Foot passengers travelling on Wightlink’s FastCat between Portsmouth Harbour and Ryde Pier will be using automatic entrance gates at both ports by early May. The gates will also accept electronic through-tickets for customers combining cross-Solent travel with rail journeys, as previously reported by Island Echo. Once customers have passed through the electronic gates, they will be able to relax in the passenger lounge until their FastCat is ready for boarding. Port staff will be around to support and advise customers during and after the installation of the gates. Wightlink has invested half a million pounds in the technology at its terminals to make foot passenger journeys easier and provide a direct link to rail ticketing systems. The gates will be able to recognise rail tickets with barcodes or QR codes as well as Wightlink paper tickets, passes and online tickets on smartphones. Customers using rail tickets with magnetic strips will need them to be scanned manually by port staff as will adults travelling with children. Wightlink Chief Executive Keith Greenfield says:
“We are always looking at how to improve how our customers travel through our ports and these gates will make it easier for people with a combined rail and FastCat e-ticket.”
How long until they break down. Not long I suspect.
They’ll probably be more reliable than the boats in fairness.
Has anyone thought that it’s just more electronic systems that need maintenance and will go wrong and won’t actually replace a person who can greet you with a smile.
the ones at portsmouth harbour are usually open, as they cannot accept the wightlink tickets (or hovertravels if they are cancelled) – I doubt that the ones at wightlink will take the train or hovers tickets either – so it will mean staff there anyway
All they need to do now is run a reliable service to a timetable!
And cheaper fares.
Another opportunity for breakdowns and subsequent delays, put a person on the gate.
Just another excuse to increase profits by cutting staff and further lowering the quality of the service. Having fleeced the travelling public by about as much as they think that they can get away with, they have now turned on their staff to save money.
What, a bit like the supermarkets slowly cutting down on manned tills to save money (certainly not for your convienience) but I dont see anybody whining about that but lets all take another cheap shot at a ferry company
Totally agree… another way of cutting back on staff and saving wages. They put in machines and passengers do the work for them
Prices will go up yet again no doubt