Wightlink Facts And Figures

More Routes, More Sailings, More Often

More Routes…….

Wightlink runs three ferry services to the Isle of Wight:

• Portsmouth - Fishbourne, Car & Passenger Ferry
• Lymington - Yarmouth, Car & Passenger Ferry
• Portsmouth Harbour - Ryde, Passenger only catamaran

More Sailings…….

At peak times:

• Wightlink can make around 230 sailings per day
• Each route aims to operate a sailing in each direction every half an hour
• A total of over 1500 sailings every week
• Portsmouth Fishbourne
        Up to 39 sailings per day each way
        Over 500 individual sailings a week
• Portsmouth Ryde
        Up to 34 sailings per day each way
        Over 450 individual sailings a week
• Lymington - Yarmouth
        Up to 36 sailings per day each way
        Over 500 individual sailings a week

More Often……..

Year round operation

• 24/7 on 363 days, operating 365 days a year
• Sailings throughout the night, though reduced frequency
• Sailings on Christmas and New Year’s Day, though limited

More Ships, More Crews, More Staff

Eight car ferries, three passenger only FastCats and between 600 - 750 staff

To maintain the intense frequency of services Wightlink runs a fleet of:

• Five car ferries on the Portsmouth - Fishbourne Route
• Three passenger-only FastCats on the Portsmouth - Ryde route
• Three car ferries on the Lymington - Yarmouth route

And employs:

• Over 280 people to run the six ports, Reservations Office and Head Office
• 300 mariners in 33 permanent crews
• In the high season these numbers are swelled by around 140 extra temporary employees, split between afloat (five seasonal crews) and port staff.

More Ships, More Passengers

Annually Wightlink carries around

• 5 million passengers including between 1.8 - 2m foot passengers
• 1.2million cars
• approximately 200,000 freight vehicles
• around 17,000 coaches

More Ships, More Ports, More Miles

Wightlink Ferries travel a total of around 370,000 statute miles between the Island and the Mainland every year

• Portsmouth Harbour to Ryde Pier is 5.07 miles with around 23,000 legs sailed annually meaning a total of close to117,000 miles travelled on this route
• Portsmouth Gunwharf to Fishbourne is 7.1 miles,  around 22,400 legs are sailed annually, a total of close to 160,000 miles
• Lymington to Yarmouth is 4 miles, around 22,500 legs are sailed annually meaning a total of over 90,000 miles

More Miles, More Fuel, More Maintenance

Wightlink uses approximately 11.5million litres of fuel a year, around 253,000 gallons.  Over 100,000 engineer hours are spent maintaining the vessels in a safe and serviceable condition

More Ships, More Routes, More Fare Choices

• Standard Fares - unrestricted
• Saver Fares - some restrictions
• Special Offers - great value but more specific
• Isle of Wight residents - multi-use and discount offers

More ships, more sailings, more reliable

In 2007 across all three routes over 85% of sailings departed within 5 minutes of their scheduled departure time

Wightlink is currently investing in all of its routes (new ships, new catamarans, upgrades and modifications to other vessels and port infrastructure) in order to further improve reliability, punctuality, efficiency and overall standards of customer care and comfort. A total of £57million is set to be invested by early 2010.

Part of Island Life -Contributing to the economy

Keeping the Island supplied

200,000 freight vehicles travel on Wightlink’s ferries each year, delivering supplies that are vital to the Island’s infrastructure and day to day survival such as:

• Supermarket supplies
• Construction supplies
• Mail and other delivery vehicles
• Fertilizer and other farm supplies
• ‘Exported’ tomatoes, garlic and other farm produce

Tourism

In 2006/07 there were approximately 1,458,000 staying visitors to the Island and 920,000 day visitors. Wightlink carried around two thirds of these meaning in that year the Company transported approximately 900,000 staying visitors and 570,000 day visitors

Part of the IOW Council & IOW Chamber of Commerce “Image Campaign"

The Company produces a number of subject specific tourism leaflets including :- Wight Taste Trail (Highlighting local produce); Rare Plants (where to find them the Island’s rare species);  Footloose, (things to do on foot on the Island); Green Getaways; Days Out Leaflets (Island Attractions to visit)

Vital assistance with a number of key Island Events, including IOW Festival and Bestival,  investing the equivalent of around £600,000 p.a. through cash, sponsorship for a number of individuals and discounted travel

Other

Working in partnership with South West Trains, Southern Vectis and the Island Line to provide a cohesive transport system

Carbon Footprint

• Portsmouth to Fishbourne - 0.037kg CO2 per passenger per kilometre (12.5K) Total 0.4625 kg CO2 per passenger per leg.
• Lymington to Yarmouth - 0.06kg CO2 per passenger per kilometre (6.5k) Total  0.39 kg CO2 per passenger per leg.
• Portsmouth Harbour to Ryde Pier - 0.6kg CO2 per passenger per kilometre (8.2k) Total 4.92kg CO2 per passenger per leg.

Contributing to the social wellbeing

In 2007/8 Wightlink assisted 27 sports teams and over 30 individuals to pursue their chosen sports

Working in partnership with Downside Middle School and the Isle Of Wight College to provide educational opportunities

- Key participator in the Green Island Initiative

Odd Facts

Wightlink, and its predecessor companies, has been operating ferry services across the Solent for over 180 years

Ownership of the company has passed from the British Railways Board to Sealink, to Sea Containers (who named the company Wightlink), before a management buy-in saw it established as a private company in 1995. Ten years later it was acquired by current owners, the Macquarie European Infrastructure Fund.

The heaviest load was the transport of of steam locomotive number 41313 to the IoW Steam Railway, which with it’s tractor/trailer weighed in at around 70 tonnes. The load was too high to go through the deck so the St. Catherine went into Gunwharf ‘bows in’ and the trailer was reversed off at Fishbourne. Extra heavy loads require special sailing arrangements and careful positioning of other vehicles around them.

Not quite the heaviest load at around 60 tonnes, Thomas The Tank Engine is carried on a return journey every year for a special Isle of Wight Steam Railway event. 

Over 1000 toilets are shipped for the IOW Festival annually

Stages for the Osborne House Concerts are carried each year

Various types of wildlife are carried, amongst the latest being a donkey for the Carisbrooke Castle’s water wheel