Wightlink has announced that late night sailings on its Ryde Pier Head – Portsmouth Harbour FastCat service will return at the end of March, with the last sailing from the mainland being at 22:45.
As well as reinstating the FastCat service to a pre-COVID timetable, almost 3 years after the pandemic hit, changes are to be made to the Yarmouth-Lymington car ferry service to improve connections with the trains.
It has been confirmed that the extra FastCat evening sailings will be the 21:20 and 22:45 from Portsmouth and the 22:00 and 23:10 from Ryde. Crossings will also be hourly throughout the day, Monday-Sunday.
It comes just 3 months after a petition was launched by local Parish Councillor and journalist, Harriet Hadfield. The petition attracted over 5,000 signatures calling for later sailings.
On the other side of the Island, Wightlink’s Summer timetable is being adjusted to ensure customers have more time to make connections between ferries and trains at Lymington Pier station.
The 18:00, 19:00 and 20:00 ferries from Lymington to Yarmouth will depart 5 minutes later to aid customers arriving by rail at Lymington Pier. The return sailings from Yarmouth will depart at 10 minutes past the hour.
All of the above changes will come into effect from Monday 27th March 2023.
Keith Greenfield, Wightlink’s Cheif Executive, has said:
“We have always made it clear that we would add additional FastCat sailings when customer numbers justified the decision.
“I hope many Islanders and mainland customers will take advantage of these additional crossings.
“We also trust the minor amends to our Lymington-Yarmouth service will be helpful for customers who use the connecting SWR trains to and from Brockenhurst and the rail network beyond.”
Welcoming today’s news, Bob Seely MP has said:
“I would like to thank Wightlink for listening and responding. There have been numerous conversations, phone calls, letters and emails between us over recent months. I’m glad this has resulted in a positive outcome for Island commuters and visitors. This is a great result. I would also like to thank those individuals and campaigners who have also pressed Wightlink on this issue over recent months.
“Islanders deserve regular and reliable services that get them home quickly and safely. I welcome these changes.
“I also welcome the additional hourly daytime sailings Wightlink have committed to in their new timetable, these are valuable. I’m keen to encourage them to keep this level of service operating year-round.
“Before Christmas, Wightlink advised me that they would address the concerns I raised about the lack of connectivity between some ferry and rail services on the Lymington-Yarmouth route. Many Islanders rely on these services so I am grateful for the changes they have agreed to implement there too”.
Any extension is good news but I have to wonder if consideration has been made for those wishing to see a show in one of the theatres – getting to the ferry afterwards in time to catch the 10:45 final sailing might be pushing it a bit.
the ferries were originally cancelled because there were only drunks on them from gunwharf and the staff got fed up with the abuse, which police won’t deal with.
as soon as the p issheads show up on these boats again, wightlink staff will be complaining to the union, threatening strike action and refusing to work the late boats due to drunks
Can’t we just show a bit of gratitude on these chats!?
Maudlin bunch of xxxxx!!
Since when was 22:45 late night?
@Bobby thats ridiculous. Far more drunks on the midnight and 3am. That 2245 cat would average around 30 people and coming back from The island, less than 10. MGO is sitting around £1,000/mt. You add wages too and its clearly losing money on those two later trips.