The Island’s troubled Floating Bridge will again be out of service from 08:00 tomorrow (Monday) for maintenance.
The news comes after it was returned to service on 15th August following 5 weeks of inactivity following a technical software and programming system failure, as previously reported by Island Echo.
In a statement on social media, the Isle of Wight Council has said:
“On Monday 11th September, the floating bridge will be out of service from 08:00 for maintenance.
”The work is expected to take most of the day.
”There will be a replacement passenger launch service for foot passengers and cyclists between Cowes and East Cowes.
”We apologise for any inconvenience caused.”
UPDATE @ 11:50 – The floating bridge was back in service at 11:00.
Scrap it, stop wasting money.
For heavens sake end this disgusting farce, the council have not provided a reliable service since this abortion was built and just keep happily throwing hundreds of thousands of taxpayers money down the pan, it makes no difference how much they spend it will never work as it was badly designed, badly built and totally unsuited to the work it was expected to do, the idiots in the council ignored 2 reports from the marine department of Southampton University which warned of this and specifically said it was too big.
Reg I have now wrote to the goverment and also I.O.W counci to request full information and transparency on the contract of this floating wight elephant which should be removed an placed outside of the I.O.W council in Newport ,i have now received a letter from the I.O.W counci stating dated 24th August 2023 there might be a fee of £450 paid for the freedom of information act i also stated that I.O..W C had no authority to give to the boat buiders and designers,a non disclosure aggreement ,the Ombudsman advise me to take the above rougt ..
Surely the best time to do the maintenance is when the floating bridge is out of action, not when the bridge is actually working.
Quite right ST, but didnt they say that maintenance would be carried out during the software debacle. So they tell lies
Don’t be silly it doesn’t work like that….
the maintanance should have been carried out when it was out of action for 6 Weeks , I.O.W Council states that maintanance repairs was needed ,in my opinion this is an excuse not to disclose the full reason for once again out of action of this white Elephant ..
I heard there was a shortage of software, or was it soft toilet paper?
Correct me if I’m wrong , but we were assured all maintenance that was needed was undertaken during the last five week outage ?
How you are correct but it was an IWC statement !! And they are worthless !!
It is like a rolling advertisement for the public sector – a pinnacle of civil service excellence in all its glory.
Why not di it during the night,less inconvenience to passengers.
Bet the jenny owner is laughing all the way to the bank ,…..
And we are paying for it !!!
Just scrap the crossing altogether ….
Not that far to drive !!!!!
or even a fixed link ,the I.O.W Council would not give planning permision , because they will lose revenue at the taxpayers expence after all theres one at Yarmouth ,
Software and programming system failure ??….for god sake, its not the QE2……that thing should be manually operated, better still, scrap the thing….
For that distance you could peddle it !! haha.
A waste of time and money, hasn’t worked properly and for any sustained period of time since I moved here, more than 26yrs ago!!
It’s a flippin’ JOKE!! and costs have gotten STUPID!!
The current, unreliable, bridge was only installed in 2017, before that the service was far more reliable, as it has been since 1859, so to say that it has not worked properly for 26 years is not correct.
Why can it not be fixed over night?
Travelling from Northern Ireland by flight to visit family leaving at 4.00am and needing to get to (West) Cowes to pick up hire car and intended to come over on ferry to relax for an hour and to be thwarted at the very end. Wife is in wheelchair so cant use jenny boat. Bill a taxi to an inept council?
They are shit and don’t care.
If any employee took as many sick days as this thing, that employee would be dismissed and put on the employment scrapheap.
….. unless that employee knew something that could be very embarrassing for the Council, of course …
Maintenance so that obviously couldn’t be done when the turd was out for weeks ..
40 minutes per crossing now! Quicker to go to Southampton on the red jet.
They can’t scrap it until the brown envelopes stop