On 6th June, I visited West Wight for the first time in over five years, as I wanted to get some of those famous Needles Tour shots for myself! Advertised as one of the most spectacular bus rides in Britain, the Needles Tour is operated by Southern Vectis' two remaining K reg Olympians - K742ODL and K743ODL - at a frequency of every 30 mins.
The Needles Tour travels out on the bus only road/footpath down to the Needles Battery from Alum Bay. On a gloriously sunny day, such as the 6th June, fantastic photos were on offer, such as this view of 643 (K743ODL).
642 (K742ODL) is pictured here heading for The Needles, at present in Alum Bay. These Olympians are the only motorised vehicles allowed along the road to The Needles. There is a new feeder service - route 21 - which brings the buses from Newport to Yarmouth to begin operation of the tour each morning.
Southern Vectis operated 9 Leyland Olympians with K-registrations from new. The other 7 are now with Wilts & Dorset across the solent - a number are allocated at Lymington depot. Therefore, you can photograph these two in Yarmouth, travel across on the ferry, and then photograph more of the same batch! 643 is pictured in this view.For an individual traveller, I thought Southern Vectis offered great value. For my £5 day rider (half price due to student discount), I sampled:
* Scania 1143 from Ryde esplanade to Ryde St Johns Church
* Scania 1146 from Ryde esplanade to Newport bus station
* Scania 1142 from Newport bus station to Alum Bay
* Volvo Olympian 643 from Alum Bay to Yarmouth
* Scania 1117 from Yarmouth to Newport
* Scania 1145 from Newport to Ryde
Excellent value! Thank you Southern Vectis.
A slightly "picky" point. The Needles road is not "bus only"; it is available for residents' access to numerous cottages on the headland, and, of course, for staff access to the Needles Battery. You are probably more likely to be run over by a "grockle" on holiday, than by an OT gallanty "going ahead"
ReplyDeleteI never knew that - thank you for the clarification :-)
ReplyDeleteThe only thing that would bring me back to IoW as a foot passenger for a day on the buses is the reinstatement of something like that 7A(?) orbital which ran all day around the island as a proper stage service. Picky I may be, but an itinerary which requires two visits to Newport simply has no romance!
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