OnTheWight always welcomes a Letter to the Editor to share with our readers – unsurprisingly they don’t always reflect the views of this publication. If you have something you’d like to share, get in touch and of course, your considered comments are welcome below.
This from Grahame Lelliot, Lancing, West Sussex. Ed
I was very much aware that the Isle of Wight Festival was taking place between the 20th and 23rd June however I didn’t realise how much of an impact it would cause in ruining our family day out.
With Southern Vectis laying on special festival buses, charging a £9.50 adult fare from any port or any other location on the Island, it came as no surprise that many festival goers were boycotting these special festival services and opting for the regular bus service routes which currently operate the government funded £2 single journey price cap scheme.
90% of passengers were festival-goers
Naturally those festival goers have the right to travel on a normal service, they are after all fellow fare paying passengers. However, our number 9 from Ryde Esplanade was seriously overcrowded (and I would say illegally) with approximately 90% of the passengers being festival goers.
It was therefore seriously unfair, when special festival services had been provided, for all those Islanders and tourists to see the bus sail past their stop because there was no further space left. This was even more frustrating when seeing that the festival services were nowhere near as busy as the standard service bus we were on.
Foul language from inebriated lager fuelled pillocks
Myself, my mother and my two young children, were however treated to lots of entertainment and foul language from inebriated lager fuelled pillocks.
One of them was very cleverly using the USB charger port on the back of a seat to open his mates beer bottles which I thought was pretty neat until several passengers were covered in lager from an erupting bottle.
Bottle caps thrown at passengers’ heads
Fortunately the festival goer behind who had passed out due to having too much to drink hadn’t noticed. Another was impressing us with his throwing skills, throwing the bottle caps at passengers heads.
That was probably the highlight of the journey until it came to getting off at our stop where we found the steps and lower deck of the double decker bus were completely packed with standing people which made getting off the bus even more of an experience.
Use your brains
So, in a nutshell it would seem as though the management at Southern Vectis may well have lost the plot in thinking festival goers would use the special services that they provided.
Surely anyone with a brain would know that in order to get someone to use it, a special bus service would need to be beneficial to the customer, instead of being severely unattractive knowing there is cheaper alternative service.
