COMMUTERS travelling on the Thames Clippers will have to find alternative ways home as the evening service is cut.

From Monday (November 1) the service will be running a reduced timetable in the evening with the service being slashed by up to three hours.

The last service from Royal Arsenal Woolwich is currently 11pm but will now leave at 8.15pm.

From the O2 people will have to leave almost three hours early to catch the 8.25pm boat, which currently leaves at 11.10pm.

Later boats will be provided from the O2 when events are taking place.

Leader of the Liberal Democrat London Assembly Group, Caroline Pidgeon, has slammed the decision.

She said: "No one would ever accept the last bus leaving central London as being as early as nine o’clock in the evening - there is no reason why river transport should be any different.

Ms Pidgeon added: “The reduced commuter service will especially inconvenience the thousands of people in Southwark, Tower Hamlets and Greenwich who wish to spend an evening enjoying the West End and then the delights of travelling back home on the Thames.”

The last eastbound service from Embankment will now leave at 9.10pm compared to 11.58pm and from Canary Wharf at 9.42 rather than 12.30am.

A Thames Clippers spokeswoman said: “Services after 9.30pm often operate with very few passengers but running costs remain the same.”

She added: “The new winter timetable allows us to introduce more sailings at peak times on core services, retain our 10 minute morning frequency during traditional high demand periods, and operate more consistently at a 20 minute frequency.”