The troubled Cowes Floating Bridge is expected to make a return to service on Monday 20th December, the Isle of Wight Council has announced.
A final inspection by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency has been booked in to confirm the floating bridge is fit to return to service after a period of repairs and modifications to the prows and ramps.
It is hoped that Floating Bridge No.6 will start work again at 05:00 on the 20th having been out of action since August.
Final works to make the floating bridge ready for its return to regular service carrying foot passengers and vehicles between Cowes and East Cowes are now underway. This includes Training for all floating bridge staff, which will be conducted next week (13th-17th December).
The vessel will be seen making crossings before full service is resumed, and in the meantime, the passenger launch will continue to be available during scheduled hours.
Councillor Phil Jordan said:
“I am glad that the final MCA inspection is coming up, which we expect to confirm that the floating bridge is ready to return to work.
“People in the area will see the vessel making trial crossings and operating the prows as we undertake refresher training with the staff and run through changes to operational systems.
Article continues below this advertisement “We’re wasting no time to get the training and other essential works done, so the service can start up again next Monday 20th.
“We had hoped to have the floating bridge back in service this week, but because of delays in delivering some parts, the MCA inspection was in turn delayed which means we’ll be returning the vessel to work a week later than anticipated.”
Note no mention of the year so assume 2022, subject to the tide being in the right direction and the wind speed not exceeding 0.5 KTS max gust.
Wow 1st they said the 13th Dec now the 20th Dec ??????,
Will wait with baited breath (not)…..
Scrap it before we the taxpayers waste anymore of our hard earned cash !!!!!!!!
Saves you having to apologise constantly as well !!!!!!!!
Win win I feel ……
It would be interesting to see how many operational hours this fiasco of immense proportions has actually run for this year and how many it should have run if it was fit for purpose. Also how much of our money has been spent on the cross river launch. Any mathematicians out there clever enough to work out one or both of these?
I expect!! it was worked out that the fares covered the costs of the launches.
I heard the launch costs a £1000 pound a month
This year?
Debatable!
And the sick joke just goes on and on, its ok because it is only council tax payers money and they don’t matter.
So very true!
Lol. It was never off for so long under the other lot. The so called Alliance are no longer bitching and whinging now they have responsibility. If the crews have to be retrained, who is going to train them?
Amazing how they get it to run, just in time for Christmas…. Next time will be Easter, then the Festival… then on and off for the run up to next Christmas…
Place your bets now , lol
I wonder how much this Cost to fix how long was it out of service and loss of income probably we will never find out because it’s too shocking
How much has been spent on this joke now? Not to mention the £800,000 they are spending on a new website
The iwight website is appalling. And the Planning Portal by ‘idox’ is totally unusable. How much does idox get paid for their garbage?
I give it a hour before it breaks down !!!!!!
That long?
You optimist 😉
I saw the OLD CHUGGY along side Camper Nicholsons in Gosport yesterday
Be better to get that back over and returned to service !!
An Inspection by the MCA has been “booked in”, so the assumption is that the various modifications will be passed and the Floating Bridge No. 6 will return to service.
How about the lack of service from August to December this year ? Please don’t make a big issue about a possible return to service, but take some responsibility for the lack of service, incredibly high costs being expended and still no sign of an effective solution to provide a reliable service to the community. An attempt to resolve the design issue on the hydraulic rams have been attempted, but have the Council resolved how this bloated design will work against the tides ?
PIGS WILL FLY? lets see how long this will last .i know one thing i will not waste any more of my Council tax in 2022 on this floating elephant , lets see also if this council TRIES TO RECOUP their losses ,by increasing the 30 second trip .if it breaks down again it should be paraded outside the Council Offices as a rememberance of their achievement
At least you are reporting when it is running and not when it isn’t.
Pulled by reindeer no doubt.
Let’s hope it lasts the day before you know what