Trip to Isle of Wight with Hovercraft

[infobleep]

10 people, traveling from different stations including West Byfleet, Farnborough, Woking, Guildford, Godalming and Havant are going to the Isle of Wight for the day next Saturday.

One person suggested getting the Hovercraft bus combination, which is £29. However one would need to get a train to ticket on top.

What is the cheapest way to actually do this? Get a through rail fare to Hovercrft Ryde and then the bus separately once on the Island?

One person has a Gold Card and will be travelling from Woking, so can pick 4 people up on route for a third off.

Not sure about anyone else.

 

[alistairlees]

I assume the £29 fare you refer to is this Hover Rover Bus.

A Southern Vectis Day Rover by itself is £10 (I think this includes the Breezer and Open Top services, but you'd be best to check)

So the Hovercraft is costing you £19 (pretty good value for a return really).

On the other hand a Super Off Peak Day Return from Guildford to Ryde Hoverport, including the Hovercraft in both directions, is £22.90 with an Annual Gold Card. So just £3.90 extra for travel from Guildford (and the other pick up points you mention). The person coming from Havant should just buy a Solent Connect, providing they are happy to get a Stagecoach bus from Havant to Portsmouth. This is £23.50 and includes unlimited Southern Vectis bus travel, but is only available from the bus drivers apparently. So, yes, bizarrely it's £5.50 cheaper than a rover ticket just from Southsea Hoverport. The train ticket from Havant to Ryde Hoverport is £21.10 Super Offf-Peak Day Return, though it's cheaper with railcard of course.

 

[infobleep]

I assume the £29 fare you refer to is this Hover Rover Bus.

A Southern Vectis Day Rover by itself is £10 (I think this includes the Breezer and Open Top services, but you'd be best to check)

So the Hovercraft is costing you £19 (pretty good value for a return really).

On the other hand a Super Off Peak Day Return from Guildford to Ryde Hoverport, including the Hovercraft in both directions, is £22.90 with an Annual Gold Card. So just £3.90 extra for travel from Guildford (and the other pick up points you mention). The person coming from Havant should just buy a Solent Connect, providing they are happy to get a Stagecoach bus from Havant to Portsmouth. This is £23.50 and includes unlimited Southern Vectis bus travel, but is only available from the bus drivers apparently. So, yes, bizarrely it's £5.50 cheaper than a rover ticket just from Southsea Hoverport. The train ticket from Havant to Ryde Hoverport is £21.10 Super Offf-Peak Day Return, though it's cheaper with railcard of course.

Thanks for replying.

It would appear best thing is to buy a ticket from Guildford to Ryde via the Hovercraft and just buy the bus separatly.

The Havant person actually prefers the train to Portsmouth but as it's just 95p more to get the Havant to Ryde Hoverport ticket (£14.45 wirh third off) and a sperate bus rover, they will do that.

 

[OwlMan]

A group day rider on Southern Vectis is £25 for up to 5 people
A day ticket including Southern Vectis, hovercraft and Stagecoach buses around Portsmouth (Including Havant) is £23.50

Southern Vectis

Solent Connect
We’re here to make it easier for you to travel and it’s great news that we’ve teamed up with our friends at Hovertravel and Stagecoach to provide an all-in-one ticket that enables you to travel on our buses, then across the water on Hovertravel and on Stagecoach buses in South Hampshire.
If you’re visiting the Island for a day-out from Portsmouth or travelling to Portsmouth for work or leisure, this is just the ticket for you!
Where can I travel?
You can use the Solent Connect ticket on any Southern Vectis bus on the Island.
The Solent Connect ticket is valid on all Stagecoach buses in the South Hampshire ticket zone including the whole of Portsmouth, east to Havant and Emsworth, north to Clanfield and west to Fareham, Wickham and Bishops Waltham.
Each Solent Connect ticket is valid for one day return journey on Hovertravel, just show your ticket at the terminal.
How much does it cost?
Tickets available from Southern Vectis or Stagecoach drivers
Ticket price
Adult
£23.50
Child (5 to 15 years old)
£14
No further discounts apply.

 

[alistairlees]

A group day rider on Southern Vectis is £25 for up to 5 people
A day ticket including Southern Vectis, hovercraft and Stagecoach buses around Portsmouth (Including Havant) is £23.50

The group Southern Vectis day ticket is very good value at £25 / £5 a head. I hadn't spotted that.

The £23.50 ticket that includes Stagecoach around Portsmouth, a day return on the hovercraft, and Southern Vectis on the island is the "Solent Connect" ticket I mentioned earlier.

