For the last ten years Islanders paid Wightlink for the privilege of driving to the wet end of Ryde Pier, so they could either use the FastCat, or pick up/drop off some taking the FastCat.
If you were looking for an analogy, you could say it’s a bit like a fast food company charging you a toll to use the drive-through road, so you can then place and pay for your order.
The ‘pay £1.30’ plan has changed and they’ll now be adding 50p on to the price of every FastCat standard ticket instead, so even those who have taken the train, or walked up the pier pay.
How many pounds we’ve paid
News OnTheWight thought it would be interesting to find out quite how many pounds we’ve all given them over the last ten years. Seems simple enough. Just ask Wightlink right? Sadly not.
We’ve been asking Wigthlink questions around this for many, many years and we thought you’d find it interesting to see what they’ve come back with over this time.
We’ll rattle through the last ten years, starting with the pier’s surprise closure.
Repairs to pier
A quick recap – August 2010, without notice, Wightlink announced that they were closing the pier to vehicles as it needed to be repaired. As it turned out, this took six months.
Along with the opening, Wightlink decided to charge vehicles that drove on the pier £1 to the FastCat.
2018: Reduced waiting time
In June 2018, when Wightlink dropped the amount of time that people could wait to pick up FastCat passengers from an hour to 20 minutes to “free up more parking spaces for customers”, News OnTheWight asked how much Wightlink had received in tolls. They sent us the following answer:
“In 2011, Wightlink spent £5million repairing and refurbishing Ryde Pier.
“The £1 Pier toll goes towards the cost of keeping the 200 year old pier in good condition. “Wightlink receives around £232,000 from the Pier toll every year which goes towards the cost of repairs and maintenance.”
2019: Increase to tolls
In Sept 2019 Wightlink tried to increase the cash price of driving along the pier from £1 to £2. Those using cards to pay had the amount they increased from £1 to £1.30.
This proved to be a mess causing gridlock in Ryde, with vehicles wanting to enter the pier backed up along Union Street. They had to switch the cash payment to £1.30 to match card usage.
We asked, “How many £1s have been taken for using the pier since the charge was introduced?”
They replied.
“While we are not releasing statistics of revenue from the pier toll, Wightlink is nowhere near to recouping the £8.1million spent on Pier repairs and maintenance since 2010.”
Our follow-up question was, “What’s the reason Wightlink won’t release the figure?” – despite follow up emails from us – Silence.
2021: Charge added to standard tickets
Most recently, in July 2021, where Wightlink announced their pier toll was going to be replaced by an extra charge for each standard FastCat ticket.
We asked, “How much has Wightlink taken in tolls since the scheme was introduced?”
Wightlink replied,
“Historically, the Pier Toll revenue has not met the ongoing costs of keeping the Grade II listed Pier in good condition.
“In August 2010, the Pier roadway was closed for six months for major repairs which cost £3million.”
We followed up with, “Why so shy on the amount of money taken in pier tolls?” – Again silence.
