Friends will be on the Isle of Wight in Oct and I promised to try to get a couple of questions answered for them:
1. Does the hovercraft run at that time of year?
2. Does the train on the Isle of Wight
run at that time of year?
3. What is the best way to get from Croyden/Crawley area to the Isle of Wight - bus or train to ?
4. Where to get bus or train?
Thanks so much for the help.

www.islandbreaks.co.uk

www.nationalrail.co.uk

www.nationalexpress.co.uk

Topping
Unfortunately none of those websites clearly answered my specific questions.

semiramis, I suggest you get a new computer if yours doesn't allow you to open those links. I clicked on that first link that Patrick gave, followed other links and found hovercraft schedules right down to the exact dates it doesn't run. I found the various train schedules including dates of operation as well as maps for showing where you get it and where the stops are. There are even links to National Rail and National Express where you can put in your dates and starting points to get the information you requested from Croyden/Crawley by either coach or train.
I guess I could take the time and pull all that information out for you, but since you didn't give the exact dates and it varies by the day of the week, I would suggest you or your friends find the information that way so it will be exact as it applies to their situation and times.

...which questions were not answered by the resources provided by patrick?

then maybe we can help you.

Over 100,000 people live on the Isle of Wight, so there is public transport in winter as well in summer.
From Croydon (East Croydon station) or Crawley, you can take a train to Portsmouth Harbour, then a fast catamaran to Ryde (www.wightlink.co.uk) then a train or bus (www.islandbuses.info) to anywhere on the island.

Specifically the whole catamaran thing is VERY confusingly described.
I got a rail time time table from one of the websites (which I had already done but thanks). It should be useful for my friends but it has some confusing notes about the catamaran from Portsmouth. I am not sure whether the notes indicate whether the catamaran operates only until September 23 or whether just certain sailings are cancelled. I am concerned specifically with October and was hoping that someone with actual experience could tell me what is operating in OCTOBER. I 'think' it operates then but I would rather not give the wrong info to my elderly friends.
I have found out that the train to get leaves Waterloo Station and I assume my friends will have to go into London and get the train there. I was hoping there was some connection (train or bus) at Croyden but I have not found any indication that there is one (Maybe I am missing something). (This was something I had hoped to get a specific answer for).
Thanks for the answer Neopolitan - the next time I choose to answer someone's questions on these boards I will try to remember how much better it is to make them search through multiple websites. I refer people to websites when I don't know an answer but if I do know an answer, it's no skin off my nose to save them a little time.
Oh I was well aware that buses run all year on the Isle of Wight - which is why I did not ask that question. I wanted to know if train or bus was better to get to the ferry/catamaran from Croyden.
By the way my friends are quite elderly and not in the least computer literate - not that I would refer them here anyway after some of these responses. They deserve kinder, more helpful responses.

Thanks for the scolding semiramis. In the future please say what you mean.

You clearly said, "Unfortunately none of those websites clearly answered my specific questions."

What you should have said was the honest answer -- "I don't want to be bothered looking through those websites so I just lied and pretended I did. Please tell me the specific answers so I don't have to bother to look at the websites."

I'm sorry that I believed you actually had looked at the websites. For the correct answers someone HAS to look through the websites. I think it's interesting that you'd rather than someone be someone else because your time is too valuable to waste with such trivial business.

Why did you "pretend" you couldn't find the information in the websites, when what you really meant was you didn't want to be bothered doing so?

And now you have the nerve to say "They deserve kinder, more helpful responses."
Not if you aren't being honest with us!

The trains to Portsmouth start from London Waterloo (and, by an indirect route, from London Victoria), but if your friends are travelling from Croydon (note spelling) or Crawley, they should get the train from there. Use www.nationalrail.co.uk to look at trains from East Croydon to Portsmouth Harbour or Crawley to Portsmouth Harbour. The catamarans run at least every hour from Portsmouth Harbour to Ryde throughout the year.

Sorry to have caused a minor storm, but my thinking was that the best answers come from the horse's mouth, as it were, that with the original questions as posed, the answers were in the authoritative websites, and that semiramis simply needed to know where they were.

Yes, Patrick, that was logical thinking, but it seems the original poster really just wanted someone to do the work for him/her. Why the OP felt it necessary to "lie" and say those websites didn't answer the questions -- I have no idea!

Oh you know how it is....

