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@@stevenhaworth9 This is typical of the respectful nature of Japanese visitors. I have a shop on a historic street that welcomes visitors from all over the world (and happens to share your name!). Long before the last 3 years of everyone wearing masks, it was the Japanese who wore them, not because of dislike of the 'Yorkshire air' as some locals thought, but because they had a common cold and didn't want to spread it.
You are correct about the trains - they are indeed ex-London Underground! They ran on the District line and were highly-regarded by staff as a reliable workhorse. Once they were all withdrawn a small business bought some and converted them for use on national rail - there are other examples elsewhere in the UK, but the Isle of Wight ones are the most successful.
Sadly now, Viva Rail has gone bankrupt. The route they were operating in the Midlands has ceased all running. But the IOW stock seems to be safe. At the moment.
Absolutely loved this. I grew up in Southsea about 10 minutes away from the Hovercraft. We used to love to go watch it in the school holidays. In those days 1970s there were no walls around the slip way. So you could stand on the promenade and the Hovercraft would come flying up the beach straight at you. It was great fun. When they left they would spin around on the spot and blast us with wind and salt water. 😂 😂 The one thing you don’t get from your great video is the noise, it’s so loud it’s deafening. I had my first trip on it when I was 4 and I’ve been many times since then and I get just as excited at 54 as I did at 4. 🤣🤣 Thank you for this.
Hi Kuga. This video just popped up in my TH-cam recommendations. I’m glad you enjoyed a visit to my home city of Portsmouth. Living here all my life I forget how unique the hovercraft really is. I take it for granted that it’s always there. 😊 Fun fact: that hovercraft can hit up to 45 knots/ 83km/h when the water is very calm.
I enjoyed this. I grew up just a few hundreds metres from the Southsea hovercraft, on the other side of Southsea Common. I always loved the sounds of those roaring engines. When I was a kid. the slipway didn't have that sturdy brick wall and safety padding. It was a low barrier that we used to stand on and let the hovercraft spray us with lovely cooling sea water on a hot summer's day. Then health and safety ruined our fun.
So glad you got to do it! I remember the larger hovercraft’s in the 1980’s big enough to take cars onboard too! They have one in the worlds only hovercraft museum further up the coast! Glad Japan is getting some soon!
That brings back memories. Back in the 80s I used to take the train to Portsmouth & Southsea most Saturdays to go shopping and hang out with my mates. If you took the train back to London Waterloo you would have passed the house I grew up in.
I used to ride this in the early 70s as a kid. It's crazy that one of them is still operating! LOVE IT. was always so cool when you back off the ramp and turn around. Miss the Isle of Wight too
Not the exact same craft. Hovertravel have changed hovercrafts many times over the years. The two current craft in use have only been operating since 2016.
Hi there. I am sure others have let you know already, but yes, you are right....the little train you saw when you got off the hovercraft, on the island, was indeed an old ex-London Tube Train. I only know that because I remember seeing it on another video ( somewhere) on TH-cam. I am sure you will be one of the first to try the new hovercraft when it is launched in Japan in 2023. Thanks for an enjoyable video.
I once travelled on the big car carrying hovercraft between the UK and France. That could be an exciting and uncomfortable ride in rough seas! Yes, you are quite right, the trains on the Isle of Wight ARE old London Underground trains rebuilt! The ones in the video are quite 'new' in that the trains only date back to the 1960s and were rebuilt in the last year or two. You just missed the previous trains which dated back to 1938!
Ahahah! I grew up near there. We used to call that the vomit comet. It’s also one of the most expensive stretches of water to cross in the world. Hovercrafts are great though.
So glad to see there’s still hovercraft service, albeit no longer across the English Channel. Second-loudest form of transportation I’ve ever ridden: not quite so loud as the helicopter service that used to shuttle passengers between LaGuardia and Kennedy in the ‘70s, but a little louder than riding in a DC-6 from Colombia to Venezuela.
oh you missed the glory days. There used to be two hovercracft flying from Folkestone to Dunkirk. I am so grateful I got to experience that numerous times. A monster of a vessel. It was SO fast as well. Crossed the channel in 30 minutes, sometimes less.
@@fremenondesand3896 from memory I took Seacat Dover - Calais, Hovercraft on the return leg. Also seacat Folkstone - Boulogne. Then later, Superseacat, Dover - Calais, quite a few times actually!
I'm from the UK and I didn't even know these still ran anywhere, I remember the stagecoach operated ones in Scotland and they always said they'd come back with much bigger ones but it never happened sadly, it was revolutionary to see as a kid. This was epic!
I went on that same trip to Ryde on the hovercraft in the 1960's with my parents, as a young boy that's an experience you never forget, thank you for bringing back those memories.
This bought back so many memories. My nan and grandad lived in Gosport, and we would go to Southsea when I was a kid, saw the hovercrafts, and went on one once. Used to go over to the isle of wight. Thank you for the memories, sadly my nan passed away in 2021, but I really enjoyed watching this, and taking me back there.
With the trains, yes, ex tube but, not as iconic as the original ex tube trains which used to run which were from the 1930's. As others have said, lived in England my entire life and yet missed that the hovercraft still operated to the IoW. Now, about those Dover/Calais ones. My life bucket list was to ride one. I booked on to one of the very last ones to leave England for France as a special treat to myself. They were so big we could drive the car onto it. For months my excitement grew and grew until the day finally arrived. I was so excited to drive the nearly 3 hours to the coast and then, when I got there I was greeted with a notice that they had decided to decommission the craft that day but, great news! It said. They were pleased to inform me that I would be riding the brand new seacat instead! My heart sank. From that I learnt, never leave a bucket list item until the last moment, make it happen as soon as the money is available!
