If you haven’t yet read Wightlink’s ‘Securing the Future’ statement released earlier today, the result of the changes announced appears to be a cut in some night time sailings, resulting in voluntary redundancy being offered to night crew.
Wightlink said that in response to low passenger numbers during night time crossings, a total of eight roundtrips across its three routes would no longer operate.
Ryde-Portsmouth Catamaran
Under the changes, the last catamaran from Portsmouth will be at 10:15pm. The first catamaran from Portsmouth will be at 5:15am, 7:15am on Sundays.
The last catamaran from Ryde will be at 10:47pm with the first catamaran from Ryde will be at 5:47am, 7:47am on Sundays.
Fishbourne-Portsmouth
There will be no Portsmouth to Fishbourne sailings between midnight and 3am and no Fishbourne to Portsmouth sailings between 1am and 4am.
Yarmouth to Lymington
There will be no sailings between Lymington to Yarmouth between 9:05pm and 5:45am sailings and no sailings between Yarmouth to Lymington between 10pm and 6:35am sailings.
The detail
From 1st January 2013 the timetable changes will be as follows:
• combine the 2300 and 0130 Portsmouth-Fishbourne into a new 2359 sailing (thereby combining the 2359 and 0215 Fishbourne-Portsmouth into a new 0100 sailing)
• remove the 2315, 0015 and 0415 catamaran sailings from Portsmouth Harbour to Ryde (return sailings at 2347, 0047 and 0447 from Ryde)
• remove the 2230, 2359, 0345 and 0510 sailings from Lymington to Yarmouth (return sailings at 2315, 0035, 0430 and 0555)
• In addition the 0550 sailing from Lymington will be retimed to 0545 and the 0650 sailing from Yarmouth will be retimed to 0635
The company claims the crossing are poorly used and on average, 93% empty for passengers and vehicle decks 80% empty) with staff often outnumbering passengers.
They go on to say that “removing them will help to secure the long term future of the routes.”
Image: Capt Gorgeous under CC BY 2.0
