Following a period of cancellations due to adverse weather and technical issues, Hovertravel has announced this afternoon (Wednesday) that it has had to suspend its operation once again due to further technical issues.
Hovertravel says that an update will be provided at 18:00 this evening, suggesting that they anticipate the service to remain suspended throughout this afternoon and through the busy commuter period. This indicates a significant issue and not one that can be quickly fixed.
It’s thought that the service has been reliant on just 1 craft (with the other in for maintenance work) which has now failed, bringing the service to a halt.
In the past 3 weeks alone Hovertravel’s service has been suspended at least 10 times – 3 times because of technical issues and 7 due to adverse weather. Today’s technical issue takes that figure to 11 suspensions, of which 4 have been technical.
This latest disruption comes at a really bad time for cross-Solent passengers due to Wightlink’s Fastcat also being out of action after hitting a log. A charter boat is operating the Ryde Pier Head-Portsmouth route today and potentially for some time. With this in mind, travellers should expect significant delays due to higher passenger numbers and a slower crossing time.
Hovertravel has confirmed tickets are being accepted on Wightlink’s Fastcat.
UPDATE @ 17:33 – Hover services are to resume at 17:45 from Ryde and 18:00 from Southsea.
Again, this seems like it is every day for ages – what is wrong with those hovers.
This is a prime example of how to destroy your customers faith in your product – either they sort it and run a reliable service or the era of Hovercraft services from the island will cease, due to customers going elsewhere.
Elsewhere really, do you mean the Cat or a Car ferry, The lot of them are unreliable, when the Cat is off people go to the hover, same the other way round. Not one of them is offering a reliable service, just like the train and floating bridge, same story, either no staff or damaged in some way.
Oh? Really?
And where do you think they will go? Wightlink with their hourly stops-at-8:20pm service which is just as prone to breakdowns (probably more so)?
You don’t need your customers to have faith in you if there are no better options.
What a world we live in, kit the great Victorian engineers still works.
Is there no overseeing authority which could discourage both Hovertravel and Wightlink from taking half their fleets out of service for scheduled maintenance at the same time?
No.
All three ferry companies are private enterprises and can operate however they wish. Non of them operate under a licence requiring a level of public service and none of them receive any subsidies for running unprofitable crossings.
If they all decided to simultaneously suspend services for an entire month, they can.
And there is nothing anyone can do about it.
This is what you get when you elect a capitalist government who allow big business to run the country.
Like any machine, the odd breakdown is to be expected but repeated issues point to one of two things: substandard components used during manufacture or the basic design of the craft (or parts of it) being flawed. The former can be sorted out over time but the latter never can be, as the ‘not fit for purpose’ Cowes chain ferry demonstrates. As the two hovercraft get older and wear and tear comes into the equation the service could, with these underlying reliability issues, become non-viable.
Consider the alternatives, they do not really exist, everything else costs more, a unreliable service is no service at all, peeople trying to get to work, to get home after a long days work, hospital appointments, we need and deserve a reliable and not affected by weather method of getting to and from the island.
Nothing is perfect; however, this is diabolical, poor service across the board, Hover/ ferry/cat.
There is no sign that ANY of these services are run for the benefit of Islanders, just profit.
People in general are not in favour of any fixed link, however this continued disaster of all providers gives (UNFORTUNATELY) fuel to the argument for a permanent link, people use this service and all the others listed as a necessity for work/uni/hospital etc etc. It’s about time something was done with urgency to stop this farce.
This is a major issue that requires urgent investigation Now. Our council and MP need to sort this mess out, this whole Island suffers in one way or another.
This is an urgent issue! Get it sorted Now.
The thing is, Kev, all three ferry companies are private enterprises. They are not bound by any service level agreements and aren’t in receipt of any subsidies.
That means they can do whatever they like and there is nothing anyone can do about it. Not the council, not the MP.
Nobody.
We could vote for a true socialist government – they would put and end to the cartel. We missed our chance by not voting Corbyn in.
wewe need a bridge sooner rather than later
No we don’t – there’s enough crime here already!
wewe need a bridge sooner rather than later
What is this ? A tag team between hovertravel and wightlink ?
Oh well, all these delays for peoples lifes, boo hoo. How will we cope?? Learn to adapt snowflakes. Lol
I’d be shocked if hover travel are still in business in a few years or haven’t been sold out
I feel sorry for the hard working front of house staff at Hovertravel who are left to bear the brunt of disgruntled passengers. Someone from senior management should be their to break the news. The staff are a great bunch, always so nice with a smile & a chat.