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I'm planning a trip to the IoW in the coming weeks and some questions came up around combined hovercraft and rail tickets.
Say, for instance, I book an advance from Ryde Hoverport to Waterloo, which has a specific train and (I assume also?) hovercraft flight on it. Do I need to take that specific flight or can I take an earlier (obviously not later) one? And suppose I do take the booked one, it's delayed, and I miss my train connection, can I catch the next train at Portsmouth?
(I am aware of the option/suggestion to reserve a seat on a flight.)
Hovertravel are generally pretty relaxed about using an earlier than booked service on their own tickets, as long as they have space. I would expect them to have the same attitude to through tickets as all they ever ask (before looking at tickets) is which service are you booked on.
It's worth knowing that the Hovertravel transfer bus is a circular route.
You get off at Portsmouth and Southsea (the bus stop is in the shops very near CEX) and it's one stop to the Hovercraft.
The other way (on the assumption you have a rail ticket that is "Portsmouth Stations") you can get off at Portsmouth Harbour which is the first stop on the transfer bus.
Facilities at Portsmouth Harbour station are a bit limited but there are nearby shops.
Something else to be aware of is that Hovertravel often run late, particularly during a busy afternoon. Personally I catch an earlier hover if I can to avoid missing my (separately boked) train connection. As you plan to use a through ticket you should have some protection though.
Your rail booking is not a booking on the hovercraft. You need to make a separate booking for the hovercraft, which can be for any flight. You need to make it at least 48 hours beforehand, but it will be free if you quote the rail booking reference. If you don't make the hovercraft booking, then you may be put in a standby queue, and only allowed to board if there is space after the booked passengers have boarded.
Also beware that there may only be a 1 minute connection between the hovercraft arriving and the bus back to Portsmouth station departing. On my recent trip, I was booked on the 0945 hovercraft from Ryde. I arrived at about 0925. We were almost immediately let on, and at 0930 they shut the doors and we set off. We therefore arrived in plenty of time for the bus. However, the bus did not wait for any subsequent hovercraft arrival.
There was quite a queue of people waiting to check in at the Portsmouth terminal, including people waiting in the standby queue. You are supposed to check in at least 15 minutes before departure, so I suspect that they sent our craft off as soon as that window closed, in order to get in an extra service for passengers waiting at Portsmouth.
As previous poster notes, the bus does a circular route, and calls at both Portsmouth stations - so make sure that you get off at the right one!
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Something else to be aware of is that Hovertravel often run late, particularly during a busy afternoon. Personally I catch an earlier hover if I can to avoid missing my (separately boked) train connection. As you plan to use a through ticket you should have some protection though.
I am not convinced how true that is. As far as I am aware, Hovertravel aren't part of the Delay Repay scheme, so I doubt that you would get any DR compensation if you missed your train connection, e.g. because the bus didn't wait for a late arriving hovercraft to arrive.
If you have advance tickets, you are entitled to catch the next train if the first misses the connection, but are Hovertravel party to this agreement? For example, if you miss your booked hovercraft flight due to a late running train, as far as I am aware you have no right to get on the next hovercraft, you just go into the standby queue along with everyone else who doesn't have a booking. Coming back, I doubt that hovercraft flights are recorded on the train running database, so proving to an RPI why you missed the connection could be problematic.
I was recently severely delayed getting to Portsmouth, and only just made the last hovercraft flight by the skin of my teeth, and a taxi to the hover terminal. There was a later ferry that I could have caught, but whether my ticket would have been accepted on that is debatable.
I currently have two DR claims for journeys that included through travel on the hovercraft (delays caused by rail issues), submitted to different TOCs. They both seem to be taking a long time to process, I suspect because the system that calculates how long the TOC thinks you were delayed can't cope with the hovercraft and bus parts of the journey. Neither TOC's DR website could find a through journey, but both recognised Ryde and Southsea hoverports as interchange stations when I entered the journeys manually.
If you have advance tickets, you are entitled to catch the next train if the first misses the connection, but are Hovertravel party to this agreement? For example, if you miss your booked hovercraft flight due to a late running train, as far as I am aware you have no right to get on the next hovercraft, you just go into the standby queue along with everyone else who doesn't have a booking.
