The Cowes Floating Bridge service will once again be suspended this afternoon (Monday) – but this time due to staff sickness.
Just hours after it was announced that Island Line trains are disrupted due to a lack of staff, it is now reported that staffing issues have hit the East Cowes to Cowes chain ferry.
The Isle of Wight Council has confirmed that the Floating Bridge will be suspended between 14:00 and 20:00 today as a result of the unexpected staff sickness.
A launch service will be in operation for foot passengers and cyclists, as per the all-to-common resilience arrangements.
The local authority apologises for any inconvenience this might cause.
Here we go again. Must be so difficult to find someone to wave cars onto the bridge and operate a ticket machine at short notice. Utterly pathetic.
Should get the top council staff working there for a few hrs and do a real days work
In the good old days managers stepped in to cover the work.
What and actually work ,steady on !
That is a skilled job waving cars off and on the chain ferry not anybody can do it months of training hi Vis jacket special shoes so you don’t slip when the decks wet Skilled job that you know
So the sign that I have just passed saying operating normally is correct.
Yes since you apparently passed it around 1pm. Presumably that sign will change once 14.00 comes round (that is 2 pm)
Careful the 24 hour clock is a bit confusing for the born here islanders.
So surely by 1300 someone on our great council knew that the non-floating bridge was returning to ‘normal’ mode and a warning could have been display on the super signs. Then those who have to work for a living would have been pre warned. Or was the sign operative off in sympathy with the hard worked crew. We need to know.
I’m so glad that they spent so much money on the swanky electric signage. I can now see that it was all worth it after all.
Perhaps train the launch staff to operate the chain ferry since they seem to be available at short notice?
Presumably the staff are poorly because of exhaustion – they are not used to working more than 2 days in a row!
That’s very harsh. They are so short of staff at the moment, it’s a miracle it’s taken this long to happen. At least one member of staff has worked 14 days straight without a single day off. Others may get one day off a week if they’re lucky. They have more in training, but they can’t do much until they pass out.
Looks like they’re all passing out, at the same time!
Do they all sleep in the same bed ..everyone seems to be Ill at the same time working there
Build a bridge, problem solved.
The gift that just keeps on giving.
,not much else to add
Nothing like a dependable reliable public transport.
I’m happy to take over. I’ve been on it a couple of times now and it doesn’t seem that difficult
I am still available for training and do not want paying.