Most peculiar mode of transit you've shared so far! I had no idea any of these were still in operation. I wonder if any British hovercraft fans will travel to Oita to see Japan's new one! 😄
Man, you would’ve loved the old Channel service … I can’t tell with precision, but judging roughly from your interior shots, I’d guess the hovercraft I rode from Dover to Calais in 1993 was at least three times larger, truly a beast. And while on it, they’d try and peddle you all sorts of stuff-I remember being handed what I thought was a menu, but opening it revealed an illustrated list of duty-free items they sold: huge cartons of cigarettes, cases with 12 bottles of scotch … I think some people made the trip just to buy junk! There was also this odd monster called the SeaCat at that time, a literal _catamaran_ that could transport a few hundred people at a time and was billed as “the world’s fastest catamaran” but which was perennially delayed, leading to wonderful pre-recorded announcements that would drone “The SeaCat … the world’s fastest catamaran … is now twenty minutes late. The SeaCat … the world’s fastest catamaran … is now forty minutes late. The SeaCat … the world’s fastest catamaran … is now eighty minutes late,” and so on. Enormous fun to ride on, though! You should try and seek out one of those catamarans, if you can. A cursory search shows the company which built them may still operate a few around Scotland.
The Dover to Calais craft were much bigger, carrying 427 passengers and 60 cars at speeds of up to 75mph. One of them is on display at the hovercraft museum a few miles along the coast at Lee-On-Solent.
I like the way you show the outside of the train stations. I should do that more when I travel. Appreciate the externals. The Hoverbus, bus sign is cool. I really enjoyed the hovercraft. A new hovercraft in Oita - fantastic. I hope you enjoyed the rice.
I studied in Southsea for GCSE and A-levels, now back in Asia, apart from the Hovercraft Ferry, I missed that station, it use to be about 15 minutes walk from Portsmouth and Southsea station.. Thanks for the video!
Well spotted, those those are indeed old London underground trains (Ryde tunnel is too low for normal trains). Until a few years ago they were reeeeeeeeally old Underground trains too, that dated back to the 1920s!
The old units on the line that the Viva Rail D (D for ex-District line) stock replaced were 1938 vintage tube stock. Modified at BRML's Eastleigh Works in the late 80's. The whole line was closed to allow the platforms etc to be raised to accommodate the new, larger D Stock.
the 1920s ones were pulled from service back in the 1990s (standard stock/class 485/6) to be replaced by the 38 stock 483s which were replaced by the D78 484s. Ryde Tunnel isn't actually all that low given it's running sub surface stock these days which are pretty much as big as mainline trains.
As an Islander, the hovercraft are one of those everyday things we take for granted, though it's always fun to ride. As for the trains, when steam stopped in the 1960's one line was kept open and ran with London tube trains from the 1920's; they were replaced in 1988 by ones from 1938. Up to 2021/22 they were the oldest trains running in the UK, at 82 years old (not counting heritage railways). The new ones date back to the 1970's. We are looking forward to 2040 when we should be getting the current underground stock! lol...
Excellent video - thank you for posting it. I recall back in about 1988 travelling the London tube train from Waterloo to Bank stations (the line was known affectionately as The Drain) that the trains were reputedly the second oldest rolling stock in the UK: the oldest were sent to the Isle of Wight. I was also unaware that a regular scheduled hovercraft service was still active - Wishing the new Japanese service every success. Thank you for visiting us in the UK. I wish you a very pleasant stay.
Glad you enjoyed your hovercraft trip. My first hovercraft trip was also on that route, but a long time ago - in 1971/2 to be exact, soon after I moved to London as a 19/20 year old. In the mid-1980s I also took the much larger hovercraft between Dover and either Calais or Boulogne a few times a year, always with my car, when I lived in Paris, in fact I never took the ordinary ferry, simply because the hovercraft was so much faster after having driven up from Paris, then I had to drive up to the north of Scotland - I usually did that over 2/3 days as I dislike driving too long a distance in a day. The hovercraft was a bit bumpy and noisy, but it certainly saved time, not as bumpy and noisy though as the jetfoil/hydrofoil I sometimes took when I lived in Hong Kong in the 1980s & 1990s though.
Ah!..my home town Portsmouth....Been awhile since I was last there...Now living in Scotland..and just recently returned from a 3 week trip to Japan!..Loved it!...wish I was still there...I visited Kagoshima, Kumamoto, Hiroshima, Oaska, Kyoto and of course Tokyo...While there I took in a LIVE concert of my favourite band!...BAND-MAID...My main reason for my visit.
I've been enjoying your videos for awhile, I love being able to explore all these journeys from the comfort of my own home! Thanks for continuing to post them!
My wife and I often stay at the Isle of Wight and have taken this very service to Portsmouth and back. We are going back this year and will more than likely use it again for one of our days out and about. ~Trooper
In the early eighties, I think 1984, I rode a hovercraft, a Vickers Thorneycroft, from somewhere in Hong Kong to a place called Shekou, . Shekou Industrial Zone preceded the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, but got swallowed up by it. They had a tiny museum with 4 tomb guardians from Xian, and then we took a bus to Guangzhou with lunch along the way, a visit to a Friendship store, and then a ride on the last stage of the Orient Express rail line back to Hong Kong - an epic trip for the time. Much more recently, I have taken a van, a subway and most often a catamaran, from Hong Kong to Shenzhen. The catamaran is very convenient, because you go directly from the transit area of Hong Kong airport to the Shenzhen cruise terminal so you skip Hong Kong immigration and customs. Haven't done that since the pandemic, and I wonder if it will once again become an epic and exotic trip. Once I had a trip to Hong Kong where I arrived the day after the US bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. Hong Kong was the primary destination, and that was OK, although I didn't go out without local colleagues. But Shenzhen was not a good idea. The one person I needed to see from Shenzhen came to Hong Kong instead. Then there was the time my Chinese colleague was bringing lots of baby formula back from Hong Kong. The there was the time I brought a traveler's disease in from Hong Kong, and had to go to the hospital for foreigners and children in Shenzhen. Foreigners can't really cope with Chinese hospitals. Being illiterate and ignorant, they might as well be children. I liked the cookies in the waiting room. Getting the IV sitting in a recliner with a teddy bear on the IV pole and cartoons on the screen was an experience. Travel can be an adventure. China is still not well set up for foreigners. I did get an English version of Didi, which is their version of Uber, which sort of worked, but everybody pays with WeChat Pay, which you couldn't use without a Chinese bank account. Chinese could get automated train tickets, but as a foreigner, I had to wait in line at a ticket office. Probably better to travel in Japan and Europe. Maybe the US?
