Hovertravel are to slash the number of crossings it offers as it moves to a half hourly service during the peak morning and evening periods – and customers will no longer be alerted to delays and cancellations.
An extensive review of the company’s operations means that the number of timetabled crossings between Ryde and Southsea is being cut significantly from Thursday (1st November).
Island Flyer is to continue running the cross-Solent route on its own until Solent Flyer returns towards the end of November. Once Solent Flyer is back from having ‘fundamental modification work’ it will act as a backup craft in case Island Flyer breaks down – as it has frequently done so in recent weeks.
It has been confirmed that Island Flyer will undergo the same repair work as her sister craft and this will be done before the end of March, which means Hovertravel will be back to an operation reliant on just a single craft for several weeks – possibly 2 months – in 2019.
It has also been announced today that the service status emails and push notifications to Hovertravel’s app are to be scrapped. Instead, customers will have to manually check the status of the service via Hovertravel’s website or telephone line. This of course also prevents the media from being instantly alerted to any delays or cancellations.
During the Winter period (1st Nov – 31st Mar) Hovertravel will run a 30-minute service during commuter times and an hourly service throughout the day. From 1st April, it will operate a 30-minute service all day.
In 2019 Hovertravel plan to run a 08:00 crossing from Ryde and a 17:15 crossing from Southsea (Monday to Friday in school term time only). In addition, a separate service will be allocated to Royal Mail to ensure the 19:00 from Southsea improves its on time performance.
Neil Chapman, Managing Director of Hovertravel has said that they have had issues with ‘bedding in’ the 2 Flyer craft – this is despite them being in operation now for around 2-and-a-half years.
According to Mr Chapman, Hovertravel had a 96% reliability in the Summer. But it is not clear if that ‘summer’ period takes into account the past 8 weeks which have been particularly troublesome for commuters and day trippers. He has also stated that the company’s reputation is not in tatters…
It has been confirmed that the old Hovercraft – Island Express, Freedom 90 and Solent Express – will not be returning to Hovertravel.
Today’s news comes just a day after Isle of Wight MP sent a letter to the top bosses of Hovertravel, Wightlink and Red Funnel demanding answers over the significant disruption in recent weeks, as exclusively revealed by Island Echo this morning.
Commuters are now asking whether or not they will see a reduction in the price of their season and travel cards…
