During its busiest week of the year, the Cowes floating bridge has grounded on the East Cowes bank, leaving passengers stranded on either side.
At 1.18pm the floating bridge was loaded with passengers and cars about to head over to Cowes from the east when it became grounded. Drivers had to reverse back up the slipway to leave the bridge.
This resulted in huge queues of foot passengers on the eastern bank wanting to get across for Cowes Week activities. A launch was quickly brought on to take foot passengers across the water in the meantime, but only around ten at a time.
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Ward: “Important we are provide people with good floating bridge service”
Just last week Cllr Ian Ward, Cabinet member for transport and infrastructure, said:
“Lendy Cowes Week 2018 is a chance to showcase our Island and attract visitors to our shores.
“It is, therefore, important that we are able to provide people with a good floating bridge service during this period.”
Official word
OnTheWight got in touch with IWC to find out what was happening and were told to check social media for updates.
Here’s what they tweeted at 2.35pm
The Floating Bridge is out of service temporarily. The Folly Ventures are currently shuttling passengers across the river and the Jenny Lee is in operation from 2.30pm. pic.twitter.com/Xpp0D5l1Cv
— IOW Council Official (@iwight) August 8, 2018
The Jenny Lee is able to take a larger number of foot passengers so should be able to shift the queues faster than earlier launch.