Thanks for visiting my home Island, and glad you enjoyed the ride over! I live in Nagasaki now and I'd like to try the hovercraft service in Oita when it begins.
I'm glad you enjoyed your trip! Back in the "old days" there were no screens or fences around the Southsea Hoverport - If you stood too close, you would get hit by flying stones pushed by the hovercraft's huge engines! Great fun! :)
great to see this. I worked for a while in the factory that built the original hovercraft that were used for many years on this route (British Hovercraft Corp.). Interestingly they came under aerospace regulations in those days so every part no matter how small had to be checked and certified. The government at the time couldnt decide if they were a boat or an aircraft! They decided that as they travelled on air albeit about about 1ft of it then they must be aircraft! The same place (then Saunders Roe) built 3 of the amazing princess flying boats.Huge double deck planes. Sadly in spite of 12 yes 12 engines they didnt have enough power. Also BOAC decided the future was with land based airports and not water based ones and cancelled the order. Theres a lot of fascinating history behind all this. The same place also built the black night and blue streak rockets..tested initially near the Needles. On a trip to the Isle of Wight be sure to include a day to Alum Bay. Ignore the theme park but take the open top bus to the Battery an old fort. As well as the rocket testing site (fantastic view of Needles as well) there is an interesting museum about the rocket testing that went on there. The battery is NT so free admission for members. Museum is outside of battery so free entry.
I took my kids on the Hovercraft back in 2008, we got vouchers for it from Tesco. Those trains are former underground trains, they link Ryde to Shanklin. The electric trains also stop at Small Brook Junction that connects to the Isle of Wight steam railway. On the same trip we Spent the day on the Isle of Wight Steam trains also courtesy of Tesco vouchers, then came back on the Hovercraft. A great day out that only cost us our parking at Portsmouth and the electric train fare, thanks to the Generous voucher scheme.
It always surprises people when they come down to the island but to me it was all part of normal life I used to use the hovercraft quite a bit when I was going to college 5days a week over on the mainland a few years back, though more than once I had to catch the fastcat due to winds/stormy weather!
Good video... I did the trip many years ago when the Hovercraft was an SRN 5... And yes, the Island Line has always run ex London Underground stock - I think it was 1938 stock the last time I was there!
I did the hovercraft from Dover to Calais once. Very bumpy, a lot of vibration. Very noisy. Not allowed to walk around. Couldn't see through the spray on the windows. Stank of vomit and aviation fuel. But it was quick. The Channel Tunnel then came along and the speed advantage was gone. At Ryde at low tide the beach is very wide, and the hovercraft can go right up to the terminal even at low tide, and that's the main advantage of hovercraft - they can go pretty much anywhere. I think they were used for a time on ferry routes that froze in winter - they could be used when boats struggled through the ice, and the ice wasn't strong enough to take cars; but I think now icebreaker ferries are used on these routes.
I often pop across to Ryde just to do a bit of shopping. As a resident it's cheaper for me. This must be an old film as the seafront at Ryde is very different now. It's really lovely.
Between 1965 and 1981, this hovercraft service was known as ‘Seaspeed’ used to run between Wesr Cowes and Southampton. It moved to Ryde later when it merged with Hovertravel.
Hovertravel first commenced operations during July 1965, initially leasing a pair of SR.N6 hovercraft, a stretched model of the SR.N5 capable of seating up to 38 passengers, from the British Hovercraft Corporation (BHC).[7] An initial service between Ryde, Southsea and Stokes Bay, Gosport, was established. At its onset, it was planned to run a seasonal summer service to provide a unique experience orientated towards tourists visiting the region; despite this intention, a high level of regular travellers and commuters used the service to the extent that a year-round service became viable.[7] Early on, Hovertravel faced direct competition from another hovercraft operator, the British Rail-owned Seaspeed with its rival Cowes-Southampton route. Eventually, Hovertravel took over running of the route on behalf of Seaspeed; however, in 1980, the decision was taken to discontinue the Cowes-Southampton service due to rising costs and increased competition from Red Funnel's hydrofoils, instead concentrating its resources on the Ryde-Southsea service, which was viewed as being more viable.[7]
Hi Kuga Thank you for visiting my homecity of Portsmouth! Hovercrafts, and similarly hydrofoils, are fast but they are expensive to run. Back in their hayday, they were both considerably faster than conventional boats. However, due to the development of catamarans it meant many water crossings had a more economical means to to cross and the hovercraft fell out of favour. Except Portsmouth to Ryde . There is a HUGE sandbank at Ryde. At 7:40 if this was at low tide then the hovercaft would most likely be on the sand here. You can also see the bank from Google Maps. Therefore the competing _Wightlink_ service has to dock at a big jetty (What the train is runing along at 9:04) meaning the hovercraft can still compete with the catamaran. In comparison, catamaran: Journey time: 22 mins Frequency: Every hour (With two skipped hours during weekdays) Cost: £26.20 (Adult Day Return during Summer)
Also, one time I was returning home sittng on the hovercraft waiting to go. When the Captain (Or technically, Pilot) announced that there was a fault (This was one the old crafts that were replaced by the current craft in this video) and we would have to disembark and board the other one. We all did exactly that, got off, walked about 15m across the slipway at Ryde and we were on our way with no real disruption!
