No late ferry service is no joke for Isle of Wight residents

A few weeks ago, I went by train from London to Amsterdam for a weekend.

The train arrived back in London late afternoon on the Sunday, but not in time for me to get a train from Waterloo that would be in time to catch the last catamaran of 8.20pm.

This meant that I had to stay the night in London and travel back on the Monday morning, thus missing a day’s work.

• Wightlink no cash policy meant I chose to go to Bournemouth

Moreover, before Covid, I would love to go to London for a day out to do some shopping and enjoy a matinee performance of a show or play, or go to a concert at the Guildhall in Portsmouth.

With the last ferry of 8.20pm this is no longer possible unless I either stay overnight in London or Portsmouth, or use the car ferry, get a taxi from Fishbourne to St. John’s to pick up my car and get home around midnight, with both options adding a lot of expense to the outing.

Wightlink’s claim that there would not be sufficient interest in a later catamaran is a self-fulfilling prophecy, because if you don’t run it, you don’t know it!

Besides, it is clearly contradicted by the number of letters complaining about this lack of service in the County Press.

But even if Wightlink were right, it is missing a crucial point, and that is the care for and service to its customer base and ultimately its reputation among the community it serves.

It has to make up its mind whether it wants to be appreciated and respected by its customers, or just be another company that feeds on a captive audience, works with blinkers on, and is only interested in shareholders’ profits.

• Read more letters sent to the County Press here. Do you have a view on this or any other subject? Send us a letter – under 350 words if possible - to editor@iwcp.co.uk