 

[infobleep]

A group day rider on Southern Vectis is £25 for up to 5 people
A day ticket including Southern Vectis, hovercraft and Stagecoach buses around Portsmouth (Including Havant) is £23.50

Thanks.

 

[James Wake]

The £10/£5/£25 adult, child and group day tickets are valid on the Downs and Needles Breezers as well as the Island Coaster and Shanklin Shuttle.

 

[K.o.R]

Does the Gold Card holder have a season ticket from Woking to Portsmouth? If not then they will count as one of the 4 discounted people.

 

[infobleep]

Does the Gold Card holder have a season ticket from Woking to Portsmouth? If not then they will count as one of the 4 discounted people.

They gold card holder covers part of the route but not all of it.

Can they buy four tickets for others to use discounted, whilst not discounting their own travel, should the latter be cheaper?

 

[bubieyehyeh]

I have some relatives that want to travel to Lake station on the isle of white by train. When I looked up on travel planner it only listed the ticket including wightlink ferry from portmouth option, but brfares says there is a fare using the hovercraft which is significantly cheaper. When I checked hovercraft website it said only train tickets to ryde hoverpoint were valid, which doesn't sound correct. So is a trainticket to lake with hovercraft a sensible option?

 

[OwlMan]

I have some relatives that want to travel to Lake station on the isle of white by train. When I looked up on travel planner it only listed the ticket including wightlink ferry from portmouth option, but brfares says there is a fare using the hovercraft which is significantly cheaper. When I checked hovercraft website it said only train tickets to ryde hoverpoint were valid, which doesn't sound correct. So is a trainticket to lake with hovercraft a sensible option?

Where from?

 

[DelW]

I have some relatives that want to travel to Lake station on the isle of white by train. When I looked up on travel planner it only listed the ticket including wightlink ferry from portmouth option, but brfares says there is a fare using the hovercraft which is significantly cheaper. When I checked hovercraft website it said only train tickets to ryde hoverpoint were valid, which doesn't sound correct. So is a trainticket to lake with hovercraft a sensible option?

The NR journey planner can be made to show times and fares via the hovercraft, by putting Southsea Hoverport (SHV) in the "via" box.

Fares are usually slightly cheaper than via Wightlink, but you do have to use a connecting bus from Portsmouth and Southsea station to the hoverport (included in through tickets). At the island end you cross a footbridge to Esplanade station (or there is a longer level walk).

 

[bubieyehyeh]

The NR journey planner can be made to show times and fares via the hovercraft, by putting Southsea Hoverport (SHV) in the "via" box.

Fares are usually slightly cheaper than via Wightlink, but you do have to use a connecting bus from Portsmouth and Southsea station to the hoverport (included in through tickets). At the island end you cross a footbridge to Esplanade station (or there is a longer level walk).

Many thanks

 

[infobleep]

Someone I'm traveling with today had return to Portsmouth and wanted the excess their ticket to include the Hovercraft. However they were told at Portsmouth and Southsea and that they are not allowed to sell Hovercraft tickets as they are in Portsmouth.

Is this right?

In hindsight we should have gone to the ticket vending machine and bought a return from Havant to Ryde Hoverport. It would have been £9 cheaper, as could get a third off. Even with the overlap.

I did wonder though I'd an excess could be sold at the Portsmouth anyway, given it's the end point but that wasn't the reason given

 

[bubieyehyeh]

I've looked a bit further into the rail through tickets. I was concerned with the following wording
from the hovertravel website, https://www.hovertravel.co.uk/travel-connections.php

IMPORTANT : Please state 'Ryde Hoverport' when purchasing your tickets to ensure you are traveling via Hovertravel. If your ticket states 'Ryde Esplanade', or any other Island destination, then your ticket will not be vaild to use on Hovertravel services.

I was going to recommend relatives bought a horsham - lake off-peak period return
http://www.brfares.com/#faredetail?orig=HRH&dest=LKE&rte=982&tkt=SVR

However that note on the website, seems to imply the ticket wouldn't be valid on the hovercraft, which seems to be wrong.

So would it be safer to split ticket and buy a HRH-RydeHoverport and a RydeEsplade-Lake tickets, in case they encounter a jobsworth that would not accept the HRH-LKE ticket was valid for the hovercraft.

Do the rail tickets clearly say they include hovertravel, or does the ticket machine spit out a rail ticket and a hovercraft ticket?

