staffed, tickets for travel may only be purchased on boarding the bus or from the local PayPoint shop. The bus stands are completely exposed, the only shelter being in the main building.

There are no toilet facilities available at the bus station, but there is a public toilet building nearby as well as toilets in the Wightlink ferry terminal and an board their ships.

Layout

There are only three stands required for regular bus services. Stand 1 is at the eastern end of the bus station, near the roundabout onto the main A3054 road. Adjacent to and to the north of Stand 1 is the shelter and office described above. To the west of stand 1 and south of the shelter lies Stand 2. Both stands 1 and 2 resemble normal bus stops, in that the vehicle will stop parallel with the kerb.

Stand 3 is to the west of stand 2, and is of a different design. This stand is similar to those seen at other locations such as Guildford, Bath or Bristol bus stations, a saw-tooth design whereby the bus parks at an angle to the nominal line of the kerb, with the passengers stepping directly onto a projecting section of pavement. The bus then reverses off the stand to leave. However, in practise, when the bus station is empty, buses will just pull up to the end of stand 2 to avoid having to reverse. This is a more common occurrence now that route 7's timetable has been amened and buses aren't in the bus station at the same time.

Beyond Stand 3 there are further stands of the same saw-tooth design - these are not used by scheduled services but instead are available for touring coaches to lay over in while their passengers visit the town centre, or while waiting to board the ferry.

Current bus services

Southern Vectis operate regular buses to Yarmouth. Circular bus route 7 serves stand 2 towards Freshwater, Totland, Alum Bay, Brighstone and then on to Newport with stand 3 in the opposite direction for the much shorter journey to Newport via either Shalfleet or Calbourne. It is possible to go either way to reach any destination on the route, although the journey time is significantly increased for any destination beyond Newport.

In the Spring and Summer, Southern Vectis also operate an open top bus route called The Needles Tour which runs through Freshwater Bay to Alum Bay and onto the The Needles down a bus only road along the cliff edge; returning to Yarmouth via Totland. This route previously carried the number 42. From 2009, the Summer Island Coaster service has been extended to serve Yarmouth bus station on some of its services. Passengers intending to travel to stops on the section of route 7 from Freshwater to Shorwell may sometimes be able to complete their journey in less time by taking The Needles Tour as far as Freshwater Bay, and changing there.

Route 11 also served Yarmouth bus station, after being re-routed to serve Yarmouth after Freshwater and Totland from 1 September 2008. It provided a service along the "middle road" (running via Calbourne) to Newport every hour. From 30 August 2009, route 7 and 11 were revised, with route 11 truncated to provide a quicker journey and avoid looping around and double-running various parts of Freshwater; route 7 was diverted to serve some of the areas route 11 dropped. However, route 11 was withdrawn from 20 December 2009.

Route table

This table is correct as of the timetable revision of 20 December 2009.

Note: Colours represented appear on the Southern Vectis network map, but not the vehicles themselves.

	No.	To	Via	Departure stand	Freq	Other notes
	7	Newport	Shalfleet or Calbourne, Carisbrooke	Stand 3	60	Circular service in both directions. From Yarmouth, the quickest service to Newport is on the Shalfleet or Calbourne leg. When buses reach Newport, they continue around the opposite side of the loop.
			Freshwater, Totland, Alum Bay, Totland, Freshwater, Brighstone, Carisbrooke	Stand 2	60
	NT	Yarmouth	Freshwater Bay, Alum Bay, The Needles Old Battery, Alum Bay, Totland	Stand 1	30	The Needles Tour: Circular open-top summer service in direction shown only

Around the Island

Previous to the Southern Vectis network change of 2006, it was possible to take what was then numbered service 7 all the way around the island - this is no longer possible without changing buses, primarily at Alum Bay or Freshwater Bay (onto the 'Island Coaster' service), Ryde (onto buses to Newport) and Newport (buses back to Yarmouth). It is possible to do this in either direction, but at present (April 2008) it is almost impossible to do the entire journey in one day, as there are only 2 buses between Alum Bay and Ryde via Blackgang and these only during the Summer Timetable.

Yarmouth Ferry Terminal

Immediately adjacent to the bus station is the ferry terminal, operated by Wightlink on its route between Yarmouth and the town of Lymington in Hampshire. Unlike on Wightlink's services to Ryde, which connect directly with Island Line Trains, there is no through rail ticket available from Lymington.

Preceding port		Ferry Service		Following port
Lymington Pier		Wightlink (Ferry)		Terminus

See also

• List of Southern Vectis bus routes
• Island Breezers