I have fond memories of this hovercraft service. Although, arguably rather overpriced for your average person, the journeys were always worth it. As a palaeontology student, being able to quickly travel to the Isle of Wight was very helpful for both academic and personal reasons. The Isle of Wight, in the palaeontology world, is often called, 'Dinosaur Isle', as it preserves a lot of Dinosaur fossils (often from the Early Cretaceous) and other fossils. A lot of Dinosaurs were living in what we call the Wealden, about 130-110 million years ago. There is literally a museum called Dinosaur Isle, near Shanklin Beach. I had fieldtrips to the Isle of Wight which depended, in part, on the hovercraft. I would have used it more if it weren't so expensive for a student especially. There were a few trips when it was a bit 'skippy' getting towards Ryde, over rougher waves and in stronger winds. Most of the time it was a very smooth journey. But the one time I had a visit from family members and went to the Isle of Wight with them to show them around, it had to be the day the weather went a bit rough and the journey was pretty turbulent. Typical. Again, that was like one relatively 'bouncy'/'skippy' journey out of all the others which were relaxing. If I could have afforded it I'd have been visiting the Isle of Wight a lot more for fossil collection purposes but I had to limit it to the essential visits. If I were a richer man I'd have been using it all the time but alas, that was not within my means. Prohibitive ticket costs aside, I understand that a lot of the running costs and maintenance costs justify it to an extent. Still a bit pricey (it's like six all day bus tickets rolled into one cost, per return ticket to go there and come back) Bit much. Still, it's part of UK history. There used to be a much bigger one going back and forth between the UK and France (before the Channel Tunnel opened)
Thanks for bringing bath childhood memories. Watching the Dover - Calais crossing enter Dover harbour, so big it could carry cars was such a spectacle. The bumpy ride over to France I miss a little less 😅
Ok what the next type of transport, are we going back to the old wooden ferries. That’s what I was on when my family, dad, mum and brothers left the Isle of Wight back in 1957 to Australia. That ferry left Cowes to Southampton.
"My hovercraft is full of eels" ... from the Monty Python sketch about the naughty Hungarian - English tourist dictionary. The sketch was titled "Dirty Hungarian Phrasebook".
There are two train lines on Isle of Wight. You missed out because the one from Ryde IS old tube stock, and it connects to a heritage steam railway- I’m sure you would have enjoyed
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you do not need to censor peoples faces in the UK it is legal to film their faces in public and to display on video
@kuga's do you have IG?
@@stevenhaworth9 This is typical of the respectful nature of Japanese visitors. I have a shop on a historic street that welcomes visitors from all over the world (and happens to share your name!). Long before the last 3 years of everyone wearing masks, it was the Japanese who wore them, not because of dislike of the 'Yorkshire air' as some locals thought, but because they had a common cold and didn't want to spread it.
You are correct about the trains - they are indeed ex-London Underground! They ran on the District line and were highly-regarded by staff as a reliable workhorse. Once they were all withdrawn a small business bought some and converted them for use on national rail - there are other examples elsewhere in the UK, but the Isle of Wight ones are the most successful.
Sadly now, Viva Rail has gone bankrupt. The route they were operating in the Midlands has ceased all running. But the IOW stock seems to be safe. At the moment.
@@BoaFilmsPlc that's a shame 😟
Absolutely loved this. I grew up in Southsea about 10 minutes away from the Hovercraft. We used to love to go watch it in the school holidays. In those days 1970s there were no walls around the slip way. So you could stand on the promenade and the Hovercraft would come flying up the beach straight at you. It was great fun. When they left they would spin around on the spot and blast us with wind and salt water. 😂 😂
The one thing you don’t get from your great video is the noise, it’s so loud it’s deafening. I had my first trip on it when I was 4 and I’ve been many times since then and I get just as excited at 54 as I did at 4. 🤣🤣 Thank you for this.
No commiserations needed, always happy to see more hovercraft in service 😀
Hi Kuga.
This video just popped up in my TH-cam recommendations.
I’m glad you enjoyed a visit to my home city of Portsmouth.
Living here all my life I forget how unique the hovercraft really is. I take it for granted that it’s always there. 😊
Fun fact:
that hovercraft can hit up to 45 knots/ 83km/h when the water is very calm.
EPIC!!! You did the UK proud!!
I enjoyed this. I grew up just a few hundreds metres from the Southsea hovercraft, on the other side of Southsea Common. I always loved the sounds of those roaring engines. When I was a kid. the slipway didn't have that sturdy brick wall and safety padding. It was a low barrier that we used to stand on and let the hovercraft spray us with lovely cooling sea water on a hot summer's day. Then health and safety ruined our fun.
Same here, loved to get pelted with stones and spray… those were the days !
You can still stand to the left of the Hovercraft and still get soaked, not pleasant on a cold day.
Southsea show was a great day aswell.
I love how excited the little kid in the background was to see it.
So glad you got to do it! I remember the larger hovercraft’s in the 1980’s big enough to take cars onboard too! They have one in the worlds only hovercraft museum further up the coast! Glad Japan is getting some soon!
