Southern Vectis "Vectis" is the Roman name for the Isle of Wight. The buses were built by the London bus body builder, Christopher Dodson. In 1929, the company was purchased by Southern Railway and was incorporated as "The Southern Vectis Omnibus Company Limited". In 1948, Southern Railway was nationalised and then in 1969, Southern Vectis became part of the National Bus Company. In 1986, with deregulation after the passing of the Transport Act 1985, the business was sold in a management buy out. Five new operators entered the market on the Isle of Wight. In 1987, Southern Vectis started Badger Vectis in
Southern Vectis of the contract, the general public were not able to use these services. In 2009, Southern Vectis operated fifteen standard bus services, the most frequent being route 1, running every 7–8 minutes. Night buses ran on some routes on Friday and Saturday nights: Southern Vectis's "Open Top Tours" (orange and yellow livery) ran two circular summer routes to tourist destinations. In 2007, "Open top Tours" was rebranded to "Island Breezers" (yellow and blue livery). Other open-top tours operated by Southern Vectis included "The Needles Breezer", "The Downs Breezer", "The Sandown Bay Breezer" (finished 2012). In 2007, an "Island Coaster" service