Hovertravel have been forced to suspend their cross-Solent service this afternoon (Wednesday) due to technical reasons.
Both Solent Flyer and Island Flyer have been pulled from operation and are sitting on the pad at Ryde.
The announcement of a suspension of service comes after a reported 30 minute delay on the Ryde to Southsea route earlier on today.
The company says that an update will be provided at 16:30.
Hovertravel’s Flyer craft have proven more reliable of late, although they are still struggling to operate in windy conditions leading to regular cancellations due to adverse weather.
UPDATE @ 16:40 – As rush hours gets underway, services remain suspended. An update is now due at 17:30.
UPDATE @ 18:26 – After a suspension of more than 3 hours, it has been confirmed that a service will resume starts 18:45 from Ryde.
Was new hover and floating bridge made by same people????
I’m sat here kind of scratching my head a little at the moment. Today, we have all the latest materials, electronics, computers & technology in general – streets ahead of anything we had 10, 20 30+ years ago. So, the question must be asked, “How come back then we had boats, hovercraft & floating bridges that ran to a timetable you could set your watch by, which also included during adverse weather conditions”. Anybody remember the old boats that ran between Ryde & Portsmouth (MV Brading etc.)? I can’t remember them ever stopping for anything! Might have taken 30/35 minutes but they always got you there! Used to like the old SR6 Hovercraft as well, although admittedly a bit small & quite noisey for today maybe – but at least they worked! It seems that in some cases, the more we advance, the more we actually go backwards…
Maybe the Chinese built them 😉
The old boats were brilliant. They had a bar and served food :o) You could have a snack and a drink on the way to Portsmouth before getting your hearing damaged by Uriah Heep and Peter Frampton at the Guildhall safe in the knowledge that the late ferry would run on time and take you home after a visit to the chippy near the dockyard gate.
Same old same old!!!!!
The other hover has been broken down for three weeks this is not acceptable, get a grip Hovertravel:(
derek – no it hasn’t – they had both running only a few days ago. they only use one more often than not.
Ridiculous! Now a very unreliable service. Not only do they breakdown frequently but also a whiff of wind and they stop running!
Hovertravel seem to be mirroring Island line. First there were two running, then just one, then none at all. To be fair, I have never had any problem with Hovertravel, so hopefully this is merely a blip.
The hovercraft are just slightly younger than the trains
those hovercraft have only been in use for a few years – the old ones were still around in 2017/18
The difference is Island lines are 80 years old and they decided to retain two instead of three units for service. So if the two fail then no other option then to close the line. The Hoovers are not that old. Could well be that they are not man enough for use in the Solent.