The Cowes Floating Bridge will be out of service for some 6 hours tomorrow, the Isle of Wight Council has announced. During routine maintenance work undertaken recently, an issue was detected with the vessel’s east prow ram which has been left leaning heavily to one side. It is hoped that the issue will be a quick fix so that usual service can be resumed over the Bank Holiday Weekend when as many as 3,000 cyclists descend on the Island for the Isle of Wight Randonnee. Between 08:00 and 14:00 service will be suspended with a launch service in place for both pedestrians and cyclists.
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Most unusual for such a reliable, important asset .. and Jordan’s favourite toy ..
Dear Island Echo,
To make the process of commenting on articles, commenting on comments and rating comments, more expressive,
would it be possible to change the current up vote & down vote options, to include laughing, crying, angry and face-palm emojis… (and / or at least the possibility of including such in the comments.)
So many news articles, and comments are deserving of a far more expressive reaction rather than just an up or down vote.
This article (or rather the subject of the article), for example, would really be deserving of either a face-palm or laughing emoji, or possible a combination of the two..
(it is so far past using an angry emoji,.. it’s reliability really is just laughable now)
You could always use words. Emojis are for the illiterate and hard of thinking.
And another 10k spent fixing it AGAIN
LOOK…. How hard could it be to put a bridge across that opens in the centre to allow boats to pass and charge them to open it just like Yarmouth Bridge.
It would save all this waste of money, be great for the community of the Island.
It would be so convenient now for everyone.
Don’t build another floating bridge.
Its time to change.
PLEASE think about it.
Please IW Council just build a bridge to replace the useless floating bridge. No more maintenance, most people want it and you represent us, not just make decisions you want not the people.
Being ex head of Transport who was found guilty of drink and drug driving amazingly is now head of the council.
Do the right thing fir once instead of making sure you and your family are ok
Masons run the Island, all love to line their bulging pockets even more.
The number and frequency of boats of all types that pass this narrow stretch of the river in summer would mean that any such bridge would never be able to be closed in order to permit vehicles to cross.
Sorry, but this isn’t the solution.
If you’re not familiar with the Western Yar and the Medina, have a look on Google Maps. You simply can’t compare the two.
The Western Yar has a very small marina beyond the bridge, and that’s it. The Medina has industrial units supplied by boats and a much larger marina. It’s a much busier river past the bridge than the Western Yar. A version of the Yarmouth bridge on the Medina just wouldn’t be practical.
No doubt the ever resourceful IW Council has stockpiled an essential spares package to ensure this will actually be a “quick fix” as thousands of Cyclists will be depending on this river crossing for the IoW Randonnee travelling circumnavigating around the Island on this Sunday, plus all the other users depending on it during this busy Bank Holiday Weekend.
Dave ….Jordan will be ready with our cheque book …to pi$$ more of our money at this joke of an asset to island.
Let’s not be negative here, the HMS public sector is a vessel beyond compare and is the pinnacle of net zero bureaucratic engineering – though it might consume vast quantities of private taxpayer cash, it creates no emissions at all due to its revolutionary stationary design, so keeping our eco dreams alive and well – yet another progressive success story !!
PLEASE just link East and West Cowes with a bridge.
Its 2024.
I didn’t know it still runs.
Which is worse
The Floating Bridge, Wightlink or Red Funnel.
Dinghy’s from France are more reliable, they arrive on a daily basis to
UK Shores, maybe the Islands Ferry operators should use Dinghy’s
Lol
Yes a bridge is what is needed. NO MORE FLOATING BRIDGE.
How about a transporter bridge like the ones at Middlesbrough and Newport (Gwent)?
Now that IS funny !!!!!
Or a cheaper version is the one at Dartmouth, similar lenthg crossing, a large raft and a tug boat. Been working fine for decades, cheap, easy to repair, not much to go wrong.
So pleased to hear this. It’s been working too well for too long. Almost two weeks since it was last out of action surely.
A transporter bridge does sound like a good idea. Having looked on-line at the one in Newport, Wales it is rather ugly but I would imagine a modern design would probably solve that problem. I’m thinking the Council could establish a competition inviting engineers and other designers to come up with ideas and then have a public presentation to guage local opinion ?. That wouln’t cost much and would explor the idea and public opinion in one excersise.
Dear god will be cancelled due to wet water next. Come on councillors earn your money and sort it out. Worked well enough before it was “improved” like all the other” improvements “