Yarmouth bus station
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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.
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[edit] History
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[edit] 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.
[edit] Layout
There are only three stands required for regular bus services. Stand A 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 A is the shelter and office described above. To the west of stand A and south of the shelter lies Stand B. Both stands A and B resemble normal bus stops, in that the vehicle will stop parallel with the kerb.
Stand C is to the west of stand B, and is of a different design. This stand is similar to those seen at other locations such as Guildford, Bathor Bristol Bus Stations or Victoria Coach Station, 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.
Beyond Stand C there are further stands of the same 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.
[edit] Current Bus Services
Southern Vectis operate regular buses to Yarmouth. Circular bus route 7 serves stand B towards Totland, Alum Bay, Freshwater, Brighstone and (eventually) Newport and stand C 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.[1]
Passengers intending to travel to stops on the section of route 7 from Freshwater Bay to Shorwell may sometimes be able to complete their journey in less time by taking "The Needles Tour" (see below) as far as Freshwater Bay, and changing there.
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 and Fort Victoria[2]. This route previously carried the number 42. There are also two additional once-a-day routes, run by the open-top buses on their way to/from the depot in Newport.
[edit] 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.
[edit] See also
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