Mellors To The Mainland | City Bus Manager | South Coast

Over the last few weeks we've been reorganising the town services in Cowes and Ryde, giving their routes a small refresh and replacing their Mellor Strata minibuses with some slightly more roomy Enviro200 MMCs. The undersized buses aren't going to be sold off, scrapped, or left to sit idle at the garage in Newport, though. In fact several of them already have new allocations on the island connecting villages and other smaller communities with nearby towns at much lower but still dependable frequencies. This week we'll be sending off the first set of the Stratas bound for the Mainland. They'll be ending up at the [SP] garage in Salisbury, alongside the fleet of 50 electric Wright StreetAirs used on the Spark network of local services in the city. The Stratas in Salisbury have a rather similar future ahead as the ones that remain on the island, connecting villages and small communities with nearby towns and infrastructure. Their first allocations will take the form of the 555 and 557. The 555 runs from Salisbury Station to Sixpenny Handley via the City Centre & Hospital, Odstock, Combe Bissett, Bishopstone, Broad Chalke, and Bowerchalke. The 557 operates from Salisbury Station out to Dean Station via the City Centre, Alderbury, West & East Grimstead, Farley, West & Middle Winterslow, and West Dean. To advertise these slim but vital connections, the Stratas will receive a striking livery with "Villager" branding. Gone are the strakes and morse code, replaced by a capital V supergraphic and slogans.