"He's got a ticket to Ryde, and he don't care"

The first link provided by PatrickLondon in turn provides a link to www.hovertravel.co.uk which gives timetables. If you stick in, say, October 15 as the proposed date of travel, it gives schedules. This is pretty strong evidence that the hovercraft runs in October.

I agree with PatrickL - because of the numerous footnotes, etc. and constant changes and updates to schedules, it is far better to check the schedules directly than to go on the basis of someone's experience. The experience, kindly offered though it may be, may no longer be valid, or may be incorrectly recalled. On the other hand, the schedule's validity is generally indicated by the 'horse' itself - terse and impersonal though schedules may be.

I agree that it can be a challenge to understand schedules. However, if one is going to travel independently, this is a skill that has to be learned. I suggest printing out the schedules for your friends to peruse. There can be last minute unforeseen changes or obstacles with which your friends would have to cope. Practice with the schedules and figuring out options will give them more confidence. If they can't acquire this confidence beforehand, well, then that's the way it is, but 'twould be best they realize this now, not when they are standing on a dock or a bus stop.

>>>>
Why the OP felt it necessary to "lie"
>>>>

ummm...didn't this cause your little problem before?

Patrick - I hope you did not feel I was referring to you. The websites you gave are good and useful but my big area of confusion is unfortunately finding a good relatively stress free tentative plan for my friends to get to the Isle of Wight.
I gave them the train schedules from Waterloo to Southhampton and as predicted they were getting confused and stressed. They could not tell whether they should and could take a hovercraft, a catamaran, a ferry.
Thanks so much Geoff I will pass on your info that it there will definitely be catamarans running - this is what I REALLY needed to know and I hope will have a calming effect. I have told them that if they are still anxious when they get to Croydon to have a relative call any appropriate info numbers
Thanks Sue re: the hovercraft - it did not occur to me to plug in a date - since I did not know exactly what dates they intend to go to the Isle of Wight in Oct. However, of course, you are correct that I should have just selected any date to see if they were running in Oct.
Geoff:
As in Sue's case I can only say that I am just so frazzled (and initially not being familiar with the Isle of Wight - I was not sure that Southhampton was the best way to get transport there and obviously I can't spell Croydon). I did as suggested - and I am not sure whether this route is "better" for them than having go to Waterloo - I worry that making a number of train changes may over stress them - so what I have decided is to mention both alternatives and let them decide.
1. train from Croydon but with changes
2. get into London and Waterloo - no changes once they get on the train at Waterloo.
To all you who provided useful info and websites - Thanks I really do appreciate it.
As for Neopolitan:
You really are an "interesting" person. Take a look in the mirror some day. I hope you are never in a rush to get info. I spent 4 hours yesterday sourcing Hotels and Guesthouses for my friends - so I guess that makes me lazy as well as being a "liar". Believe me being encouraging to two elderly people with lots of concerns and anxieties (they nearly cancelled over the whole "liquid" thing), finding a lot of info at the last minute for them and working on my own travel plans (elsewhere) can be a little time consuming. But then I guess someone like you who clearly has a lot of time to insult people on this board rather than being helpful would not understand that.

If you're going from East Croydon to Southampton - you don't need to go all the way to waterloo - change at Clapham Junction.

Also don't fret about what kind of boat you're going on - it's a short trip whichever way you go.

You are aware that the "railway" on the IOW is actually one small line? Shanklin to Ryde.

Thx audere
Actually I am not going - two elderly friends of mine are and unfortunately they do fret a LOT. I will be sure to mention that if they are in East Croydon it will be simpler for them to change at Clapham Junction. (Not sure exactly what part of Croydon they will be in - I just know it is in the Croydon area).
Yes in my (unfortunately) quick searchings of Isle of Wight info I was able to figure out that the train only runs to Shanklin. I am recommending they get some sort of bus pass and use that to tour around IOW. The Isle of Wight bus company had an excellent easy to understand at a glance(thank God) website. I have printed the bus map for them and when the new bus schedules come out in Oct (just on time before they leave I believe - another sigh of relief) I will print them out when they are changed.

there are very frequent trains from east croydon to clapham. the ticket may not allow you to go into london anyway (often tickets are restricted to disallow transfers within london when there is an alternate route that avoids stations directly within london.)

walkinaround:
Thx - this is just the sort of thing I want to let them know about.

Oh hell - I am terminally frazzled. I just realized I said Southhampton in a post when I meant Portsmouth
For those now as confused as I clearly am:
The planned trip for my friends is:
Croydon to Portsmouth to the Isle of Wight (likely Shanklin on IOW)