This is my hometown! I have pictures of me as a small child being held up by my dad, watching the hovercraft come in ❤
That brings back memories. Back in the 80s I used to take the train to Portsmouth & Southsea most Saturdays to go shopping and hang out with my mates. If you took the train back to London Waterloo you would have passed the house I grew up in.
I used to ride this in the early 70s as a kid. It's crazy that one of them is still operating! LOVE IT. was always so cool when you back off the ramp and turn around. Miss the Isle of Wight too
Not the exact same craft. Hovertravel have changed hovercrafts many times over the years. The two current craft in use have only been operating since 2016.
Hi there.
I am sure others have let you know already, but yes, you are right....the little train you saw when you got off the hovercraft, on the island, was indeed an old ex-London Tube Train.
I only know that because I remember seeing it on another video ( somewhere) on TH-cam.
I am sure you will be one of the first to try the new hovercraft when it is launched in Japan in 2023.
Thanks for an enjoyable video.
I once travelled on the big car carrying hovercraft between the UK and France. That could be an exciting and uncomfortable ride in rough seas! Yes, you are quite right, the trains on the Isle of Wight ARE old London Underground trains rebuilt! The ones in the video are quite 'new' in that the trains only date back to the 1960s and were rebuilt in the last year or two. You just missed the previous trains which dated back to 1938!
Ahahah! I grew up near there. We used to call that the vomit comet. It’s also one of the most expensive stretches of water to cross in the world. Hovercrafts are great though.
So glad to see there’s still hovercraft service, albeit no longer across the English Channel. Second-loudest form of transportation I’ve ever ridden: not quite so loud as the helicopter service that used to shuttle passengers between LaGuardia and Kennedy in the ‘70s, but a little louder than riding in a DC-6 from Colombia to Venezuela.
Yes the earlier ones were REALLY noisy but these .modern ones are very quiet.
oh you missed the glory days. There used to be two hovercracft flying from Folkestone to Dunkirk. I am so grateful I got to experience that numerous times. A monster of a vessel. It was SO fast as well. Crossed the channel in 30 minutes, sometimes less.
I thought I remembered it being a beast of a craft, never rode it, but it was spectacular to see
Never heard of Folkestone Dunkirk- there was one from Folkestone to Boulogne-sur-Mer.
My first holiday abroad, we got the channel hovercraft. It was so exciting!
@@richardtalbot8769 yeah you're right, mis-remembered. Could have sworn the hoverspeed went to one of the big ferry ports.
@@fremenondesand3896 from memory I took Seacat Dover - Calais, Hovercraft on the return leg. Also seacat Folkstone - Boulogne. Then later, Superseacat, Dover - Calais, quite a few times actually!
I'm from the UK and I didn't even know these still ran anywhere, I remember the stagecoach operated ones in Scotland and they always said they'd come back with much bigger ones but it never happened sadly, it was revolutionary to see as a kid. This was epic!
I went on that same trip to Ryde on the hovercraft in the 1960's with my parents, as a young boy that's an experience you never forget, thank you for bringing back those memories.
Awesome seeing this on TH-cam. Huge part of my childhood watching the Hovercraft come in at Southsea. Totally fascinating machines.
I'm so glad you had fun in my home country ^-^ Looking forward to seeing the Japanese Hovercraft.
This bought back so many memories. My nan and grandad lived in Gosport, and we would go to Southsea when I was a kid, saw the hovercrafts, and went on one once. Used to go over to the isle of wight. Thank you for the memories, sadly my nan passed away in 2021, but I really enjoyed watching this, and taking me back there.
With the trains, yes, ex tube but, not as iconic as the original ex tube trains which used to run which were from the 1930's. As others have said, lived in England my entire life and yet missed that the hovercraft still operated to the IoW.
Now, about those Dover/Calais ones. My life bucket list was to ride one. I booked on to one of the very last ones to leave England for France as a special treat to myself. They were so big we could drive the car onto it. For months my excitement grew and grew until the day finally arrived. I was so excited to drive the nearly 3 hours to the coast and then, when I got there I was greeted with a notice that they had decided to decommission the craft that day but, great news! It said. They were pleased to inform me that I would be riding the brand new seacat instead!
My heart sank. From that I learnt, never leave a bucket list item until the last moment, make it happen as soon as the money is available!
Just up the road in Lee on Solent is the Hovercraft museum, it's got all sorts of Hovercrafts inc the biggest.
Most peculiar mode of transit you've shared so far! I had no idea any of these were still in operation. I wonder if any British hovercraft fans will travel to Oita to see Japan's new one! 😄
Man, you would’ve loved the old Channel service … I can’t tell with precision, but judging roughly from your interior shots, I’d guess the hovercraft I rode from Dover to Calais in 1993 was at least three times larger, truly a beast. And while on it, they’d try and peddle you all sorts of stuff-I remember being handed what I thought was a menu, but opening it revealed an illustrated list of duty-free items they sold: huge cartons of cigarettes, cases with 12 bottles of scotch … I think some people made the trip just to buy junk!
There was also this odd monster called the SeaCat at that time, a literal _catamaran_ that could transport a few hundred people at a time and was billed as “the world’s fastest catamaran” but which was perennially delayed, leading to wonderful pre-recorded announcements that would drone “The SeaCat … the world’s fastest catamaran … is now twenty minutes late. The SeaCat … the world’s fastest catamaran … is now forty minutes late. The SeaCat … the world’s fastest catamaran … is now eighty minutes late,” and so on. Enormous fun to ride on, though!
You should try and seek out one of those catamarans, if you can. A cursory search shows the company which built them may still operate a few around Scotland.
The Dover to Calais craft were much bigger, carrying 427 passengers and 60 cars at speeds of up to 75mph. One of them is on display at the hovercraft museum a few miles along the coast at Lee-On-Solent.
