Isle of Wight using Wightlink FastCat

[TimT]

Planning my annual trip for the Isle of Wight festival and normally can use one of South Western or another to force using the fast cat (we are a big group with a lot of gear!) to Ryde Esplanade (although always end up walking the pier) with changes at Portsmouth Harbour and Ryde Pier Head. This year only Hovercraft seems to be offered going out 18 Jun back 22 Jun (Southern, South Western, National Rail, Split Tickets). Anyone else trying the same or know of a way to buy this ticket for these dates if I can not get the literary to show (ideally don't want to have to go in person to the ticket office). Thanks!

 

[Bletchleyite]

Looks like the timetable for the ferries has not been entered yet. Are you buying Advances? If not, then there's no disadvantage to waiting until a lot closer to the day of travel, indeed they can be bought on the day of travel for the same price.

At present it appears only to be in until 16th May.

By the way, booking a train ticket doesn't guarantee a spot on the ferry - if it's festival weekend make sure you contact Wightlink for a foot passenger reservation to make sure you get on your ferry of choice. Their customer services will do it, just tell them you have a train ticket.

 

[TimT]

contact Wightlink for a foot passenger reservation to make sure you get on your ferry of choice. Their customer services will do it, just tell them you have a train ticket.

Absolutely, thanks - this is what I normally do but can't get the tickets. May have to chance my luck...

 

[Gloster]

Planning my annual trip for the Isle of Wight festival and normally can use one of South Western or another to force using the fast cat (we are a big group with a lot of gear!) to Ryde Esplanade (although always end up walking the pier) with changes at Portsmouth Harbour and Ryde Pier Head. This year only Hovercraft seems to be offered going out 18 Jun back 22 Jun (Southern, South Western, National Rail, Split Tickets). Anyone else trying the same or know of a way to buy this ticket for these dates if I can not get the literary to show (ideally don't want to have to go in person to the ticket office). Thanks!

That is the weekend of the Isle of Wight Festival. Wightlink’s arrangement are not the standard ones during the period 17 to 24 June.

 

[TimT]

Wightlink’s arrangement are not the standard ones during the period 17 to 24 June.

Sure - but mainly is more, additional ferries. But not stating from 17th May neither.

The festival timetable is out on their own website just nothing loaded to planners post 17th May.

Hopefully someone is back at work after the Easter Holidays this week and sends them off to be loaded in or whatever the process takes. I now have worked out the train and ferry times I want - just need to be able to purchase them.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Absolutely, thanks - this is what I normally do but can't get the tickets. May have to chance my luck...

Do they ask for evidence of the tickets? If not just do it anyway

 

[TimT]

Update — now resolved

Happy to close this one out. The Wightlink FastCat sailings from Portsmouth Harbour are now showing correctly in the National Rail Journey Planner for dates beyond 16 May — through-tickets to the Island can be booked online again.

I'd been running a daily automated check against the journey planner which confirmed the sailings genuinely weren't there, and then were — so the timetable data was loaded at some point in the last few days. Whether that was prompted by my contact form submission to Wightlink I can't say for certain, but the timing lines up.

Wightlink's customer service did also note that when searching, using the "via Ryde Pier Head" option helps the planner surface the FastCat sailings rather than defaulting to Hovercraft routes — so worth bearing in mind if anyone finds the options not appearing.

Thanks to everyone who engaged with the thread — hopefully useful for others planning trips to the Island especially for the 2026 IoW Festival

 

[yorkie]

Thanks for the update

Wightlink's customer service did also note that when searching, using the "via Ryde Pier Head" option helps the planner surface the FastCat sailings rather than defaulting to Hovercraft routes — so worth bearing in mind if anyone finds the options not appearing.

No need to do that on our site; both options appear:

Results | RailUK Tickets

TrainSplit is a free service that makes it easy to find the cheapest train tickets for your journey.

tickets.railforums.co.uk

But yes, if anyone specifically wants one route or the other, it can be useful to specify a via point, to exclude unwanted routes appearing.

Our site allows up to 3 via & 3 avoid points.

 

[Timetraveller]

During the isle of wight festival, you will still need to contact wightlink or hovertravel for a timed reservation as advance and walk up tickets for through journies still act as standby tickets for the ferry.

 

[TimT]

Yes - done.... maybe before I actually had the tickets