Not sure if there is a policy, but I was in this situation recently, and emailed HoverTravel once it was apparent I'd miss my Southampton to Portsmouth connection. They helpfully sent me a new HoverTravel ticket for the flight an hour later, no problem.
I'd definitely recommend making a booking for all hovercraft crossings for the immediate future. There is an ongoing mechanical issue with one of the fastcats which is causing loads of cancellations and capacity issues. Victorious festival is on Southsea Common next (bank holiday) weekend.
This is what prompted me asking - all the journey planner routes have the 1 minute connection to the bus and then ~10 minutes to the train at Portsmouth & Southsea, which makes me a little nervous about missing it in the event of a hovercraft delay (even if it is a valid itinerary, follows MCTs, etc) and thus triggering a cascade of pain down the line (I'd be carrying on past London on a through ticket and don't particularly feel like explaining to a GTR RPI why I'm not on the booked train!). Hence my intention to book on an earlier flight so I have more of a margin in Portsmouth.
What the 1 min connection between the hovercraft and the bus defacto means is that as the last passenger from the hovercraft gets on it goes. Due to the circular nature of the route it is picking up passengers from the first stop for the outgoing hovercraft as well as dropping off incoming. If your train starts from Portsmouth Harbour station if all's well you'll probably be better off alighting at the first stop The hard interchange where the hover bus uses platform L normally. The bus tracks on the local real time system/ Google maps as H1 Destination Hovercraft.
It all works seamlessly and very well normally. When it goes tits up there generally seems to be a very grown up attitude to it from the railways on the coast. Like Ive already said next weekend will be Victorious Pop Festival near to the Hovercraft terminal and it will be chaos!
The Hovertravel part of the operation seemed very professional and friendly to me. You check-in, and then go to a lounge to wait for boarding. If you don't have a booking, then in theory you are directed to a standby queue, but in practice if the hovercraft isn't heavily loaded they may just check you in straight away.
The only weak point is the bus connection at Portsmouth and Southsea. There is signage inside the station directing you to the Hovertravel bus, but once you get outside - nothing! There is a bus stop immediately outside, but that is NOT the stop you want. You need to bear right, and look for the H1 service stop.
The Hovertravel part of the operation seemed very professional and friendly to me. You check-in, and then go to a lounge to wait for boarding. If you don't have a booking, then in theory you are directed to a standby queue, but in practice if the hovercraft isn't heavily loaded they may just check you in straight away.
The only weak point is the bus connection at Portsmouth and Southsea. There is signage inside the station directing you to the Hovertravel bus, but once you get outside - nothing! There is a bus stop immediately outside, but that is NOT the stop you want. You need to bear right, and look for the H1 service stop.
If you come out of the ticket office exit there's a sign directly opposite "Hovertravel Bus Stop" which points you to the bus stop. This has a lcd screen in the shelter saying H1 Hovercraft X mins City Centre, South Stop C Even if you turn the wrong way it doesn't matter as the H1 bus also stops at the next bus stop Civic Centre M which is just under the railway bridge and to the left about 200 yards.
If you come out of the ticket office exit there's a sign directly opposite "Hovertravel Bus Stop" which points you to the bus stop. This has a lcd screen in the shelter saying H1 Hovercraft X mins City Centre, South Stop C Even if you turn the wrong way it doesn't matter as the H1 bus also stops at the next bus stop Civic Centre M which is just under the railway bridge and to the left about 200 yards.
I got off the train, exited through the barriers, and immediately ahead was a sign that included an arrow for Hovertravel Bus Stop. It directed me outside the front of the station, where there were taxis waiting.
However, standing outside the station, I couldn't see any sign for the Hovertravel bus stop. The only bus stop I could see was on the opposite side of the road, which isn't the Hovertravel bus stop.
It is all very well if you know which bus stop you want, or even which direction the bus will be going and so which side of the street the stop will be on. However, I had no idea, and it absolutely would have mattered if I had turned the wrong way.
With only a minute or two before the bus was due, and only just over twenty minutes before the last hovercraft flight of the day was due to leave, turning the wrong way would likely have been disastrous. I therefore took a taxi.
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