Improvements ahead for Wightlink’s Isle of Wight car parks

Wightlink is changing its car parking arrangements at Ryde Pier on Tuesday 26 June 2018, installing new ticket machines and offering more payment choices for customers.

Four new ticket machines will replace the three old ones – each will take payment by cash or card.

Customers can also register with RingGo and use a mobile phone app to make cashless payments for up to three days parking. Busy commuters using this method of payment will no longer need to put tickets on their windscreens and can even pay for their parking during their FastCat crossing.

Car parking charges will not increase for the rest of 2018.

“We are responding to customer feedback by giving people travelling on the FastCats a choice of payment methods, whether they are crossing the Solent for a few hours or a weekend,” says Business Development Director Clive Tilley. “Islanders who want to get to Portsmouth on the most reliable cross-Solent service will also appreciate having the opportunity to use the cashless RingGo system.”

From Tuesday 26 June 2018, drivers can wait on the Pier for up to 20 minutes for free to pick up or drop off friends and family (after paying the £1 pier toll to finance repairs and maintenance). Currently drivers can wait for an hour – this change has been made to free up more parking spaces for customers. From that date, it will not be possible to pay for car parking at Wightlink’s ticket office for stays of less than 24 hours (as customers now have alternative ways to pay).

Parking on the Pier is still free for motor cycles and bicycles.

The new system will use Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras to improve car parking efficiency on the Pier.

At Fishbourne, systems are unchanged but the ticket machine will be upgraded in the near future.

For more information, contact Karen Woods on 07775 694266 or [email protected].