This just in from Wightlink, in their words – Ed
Wightlink has revealed its Winter 2013 timetable on its Ryde ~ Portsmouth route, and, for the first time, is publishing a long term core timetable which will operate for at least 15 months, enabling customers to plan their working and leisure arrangements.
The new timetable comes into effect on the 30 September 2013 and continues a number of service refinements that were introduced earlier this year, including the retiming of morning sailings from the Isle of Wight to enable customers to make better use of discounted rail fares, which has proved popular with those connecting to London train services.
The timetable will, as usual, be enhanced for the summer period, with additional sailings scheduled for special events, such as festivals.
The timetable review found that many sailings on the route continue to operate at very low levels of utilisation; with many sailings still operating over 90% empty. Whilst Wightlink remains committed to operating a comprehensive timetable, it continues to face the challenges of rising costs, particularly with fuel price volatility. As a result, the 0940 and 1040 (Portsmouth to Ryde) will combine to form a 1015 sailing [resulting in the 1010 and 1110 Ryde to Portsmouth combining to form a 1047 sailing]. In addition the 1540 from Portsmouth [and corresponding 1610 from Ryde] will no longer operate. On Fridays the 1945 from Portsmouth [and 20:15 from Ryde] will no longer operate.
This will result in Wightlink operating two sailings every hour at peak morning and evening times and an hourly service from 0915 to 1615. Weekend services are unaffected by the change, and will continue to include two sailings an hour throughout summer Saturdays.
Head of Port Operations, Sean Millward said “We know that it’s important for our customers to plan for the future, and so I am pleased we are publishing our core timetable through until December 2014. Customers tell us how important it is to have a regular service and these adjustments mean that they can rely on there being a xx15 sailing from the mainland and xx47 sailing from the Isle of Wight from 0515 to 2215 from Portsmouth and 0547 to 2247 from Ryde every weekday. It is obviously disappointing to have to withdraw two roundtrips from the timetable, but I am pleased that we have been able to protect our twice-hourly commuter sailings in the mornings and evenings, upon which so many of our customers depend.”
Timetable
Image: davidcjones under a CC BY 2.0 license
