For as long as Wightlink refuses to reinstate the later catamaran crossings (back to a pre-Covid timetable) the latest train from London for the last 8.20pm FastCat is at 6.30pm.

If there is any delay to that train (due in at Portsmouth Harbour at 8.12pm) Wightlink customers risk missing the FastCat and then having to take the 10.15pm car ferry.

Of course, the car ferry goes to Fishbourne from where the inconvenienced FastCat passengers have to make their own way to Ryde to collect cars or seek an alternative to the connecting train they would have used.

Apparently Wightlink cite no demand for later crossings. I would argue that the later FastCats were often busy pre-Covid. In any case who have they asked ? Clearly not their customers.

After such a delay recently that I was motivated to find an alternative.

From now on I shall travel Red Funnel via Cowes to Southampton.

Yes, there is a reliance on a connecting bus from the Quay to the train station.

A longer Red Jet journey time (than Wightlink) and the bus connection time is more than compensated by a shorter train journey time to London.

Door to door my journey time will reduce. Red Funnel’s saver tickets are not as cheap as Wightlink’s, but offer better value with crossings until 11pm.

Another ex-Wightlink customer who voted with their feet.

For those other impacted customers verbalising their tale of woe in the waiting room at Wightlink’s ferry terminal last week, I’m afraid I have further reduced demand for them to offer a public service and reintroduce the later FastCats back into the timetable.

Wightlink has a connecting train service at both ends right into their dock, with parking on the pier allowing customers to park on their doorstep.

Yet with all these facilities, the Wightlink timetable remains the weak link in the operation — I hesitate to call it a service.

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