Hovertravel’s Ryde to Southsea service is relying on a single craft this weekend – arguably the busiest weekend of the year – following a significant breakdown of 1 of the hovercraft yesterday (Friday).
‘Island Flyer’ completed a journey from Ryde to Southsea early yesterday morning but then suffered what is being described as a transmission fault, leaving sister craft Solent Flyer to keep the service operational.
During the busy peak period, when 2 craft are needed, the cross-Solent service went into shuttle mode. Services soon returned to normal later in the morning when the frequency of trips subsided, but a shuttle was back in force for the commute home as engineers had failed to fix the troubled Island Flyer in time.
A spokesperson for Hovertravel said to customers yesterday:
“Our engineering team have had to carry out some unplanned maintenance to the transmission system on Island Flyer, to ensure that the craft meets the stringent safety standards for our operation and we are therefore unable to operate our advertised timetable at this time.
“We thank you for your understanding and apologise for any inconvenience caused”.
Hovertravel have advised customers that services are running this weekend in accordance with their advertised timetable, however Island Flyer remains out of action. She is still sat on the pad at Southsea – last switching on at just before 07:00 yesterday.
Those planning to visit The Hovercraft Museum at Lee-on-Solent this weekend have been informed that the schedule of trips and pleasure rides planned for today have been cancelled.
Fears of problematic travel on Monday for both commuters and festival revellers are very real, although it is in no doubt that engineers are working hard to resolve the issue. Hovertravel say any amendments to services next week will be advised at ‘the earliest opportunity’.
It was only last week that the same craft experienced another mechanical breakdown, forcing the pilot to abandon a crossing and return to Southsea, limping up the pad.