I like the way you show the outside of the train stations. I should do that more when I travel. Appreciate the externals. The Hoverbus, bus sign is cool. I really enjoyed the hovercraft. A new hovercraft in Oita - fantastic. I hope you enjoyed the rice.
I studied in Southsea for GCSE and A-levels, now back in Asia, apart from the Hovercraft Ferry, I missed that station, it use to be about 15 minutes walk from Portsmouth and Southsea station.. Thanks for the video!
2:36 🎵He’s got a ticket to Ryde…
A very Super Super thanks to you for the fun virtual trip.LOl.Just love your humour.
This was awesome! Thanks for taking us along with you 😊
Well spotted, those those are indeed old London underground trains (Ryde tunnel is too low for normal trains). Until a few years ago they were reeeeeeeeally old Underground trains too, that dated back to the 1920s!
The old units on the line that the Viva Rail D (D for ex-District line) stock replaced were 1938 vintage tube stock. Modified at BRML's Eastleigh Works in the late 80's. The whole line was closed to allow the platforms etc to be raised to accommodate the new, larger D Stock.
the 1920s ones were pulled from service back in the 1990s (standard stock/class 485/6) to be replaced by the 38 stock 483s which were replaced by the D78 484s. Ryde Tunnel isn't actually all that low given it's running sub surface stock these days which are pretty much as big as mainline trains.
Don't you mean New ......... your comments are outdated.
As an Islander, the hovercraft are one of those everyday things we take for granted, though it's always fun to ride. As for the trains, when steam stopped in the 1960's one line was kept open and ran with London tube trains from the 1920's; they were replaced in 1988 by ones from 1938. Up to 2021/22 they were the oldest trains running in the UK, at 82 years old (not counting heritage railways). The new ones date back to the 1970's. We are looking forward to 2040 when we should be getting the current underground stock! lol...
Excellent video - thank you for posting it.
I recall back in about 1988 travelling the London tube train from Waterloo to Bank stations (the line was known affectionately as The Drain) that the trains were reputedly the second oldest rolling stock in the UK: the oldest were sent to the Isle of Wight.
I was also unaware that a regular scheduled hovercraft service was still active - Wishing the new Japanese service every success.
Thank you for visiting us in the UK. I wish you a very pleasant stay.
Glad you enjoyed your hovercraft trip. My first hovercraft trip was also on that route, but a long time ago - in 1971/2 to be exact, soon after I moved to London as a 19/20 year old. In the mid-1980s I also took the much larger hovercraft between Dover and either Calais or Boulogne a few times a year, always with my car, when I lived in Paris, in fact I never took the ordinary ferry, simply because the hovercraft was so much faster after having driven up from Paris, then I had to drive up to the north of Scotland - I usually did that over 2/3 days as I dislike driving too long a distance in a day. The hovercraft was a bit bumpy and noisy, but it certainly saved time, not as bumpy and noisy though as the jetfoil/hydrofoil I sometimes took when I lived in Hong Kong in the 1980s & 1990s though.
Ah!..my home town Portsmouth....Been awhile since I was last there...Now living in Scotland..and just recently returned from a 3 week trip to Japan!..Loved it!...wish I was still there...I visited Kagoshima, Kumamoto, Hiroshima, Oaska, Kyoto and of course Tokyo...While there I took in a LIVE concert of my favourite band!...BAND-MAID...My main reason for my visit.
That was tremendous! Can't wait to see what the amazing Japanese will do with one of those babies! The Kuga Europe adventure is delightful, thank you💜
Very beautiful footage my friend, greetings from Sweden 🇸🇪
I've been enjoying your videos for awhile, I love being able to explore all these journeys from the comfort of my own home! Thanks for continuing to post them!
Wow, thank you Neal!🤝
I think the hovercraft in London would be happy, as it has a friend now in Japan 😊😊😊
There isn’t a hovercraft in London.
My wife and I often stay at the Isle of Wight and have taken this very service to Portsmouth and back. We are going back this year and will more than likely use it again for one of our days out and about. ~Trooper
No trip to the Isle of Wight is complete without a trip on the hovercraft!
So cool! I love being on the move with you, experiencing all these different locations around the world. Feeling blessed! Thanks!
I took the SRN6 hovercraft on this crossing several times as a child whilst holidaying on the Isle of Wight.
Thanks, Very interesting and looking forward to your rides on the new one in Japan. Laurie. NZ.
In the early eighties, I think 1984, I rode a hovercraft, a Vickers Thorneycroft, from somewhere in Hong Kong to a place called Shekou, . Shekou Industrial Zone preceded the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, but got swallowed up by it. They had a tiny museum with 4 tomb guardians from Xian, and then we took a bus to Guangzhou with lunch along the way, a visit to a Friendship store, and then a ride on the last stage of the Orient Express rail line back to Hong Kong - an epic trip for the time. Much more recently, I have taken a van, a subway and most often a catamaran, from Hong Kong to Shenzhen. The catamaran is very convenient, because you go directly from the transit area of Hong Kong airport to the Shenzhen cruise terminal so you skip Hong Kong immigration and customs. Haven't done that since the pandemic, and I wonder if it will once again become an epic and exotic trip.
Once I had a trip to Hong Kong where I arrived the day after the US bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. Hong Kong was the primary destination, and that was OK, although I didn't go out without local colleagues. But Shenzhen was not a good idea. The one person I needed to see from Shenzhen came to Hong Kong instead.
Then there was the time my Chinese colleague was bringing lots of baby formula back from Hong Kong. The there was the time I brought a traveler's disease in from Hong Kong, and had to go to the hospital for foreigners and children in Shenzhen. Foreigners can't really cope with Chinese hospitals. Being illiterate and ignorant, they might as well be children. I liked the cookies in the waiting room. Getting the IV sitting in a recliner with a teddy bear on the IV pole and cartoons on the screen was an experience.
