Crawley to Ryde (inc. Isle of Wight ferry)

[James Wake]

For some odd reason on the Southern Rail website you can't buy a ticket from Ryde Hoverport to Portsmouth Harbour or Portsmouth & Southsea stations but you can buy one to Fratton (only a mile or less away from Portsmouth & Southsea Station). So it seems like there's some kind of commercial restrictive agreement in place to try to force people just crossing from Portsmouth to the Isle of Wight to buy separate tickets from Hovertravel and the Hoverbus and to not use through rail tickets where the prices can also be discounted by one third using a railcard.

On top of which SouthWestern's ticket machines don't offer Ryde Hoverport as a ticketing destination at all (which also used to be true of Southern's ticket machines but no longer is after I complained about it at high level) even though you can buy a ticket to Ryde Hoverport from the ticket windows at those stations.

Yep that’s a common trick, or try Portsmouth and Southsea to Ryde St John’s Road via hovercraft

I travel to island regularly from Crawley, but a period return is so steep, my Bluebell Railway volunteer colleague told me to do a period return to Portsmouth each time and have a 10 single journey foot passenger Multilink pass for the catamaran

 

[Alex365Dash]

I will be interested to know if they do get back to you and even if they do I wouldn't like to rely on their reply compared to what a Hoverbus driver on the ground or Hovertravel customer services say.

Even though I have been in Portsmouth with a Plusbus ticket several times in the last year I have only ever got back to Portsmouth Harbour Station from South Parade Pier on one of the regular local buses and generally if I have got as far as Clarence Pier on foot then its on a day with nice weather when I haven't bought the Plusbus add on so I just continue to walk on foot to Portsmouth Harbour.

The only times I have travelled on the Hoverbus I have always had a rail ticket to Ryde Hoverport, which unsurprisingly has always been accepted.

But I have seen quite a lot of people with Hovertravel tickets who have paid cash or with a card to travel on the Hoverbus as Hovertravel's own tickets don't seem to include it.

The Hoverbus dayrider is available to purchase on the Stagecoach app, the route is registered as a Stagecoach bus route and, to my knowledge, the Hoverbus drivers are employed by Stagecoach South.
Stagecoach's Portsmouth dayrider isn't accepted on the Hoverbus (which they specifically included in the terms of that ticket) but the Portsmouth Solent Go ticket, valid on all First and Stagecoach services in Portsmouth (except the Park & Ride and specials) is.

Given this, I'd like to think Stagecoach's customer service response carries some weight.

 

[Capvermell]

It doesn't seem unreasonable to expect a rail ticket to include an element of rail travel.

Taking that point I see that Portsmouth & Southsea to Ryde St Johns Road is offered as a rail ticketed journey but you can only purchase two singles at £14.25 each with a valid Railcard (for that time of day) at a total cost of £28.50 or an Anytime Fully Flexible return at £27.15 for a same day return trip.

Yet I can travel from Ockley (over 50 miles away from Portsmouth & Southsea) to Ryde Hoverport for £23.20 on an Off Peak Return with a valid railcard at that time of day because a much cheaper per mile Off Peak Return ticket is available for that journey.

So quite clearly returns involving the Hovertravel hovercraft and only a short rail journey are being discriminated against pricing wise through the failure to offer much cheaper per mile Off Peak Day Return fares. This doesn't seem to be a Southern vs SouthWestern fare policy difference as I see an Off Peak Return is also available same day from Guildford with a railcard for £28.80. Not as cheap per mile as Southern's £23.20 Off Peak Return railcard fare from Horsham but still much better value than Portsmouth & Southsea to Ryde St Johns Road.

So if we accept the premise that a rail ticket involving travel on the Hovertravel hovercraft must also include a rail travel element there is still no logical explanation as to why cheaper Off Peak Return fares are not available after the rush hour on shorter distance trips such as Portsmouth & Southsea to Ryde St Johns Road or even Portsmouth & Southsea to Shanklin that can be rail ticketed. On these shorter distance trips only the Anytime Open Return is offered while the Off Peak Day Return is not for whatever unexplained reasons although I suppose those rail tickets probably also give the right to travel across to Ryde on the Wightlink Fastcat (that actually takes over double the time to make the crossing that the hovercraft takes).

 

[Capvermell]

I travel to island regularly from Crawley, but a period return is so steep

Yes agreed that a period Off Peak Return costs 50% more than an Off Peak Day Return on this route including the island ferry crossing whereas on a journey from Ockley in Surrey to Rainham Kent the difference between a same day Off Peak Return and a period Off Peak Return is only an extra 5p or 0.2% more on top of the day return fare of £23.25

I think this is because both Hovertravel and SouthWestern seem to charge a much greater premium for Off Peak Return tickets that come back on a different day than Southern or Southeastern do for travel in their areas.

But then of course I can't buy a 30 day Off Peak return at all to go from Ockley to London Victoria (the cheapest London destination from Ockley as London Terminals costs significantly more) but can buy a 30 day return from Ockley to Gravesend that I can then end and start the journey short on at Victoria. Why passengers going to London can't buy an Off Peak Return that allows them to come back on a different day remains another mystery of the British rail ticketing system.

 

[Alex365Dash]

if we accept the premise that a rail ticket involving travel on the Hovertravel hovercraft must also include a rail travel element there is still no logical explanation as to why cheaper Off Peak Return fares are not available after the rush hour on shorter distance trips such as Portsmouth & Southsea to Ryde St Johns Road or even Portsmouth & Southsea to Shanklin that can be rail ticketed. On these shorter distance trips only the Anytime Open Return is offered while the Off Peak Day Return is not for whatever unexplained reasons although I suppose those rail tickets probably also give the right to travel across to Ryde on the Wightlink Fastcat (that actually takes over double the time to make the crossing that the hovercraft takes).

Rail tickets from Portsmouth Stations to Ryde St John’s Road via the Hovercraft include both an Off-Peak Day Return (after 08:45 weekdays), Evening Out (after noon) and Sunday Out (anytime on Sundays) returns as well as Sunday and Evening Singles.

I guess period returns aren’t offered because South Western Railway consider it too short to offer them?

I think this is because both Hovertravel and SouthWestern seem to charge a much greater premium for Off Peak Return tickets that come back on a different day than Southern or Southeastern do for travel in their areas.

Let’s compare Off-Peak Returns for Haslemere and Horsham to Portsmouth and Ryde Hoverport:

Origin	Destination	Fare (w/ railcard)
Haslemere	Portsmouth Stations	£23.00
Horsham	Portsmouth Stations	£20.15
Haslemere	Ryde Hoverport	£39.05
Horsham	Ryde Hoverport	£36.20

Why passengers going to London can't buy an Off Peak Return that allows them to come back on a different day remains another mystery of the British rail ticketing system.

Single-leg pricing will also fix this problem

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 7 Mar 2023 ==

I’ll let you know when Stagecoach South get back to me

PlusBus was how the lady in the ticket office eventually managed to find me a way to get to Southsea Hoverport only so, yes, PlusBus is valid on the Hoverbus.

I will be interested to know if they do get back to you and even if they do I wouldn't like to rely on their reply compared to what a Hoverbus driver on the ground or Hovertravel customer services say.

And to wrap things up, here’s my email and Stagecoach’s response as expected:

Hi there,

I wanted to enquire as to whether a Portsmouth PlusBus would be valid on the Hoverbus service you operate.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Many thanks,
April [last name redacted]

Hi April,

Thanks for getting in touch with Stagecoach, in regards to your query the Portsmouth Plusbus is valid on Stagecoach services.

Thank you
Stagecoach Customer Service Team