 

[infobleep]

There is no mention of the Hovercraft on the ticket. It just says Ryde Hoverport. That's the nearest thing

 

[hawk1911]

Looking at the last ticket I purchased across to the Isle of White (October 2017), it states:
From: FRATTON
To: RYDE HOVERPORT
Route: ANY PERM+HOVRTVL

 

[infobleep]

Looking at the last ticket I purchased across to the Isle of White (October 2017), it states:
From: FRATTON
To: RYDE HOVERPORT
Route: ANY PERM+HOVRTVL

Quite right. I didn't spot the route bit.

 

[DelW]

I have (old) tickets from the mainland to Smallbrook Junction via both crossings. One shows "Route: ANY PERM+WIGHTLK" and the other has route ANY PERM+HOVRTVL as stated by hawk1911. Generally Wightlink staff give through tickets a fairly cursory glance, but at the hoverport you normally have to hand in your train ticket at the ticket desk, who endorse it with a large "HOVERTRAVEL" stamp (plus something that's too smudged to read) and return it to you.

 

[bubieyehyeh]

I have (old) tickets from the mainland to Smallbrook Junction via both crossings. One shows "Route: ANY PERM+WIGHTLK" and the other has route ANY PERM+HOVRTVL as stated by hawk1911. Generally Wightlink staff give through tickets a fairly cursory glance, but at the hoverport you normally have to hand in your train ticket at the ticket desk, who endorse it with a large "HOVERTRAVEL" stamp (plus something that's too smudged to read) and return it to you.

I could understand the wierd note on their website, if it wasn't clear from the ticket it include hovertravel.

So good to hear they do in-fact accept through tickets to stations on the IoW.

 

[DelW]

Here's what the (used) ticket looks like, as confirmation...

 

[bubieyehyeh]

Thanks everyone

 

[infobleep]

My question still stands though, should they have e sold an excess for the Isle of Wight at Portsmouth station?

The person said they are not allowed to sell hovercraft tickets in the Portsmouth arra. However it's an extension to an existing ticket and not a ticket from Portsmouth.

 

[Wallsendmag]

Years ago I was told not to X/S private settlement tickets such as this. Not sure if this still stands

 

[infobleep]

Years ago I was told not to X/S private settlement tickets such as this. Not sure if this still stands

How interesting. I just love all these amonlies obviously I don't know if that stands still or was even correct when you asked.

You can't buy tickets to Ryde Hoverport from the South Western Railway ticket vending machines but you can buy online and collect from said machines.

So whilst one cannot buy a Porstmouth Ryde Hoverport ticket, you can buy a Havant to Ryde Hoverport ticket and collect from the TVM in Portsmouth.

Any changes to the fares won't stop things like this unless they allow tickets to be sold from Portsmouth itself or make it so that Havant tickets don't undercut the Hoverport fares when using a disxdisc card.

 

[MotorcycleAlan]

You can just turn up at the hovercraft terminal, buy a ticket to the Island, and get 1/3rd off with your railcard, so why not simply do that as you have to visit the terminal anyway to board the hovercraft. Worked perfectly last year for me with a senior railcard.

 

[Wallsendmag]

How interesting. I just love all these amonlies obviously I don't know if that stands still or was even correct when you asked.

You can't buy tickets to Ryde Hoverport from the South Western Railway ticket vending machines but you can buy online and collect from said machines.

So whilst one cannot buy a Porstmouth Ryde Hoverport ticket, you can buy a Havant to Ryde Hoverport ticket and collect from the TVM in Portsmouth.

Any changes to the fares won't stop things like this unless they allow tickets to be sold from Portsmouth itself or make it so that Havant tickets don't undercut the Hoverport fares when using a disxdisc card.

Our TVMs are the same ,we had fun working out how to allow collection but not retail certain journeys

 

[infobleep]

You can just turn up at the hovercraft terminal, buy a ticket to the Island, and get 1/3rd off with your railcard, so why not simply do that as you have to visit the terminal anyway to board the hovercraft. Worked perfectly last year for me with a senior railcard.

I wasn't aware one could get a third off if they turned up at the Hoverport. It's not a train line and I didn't see anything there which said one could.

 

[infobleep]

Our TVMs are the same ,we had fun working out how to allow collection but not retail certain journeys

Is the ticket collection part sepraw to the revenue.

So the details of someones ticket can be printed as that is what is transmitted when the collection reference is entered. It doesn't matter what it is because a Web Site has allowed the sale and collection at a TMV.

However they can't buy the ticket because it isn't offered. I wouldn't have thought the two processes would be linked in any way. Yes they might call upon some of the same lock up tables, e. g. list of stations but that would be about it.

 

[Wallsendmag]

No basically LSM holds the details of an online sale sent to ToD. We can set the machine up to print these. Where we have problems is all the third party add ons that don’t have a timetable. If we can’t plan a journey we can’t sell the ticket.