Travel can be an adventure.
China is still not well set up for foreigners. I did get an English version of Didi, which is their version of Uber, which sort of worked, but everybody pays with WeChat Pay, which you couldn't use without a Chinese bank account. Chinese could get automated train tickets, but as a foreigner, I had to wait in line at a ticket office. Probably better to travel in Japan and Europe. Maybe the US?
My home city Portsmouth, I love watching about your travels, especially in Japan, it's something I hope to do one day.
I went on the hovercraft. For my honeymoon and it was so fun and quick and easy 🤗
Great Video, thanks for sharing this with all of us who were watching this Video
Thanks for visiting my home Island, and glad you enjoyed the ride over! I live in Nagasaki now and I'd like to try the hovercraft service in Oita when it begins.
I'm glad you enjoyed your trip!
Back in the "old days" there were no screens or fences around the Southsea Hoverport - If you stood too close, you would get hit by flying stones pushed by the hovercraft's huge engines! Great fun! :)
great to see this. I worked for a while in the factory that built the original hovercraft that were used for many years on this route (British Hovercraft Corp.). Interestingly they came under aerospace regulations in those days so every part no matter how small had to be checked and certified. The government at the time couldnt decide if they were a boat or an aircraft! They decided that as they travelled on air albeit about about 1ft of it then they must be aircraft! The same place (then Saunders Roe) built 3 of the amazing princess flying boats.Huge double deck planes. Sadly in spite of 12 yes 12 engines they didnt have enough power. Also BOAC decided the future was with land based airports and not water based ones and cancelled the order. Theres a lot of fascinating history behind all this. The same place also built the black night and blue streak rockets..tested initially near the Needles. On a trip to the Isle of Wight be sure to include a day to Alum Bay. Ignore the theme park but take the open top bus to the Battery an old fort. As well as the rocket testing site (fantastic view of Needles as well) there is an interesting museum about the rocket testing that went on there. The battery is NT so free admission for members. Museum is outside of battery so free entry.
I took my kids on the Hovercraft back in 2008, we got vouchers for it from Tesco. Those trains are former underground trains, they link Ryde to Shanklin. The electric trains also stop at Small Brook Junction that connects to the Isle of Wight steam railway. On the same trip we Spent the day on the Isle of Wight Steam trains also courtesy of Tesco vouchers, then came back on the Hovercraft. A great day out that only cost us our parking at Portsmouth and the electric train fare, thanks to the Generous voucher scheme.
ウェールズの世界遺産であるポントカサステ水路橋を運行するナローボートに乗ってみてほしいです。
最近興味を持ちました。運河を進む船に乗るのも面白そうです。
I went on this a few days ago - Love it best part of my day :)
It always surprises people when they come down to the island but to me it was all part of normal life I used to use the hovercraft quite a bit when I was going to college 5days a week over on the mainland a few years back, though more than once I had to catch the fastcat due to winds/stormy weather!
Looking forward to your Japanese hovercraft video. :)
I went to Portsmouth exactly two weeks after Kuga-san did. Could’ve bumped into him 😆
Lovely ride there,thanks for sharing
I was fortunate to get to ride one when they first started the Isle of Wight crossing in the 60s so amazing I was only 10 years old
Aside from the Isle of Wight service I used a similar SRN6 from Kowloon across the harbour and up river in 1992. A very bouncy ride 😂
I do'nt think old "Cockers" got the recognition he deserved for putting these beasts together.
Good video... I did the trip many years ago when the Hovercraft was an SRN 5... And yes, the Island Line has always run ex London Underground stock - I think it was 1938 stock the last time I was there!
Its quiz time.....my all time favourite band come from here....best bass player ever....Gould brothers....👏👏👏
In Norway people are using hovercrafts as daily transportation during the winter 😄 But on a quite smaller scale of course...
I did the hovercraft from Dover to Calais once. Very bumpy, a lot of vibration. Very noisy. Not allowed to walk around. Couldn't see through the spray on the windows. Stank of vomit and aviation fuel. But it was quick. The Channel Tunnel then came along and the speed advantage was gone. At Ryde at low tide the beach is very wide, and the hovercraft can go right up to the terminal even at low tide, and that's the main advantage of hovercraft - they can go pretty much anywhere. I think they were used for a time on ferry routes that froze in winter - they could be used when boats struggled through the ice, and the ice wasn't strong enough to take cars; but I think now icebreaker ferries are used on these routes.
I went on this on my 50th birthday. It was amazing, then went up the spinnaker tower 👍
I often pop across to Ryde just to do a bit of shopping. As a resident it's cheaper for me. This must be an old film as the seafront at Ryde is very different now. It's really lovely.
I love your content. Thanks for sharing and also appreciate your fun humour. Stay safe 🙏
In the 1980s I traveled to/from France in the really big one. I believe it was called the Princess Margaret. It was quite an experience!
Between 1965 and 1981, this hovercraft service was known as ‘Seaspeed’ used to run between Wesr Cowes and Southampton. It moved to Ryde later when it merged with Hovertravel.
