Restrictions for commercial vehicles on Wightlink’s Yarmouth route for the next four weeks, plus ten weeks of works by Southern Gas in Fishbourne and the removal of St Clare from Wightlink’s busiest route has left one commercial transport providers scratching his heads.
In his words, “You couldn’t make this up, except on the Isle of Wight.”
Restrictions on Yarmouth route
The planned maintenance work to the Yarmouth loading ramp starts this coming Thursday (15th January) and is expected to last for up to four weeks.
During this period, the ferry company say there’ll be restrictions for commercial vehicles,
“We will not be able to carry articulated lorries, lorries with overhangs or steps, coaches, vehicles weighing more than 26 tons, vehicles with low ground clearance or trailers.
“Customers with these types of vehicles are advised to travel on our Fishbourne-Portsmouth route.”
Gas works expected to cause delays
To one commercial customer, that sounded reasonable enough, except when he learnt that during the same period, ten weeks of works by Southern Gas Networks in Fishbourne Lane will be taking place (they started yesterday), with a two-way traffic light system expected to cause delays to customers arriving at Wightlink’s Fishbourne Terminal.
St Clare out for re-fit
In addition to this, Wightlink have confirmed St Clare, its largest vessel, is currently out of service undergoing a £800,000 refit.
The vessel is due to return to service in four weeks, in time for the February half-term.
“You couldn’t make this up”
A regular traveller with Wightlink told OnTheWight,
“You couldn’t make this up, except on the Isle of Wight.”
He argued the St Clare is the largest vessel in operation on the Fishbourne route and therefore would have been ideal to help carry the extra commercial traffic during the affected period.
No need for replacement say Wightlink
However, a spokesperson from Wightlink told OnTheWight that St Clare being taken out of service for refit would have no knock-on effect for passengers,
“At this time of year the Portsmouth – Fishbourne route has fewer customers than mid-summer and so only requires three ships to carry everyone.
“This means that one ship is out of service and can go to refit/undergo maintenance without any disruption or needing to be replaced.”
Wightlink updated OnTheWight with the following
The availability of suitable dry dock facilities dictate the timing of our planned refit schedule. The planned maintenance at Yarmouth is being carried out in conjunction with Yarmouth Harbour Commissioners who have advised Wightlink on the timings for this work to take place.
Vehicle carrying capacity has not been reduced on any of Wightlink’s routes. Customers with vehicles such as articulated lorries, lorries with overhangs or steps, coaches, vehicles weighing more than 26 tons, vehicles with low ground clearance or trailers are advised to travel on our Fishbourne-Portsmouth route. This is because we will need to load and unload vehicles using an alternative ramp whilst work takes place.
Re-configuring the way that we load the St Cecilia, St Faith and St Helen on our Portsmouth to Fishbourne route allows us to carry nearly as many high vehicles as St Clare.
Image: grassrootsgroundswell under CC BY 2.0
