By Isle of Wight Observer
From Saturday 18th April Hovertravel will reduce its weekend timetable and offer departures every two hours from 0815 from Ryde until 1830 from Southsea.
This critical community service will be the only fast ferry for key workers and time-sensitive supplies needing to travel between the isle of Wight and the mainland.
Neil Chapman, managing director of Hovertravel, adds: “All three ferry firms are co-ordinating their efforts through the Isle of Wight Transport Infrastructure Board to maintain a resilient set of links for essential travel to the island through these challenging times. Following the temporary suspensions of other ferry routes and our own reduced weekend timetable, we all agree that we are now at the lowest possible level of services necessary to support the Isle of Wight.
We are promoting the Stay At Home message and have seen a huge reduction in passenger volumes at the weekends, so we are focussing our resources on running the only fast ferry option for essential travellers and fast freight with an hourly weekday timetable and a two hourly weekend timetable.”
Hovertravel is accepting tickets from Red Funnel as well as those from Wightlink and continues to serve both the NHS and the Royal Mail with its fast freight service.
Hovertravel’s weekday Essential Lifetime timetable remains unchanged and can be viewed here.