Hovertravel first commenced operations during July 1965, initially leasing a pair of SR.N6 hovercraft, a stretched model of the SR.N5 capable of seating up to 38 passengers, from the British Hovercraft Corporation (BHC).[7] An initial service between Ryde, Southsea and Stokes Bay, Gosport, was established. At its onset, it was planned to run a seasonal summer service to provide a unique experience orientated towards tourists visiting the region; despite this intention, a high level of regular travellers and commuters used the service to the extent that a year-round service became viable.[7]
Early on, Hovertravel faced direct competition from another hovercraft operator, the British Rail-owned Seaspeed with its rival Cowes-Southampton route. Eventually, Hovertravel took over running of the route on behalf of Seaspeed; however, in 1980, the decision was taken to discontinue the Cowes-Southampton service due to rising costs and increased competition from Red Funnel's hydrofoils, instead concentrating its resources on the Ryde-Southsea service, which was viewed as being more viable.[7]
Hi Kuga
Thank you for visiting my homecity of Portsmouth!
Hovercrafts, and similarly hydrofoils, are fast but they are expensive to run. Back in their hayday, they were both considerably faster than conventional boats. However, due to the development of catamarans it meant many water crossings had a more economical means to to cross and the hovercraft fell out of favour.
Except Portsmouth to Ryde .
There is a HUGE sandbank at Ryde. At 7:40 if this was at low tide then the hovercaft would most likely be on the sand here. You can also see the bank from Google Maps. Therefore the competing _Wightlink_ service has to dock at a big jetty (What the train is runing along at 9:04) meaning the hovercraft can still compete with the catamaran.
In comparison, catamaran:
Journey time: 22 mins
Frequency: Every hour (With two skipped hours during weekdays)
Cost: £26.20 (Adult Day Return during Summer)
Also, one time I was returning home sittng on the hovercraft waiting to go. When the Captain (Or technically, Pilot) announced that there was a fault (This was one the old crafts that were replaced by the current craft in this video) and we would have to disembark and board the other one. We all did exactly that, got off, walked about 15m across the slipway at Ryde and we were on our way with no real disruption!
Very good video. That is unique. That’s interesting news about Japan’s version! Thank you.
I remember when hovercraft were hailed as the transport of the future!!
I have fond memories of this hovercraft service. Although, arguably rather overpriced for your average person, the journeys were always worth it. As a palaeontology student, being able to quickly travel to the Isle of Wight was very helpful for both academic and personal reasons. The Isle of Wight, in the palaeontology world, is often called, 'Dinosaur Isle', as it preserves a lot of Dinosaur fossils (often from the Early Cretaceous) and other fossils. A lot of Dinosaurs were living in what we call the Wealden, about 130-110 million years ago. There is literally a museum called Dinosaur Isle, near Shanklin Beach.
I had fieldtrips to the Isle of Wight which depended, in part, on the hovercraft. I would have used it more if it weren't so expensive for a student especially. There were a few trips when it was a bit 'skippy' getting towards Ryde, over rougher waves and in stronger winds. Most of the time it was a very smooth journey. But the one time I had a visit from family members and went to the Isle of Wight with them to show them around, it had to be the day the weather went a bit rough and the journey was pretty turbulent. Typical.
Again, that was like one relatively 'bouncy'/'skippy' journey out of all the others which were relaxing. If I could have afforded it I'd have been visiting the Isle of Wight a lot more for fossil collection purposes but I had to limit it to the essential visits. If I were a richer man I'd have been using it all the time but alas, that was not within my means. Prohibitive ticket costs aside, I understand that a lot of the running costs and maintenance costs justify it to an extent. Still a bit pricey (it's like six all day bus tickets rolled into one cost, per return ticket to go there and come back) Bit much. Still, it's part of UK history. There used to be a much bigger one going back and forth between the UK and France (before the Channel Tunnel opened)
Not often the island I grew up on gets mentioned much so this was good to see great place to live aswell
Good morning🖐️
Fantastic view Nice video
Greetings Janusz from Warsaw, 🇵🇱 🖐️Poland ✌️
Made that trip many times, is a one of a kind experience!
Should never have stopped using these across the channel.
Another great video. Thank you Kuga
I live in Portsmouth, I have been on the hovercraft many times. There are two hovercrafts in service, hope you had a great time🤗
Great trip. When I see hovercraft, it's remembered me about driving it at GTA San Andreas.
So crazy watching a video on your channel of days from my childhood 🫶
I didn't realise there was one one left.
I got a cross channel hovercraft as a kid.
We drove our car on it.
Crazy times.
That's for the video.
The cross channel 4 engine hovercrafts back in the day were the absolute. Another Concorde moment lost.....
it is very interesting to watch a video on where I live and use a service I used
Another great video Kuga.
Thanks for bringing bath childhood memories. Watching the Dover - Calais crossing enter Dover harbour, so big it could carry cars was such a spectacle. The bumpy ride over to France I miss a little less 😅
3 minutes down the road from my house :D I feel so lucky to live in Ryde.
Thank you that was amazing!
You mean you've had enough fish & chips!? Boy howdy are you in the wrong place!! 😊
Ok what the next type of transport, are we going back to the old wooden ferries. That’s what I was on when my family, dad, mum and brothers left the Isle of Wight back in 1957 to Australia. That ferry left Cowes to Southampton.
SUPER THANKS!
In Canada they operate a Rescue Hovercraft that was Built in the United Kingdom.....🇬🇧
The hovercraft used to run from Southampton to Cowes back in the early 70s.
Kuga! crossing Dover several times on to France on this journey, it bring back memories !😮
It's such a great video😊Thanks for sharing 😄✨
I want to ride a hovercraft 😀
Remember the ones to France and back, massive beasts damn noisy though and you could take your car on them.
"My hovercraft is full of eels" ... from the Monty Python sketch about the naughty Hungarian - English tourist dictionary. The sketch was titled "Dirty Hungarian Phrasebook".
Yay! Great choice! Loved doing this trip. So unique
There are two train lines on Isle of Wight. You missed out because the one from Ryde IS old tube stock, and it connects to a heritage steam railway- I’m sure you would have enjoyed