Emissions Trading Scheme

The Government ETS charge

A small environmental levy will apply to vehicle ferry bookings on our Portsmouth – Fishbourne route for travel taken after 1 July 2026.

This is a direct result of the UK government introducing a new emissions charge for certain large domestic ferries. Read on below to find out what this means for your booking and why it’s being added.

What this means for you

If you make a booking to travel in a vehicle on our Portsmouth – Fishbourne route after 1 July 2026, you’ll be charged an additional cost for each leg of your sailing.

This ETS levy applies for travel both to and from the Isle of Wight and will be clearly labelled in the checkout.

If you have a Multilink Vehicle Pass or Business Pass and make a booking for travel after 1 July, you will need to pay the charge.

ETS levy charges

  • 🛵 £1.25 per crossing: Motorcycles and scooters

  • 🚗 £1.50 per crossing: Cars under five metres in length

  • 🚛 £1.75 per crossing: Vehicles that are five metres or more in length, including freight, coaches, motorhomes and horse boxes

Find out more about the ETS Levy.

Coach Tickets

  • Booking fee: Free
  • Amendments: Free. Any increase in ticket costs must be paid at time of amendment.
  • Refunds: Yes, when cancelled more than 14 days before outward departure.
  • Cancellation Fee: Bookings cancelled 1-14 days before outward departure will be charged a 50% cancellation fee. Bookings cancelled less than 24 hours before outward departure are non-refundable No show: We reserve the right to charge in full for any sailing for which you fail to check in, or fail to board.
  • Check-In: No later than 30 minutes before departure.

Full details at wightlink.co.uk/terms

Business Tickets

  • Booking fee: free.
  • Amendments: Free. Any increase in ticket costs must be paid at time of amendment. Amendments can be made up to 1 hour before departure.
  • Refunds: Yes, when cancelled at least 12 hours before outward departure.
  • Cancellation Fee: Cancellations 1-12 hours before outward departure are charged a 50% cancellation fee. Bookings cancelled less than 1 hour before outward departure are non-refundable
  • No show: We reserve the right to charge in full for any sailing for which you fail to check in, or fail to board.
  • Check-In: No later than 30 minutes before departure.

Full details at wightlink.co.uk/terms

Website and app maintenance – 3-4 July 2024

Due to scheduled maintenance, the wightlink.co.uk website may be inaccessible for a short period between 22:00 and 00:00 on Wednesday, 3 July. Bookings can still be made and amended at book.wightlink.co.uk or by using the Wightlink app during this time.

This will then be followed by maintenance to our booking system between 00:00 and 05:00 on Thursday, 4 July. During this time, you may not be able to make or amend bookings online or on the Wightlink app.

A new app version will follow in the next few days so please ensure you’ve updated to the latest version. This might require you to log back in.

Why have you banned all e-scooters, e-skateboards, e-unicycles and hoverboards on board your ships and inside customer buildings?

We don’t allow any small e-vehicles to travel on our ships or enter our customer buildings due to the growing number of reports from local and national fire services of fires caused by the batteries on this type of vehicle.

This is because there is a lack of legislation and testing of the lithium-ion batteries used on non-approved vehicles. The batteries on these vehicles also tend to be situated under the board where users stand on e-scooters and e-skateboards, which makes then more susceptible to damage form hitting kerbs or other surfaces.

This ban will remain in place until there is better understanding and legislation of their use.

E-bikes, electric wheelchairs and mobility scooters are not affected by the ban as they are legally approved for use in the UK. E-bikes, like all bicycles, are not permitted in the lounges onboard ferries.