Abbey Wood to Ryde Esplanade: Wightlink or Hovertravel?

I'm trying to check ticket prices online for an off-peak return Abbey Wood to Ryde Esplanade on nationalrail.co.uk (with a network railcard), and I'm puzzled because the journey itineraries I'm being offered all show via Hovertravel, but by default, the off-peak tickets being offered for these journeys don't specify that Hovertravel is allowed - they simply show 'London not und'. This thread from a few years ago seems to indicate that you can only use Hovertravel if the ticket says that explicitly. Can anyone confirm that via Hovertravel is OK for these tickets?

Screenshot attached. The 'bus service' status refers to the bus from Portsmouth and Southsea to Southsea Hoverport.

What puzzles me more is that, in some ways I'd prefer to travel via Wightlink. I tried to force that option by specifying travelling via Portsmouth Harbour and Ryde Pier Head. That caused the fare I was being offered to increase from £47.85 to £55.05 - but for what is showing as exactly the same ticket! Off peak return, Abbey Wood to Ryde Esplanade, route London not und.

Can anyone shed any light on what's going on?

Try a journey to St Johns Road and you'll find you are offered ferry journeys. It's a problem of journey planners finding the fastest route.

Haywain said:

Try a journey to St Johns Road and you'll find you are offered ferry journeys. It's a problem of journey planners finding the fastest route.

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And that journey planners don't always recognise and interpret validity correctly for non-rail portions of journeys, and don't seem to always be able to work out routeing etc correctly when a bus or ferry or suchlike is involved for part of the journey.

For example they may tell you to catch a bus or tram between stations, but gove no real or clear indication that the ticket is selling you isn't actually valid on the bus or tram it is telling you to catch.

The Hovertravel thing is done oddly. I believe it indeed does require a ticket routed specifically via them for it to be valid[1], but the Journey Planners show this wrongly.

[1] The "negative easement", if you'd call it that, against the Any Permitted routeing is why you get "not valid on Hovertravel services" showing for completely irrelevant tickets on some TVMs.

Bletchleyite said:

The Hovertravel thing is done oddly. I believe it indeed does require a ticket routed specifically via them for it to be valid[1], but the Journey Planners show this wrongly.

[1] The "negative easement", if you'd call it that, against the Any Permitted routeing is why you get "not valid on Hovertravel services" showing for completely irrelevant tickets on some TVMs.

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I travelled this way last weekend and staff were indeed looking for Hovertravel to be specified on the ticket (I was using a Polegate to Ryde Hoverport ticket). They then stamped the "endorsements" section on the back.

It's a bit more of a faff getting the bus but it's certainly an experience catching the Hovertravel over the Solent.

rg177 said:

I travelled this way last weekend and staff were indeed looking for Hovertravel to be specified on the ticket (I was using a Polegate to Ryde Hoverport ticket). They then stamped the "endorsements" section on the back.

It's a bit more of a faff getting the bus but it's certainly an experience catching the Hovertravel over the Solent.

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Ah OK thanks! So I wonder then.. At the Wightlink ferry would they look for 'via Wightlink' to be specified on the ticket, or will they accept any ticket that is clearly from the mainland to a station on the Isle of Wight, and which doesn't specify any particular route beyond 'any permitted'?

I think that all tickets have either Wightlink or Hovertravel specified on them. In my experience of using both routes, the boarding procedures are rather different. At Hovertravel you check in at a desk in the terminal, where they usually check the ticket quite carefully for route "+HVRTVL" or similar, and then often endorse it with a rubber stamp. At the ferry port, the tickets are checked as passengers board, and at busy times it can be quite cursory. On one occasion a friend I was travelling with only noticed on the return ferry crossing that he'd been sold, and was travelling on, a hovercraft routed ticket, which hadn't been spotted at either end.

DynamicSpirit said:

Ah OK thanks! So I wonder then.. At the Wightlink ferry would they look for 'via Wightlink' to be specified on the ticket, or will they accept any ticket that is clearly from the mainland to a station on the Isle of Wight, and which doesn't specify any particular route beyond 'any permitted'?

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No, Wightlink, being an ex-BR operation, is the default - it's effectively a "virtual train" as far as ticketing goes. So if it *doesn't* say Hovertravel and it isn't to Ryde Hoverport it's valid.

DelW said:

I think that all tickets have either Wightlink or Hovertravel specified on them.

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Not all of them, sometimes there's no room in the route field, e.g. on tickets from the south WCML routed Kensington Olympia.

Bletchleyite said:

Not all of them, sometimes there's no room in the route field, e.g. on tickets from the south WCML routed Kensington Olympia.

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Ah, OK thanks. So that would imply that the Abbey Wood-Ryde Esplanade tickets that I was looking up, for which the route specification is 'London not LUL' are valid on Wightlink. That tallies with the results I got when I specified 'via Ryde Pier Head' - and I see the fare being charged -£55.05 with a railcard - matches the off-peak return fare on brfares.com.

And it seems that when I didn't specify a routing, the itinerary that nationalrail.co.uk offered me was just plain wrong.

It should be noted too that depending on the journey being made it can be cheaper to buy the Hovercraft separately.

For example, I did the journey recently travelling along the south coast. I wished to use the Hovercraft. The inclusive fare for Hovertravel was only available on the Any Permitted fare, not the Via Barnham fare I was using. So I purchased a Fratton to Ryde Hoverport ticket separately. This ticket was cheaper than the Hovercraft ticket on it's own and included the bus which I would otherwise have had to pay for separately.

DynamicSpirit said:

Ah, OK thanks. So that would imply that the Abbey Wood-Ryde Esplanade tickets that I was looking up, for which the route specification is 'London not LUL' are valid on Wightlink. That tallies with the results I got when I specified 'via Ryde Pier Head' - and I see the fare being charged -£55.05 with a railcard - matches the off-peak return fare on brfares.com.

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Yes, they are valid on Wightlink and not on the hovercraft. The Portsmouth-Ryde catamaran is for ticketing purposes a train service (though they also sell their own which can be more expensive than a train ticket to Esplanade!), whereas the hovercraft is a bit more Plusbus-esque in how it works.