Wightlink is a ferry company operating routes between Hampshire and the Isle of Wight in southern England.
Red Funnel, formally the Southampton Isle of Wight and South of England Royal Mail Steam Packet Company Limited, is a ferry company that carries passengers, vehicles and freight on routes between the English mainland and the Isle of Wight. High-speed foot passenger catamarans, known as Red Jets, run between Southampton and Cowes, while vehicle ferries run between Southampton and East Cowes.
The Lymington branch line is a railway that runs from Brockenhurst to Lymington Pier, both in the New Forest. The railway line is around 9 km (5.6 mi) long, and is single track throughout its length. It diverges from the South Western Main Line at Lymington Junction; and, at Lymington Pier, trains connect with Wightlink ferry services to Yarmouth, on the Isle of Wight. The Lymington branch line is electrified using the 750 V DC third-rail system as is usual in the former Southern Region of British Railways.
RMS Trent was a British Royal Mail paddle steamer built in 1841 by William Pitcher of Northfleet for the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company. She measured 1,856 gross tons and could carry 60 passengers. She was one of four ships constructed at Blackwall, all named after some of the principal rivers of England. The others were the Thames, Medway and Isis.
Hants & Dorset Motor Services was a stage carriage bus service operator in southern England between 1920 and 1983.
MV Wight Light is a car and passenger ferry built for the British ferry operator Wightlink. She is in service between mainland England and the Isle of Wight.
The Hampshire Basin is a geological basin of Palaeogene age in southern England, underlying parts of Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Dorset, and Sussex. Like the London Basin to the northeast, it is filled with sands and clays of Paleocene and younger ages and it is surrounded by a broken rim of chalk hills of Cretaceous age.
There are currently three different ferry companies that operate vessels carrying passengers and, on certain routes, vehicles across the Solent, the stretch of sea that separates the Isle of Wight from mainland England. These are Wightlink, Red Funnel and Hovertravel.
This article describes the shipping services of the London and South Western Railway and the vessels employed.
The Hayle and Bristol Steam Packet Company operated steam ship services between Hayle, Ilfracombe and Bristol in the mid nineteenth century. Confusingly from 1848 to 1860, the company name was used by two separate operators.
PS Lady Tyler was a passenger vessel built for the Great Eastern Railway in 1880.
PS Essex was a passenger vessel built for the Great Eastern Railway in 1896.
SS Great Yarmouth was a freight vessel built for the Great Eastern Railway in 1866.
SS Ashton was a passenger and cargo vessel built for the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway in 1884.
PS Duchess of Kent was a passenger vessel built for the London and South Western Railway and London, Brighton and South Coast Railway in 1897.
PS Mayflower was a passenger vessel built for the Solent Steam Packet Company in 1866.
PS Solent was a passenger vessel built for the Solent Steam Packet Company in 1863.
PS Solent was a passenger vessel built for the London and South Western Railway in 1902.
Water Witch was an early British wood-hulled paddle steamer, built in 1835 at Harwich, England for steam packet services from Dover to London and to Boulogne. A successful fast ship, she was later operated on services on the South Coast of England and in the Bristol Channel
