A lack of staff will impact Red Funnel’s cross-Solent services to and from the Isle of Wight this weekend – the latest disruption to affect Islanders and visitors alike. Due to the limited availability of crew, a revised timetable will be operating on the East Cowes-Southampton vehicle ferry on Saturday (13th) and Sunday (14th April). It comes at a busy time as the Easter school holidays wind down – and just as the weather starts to become Spring-like. Furthermore, staff shortages mean there are cancellations on the firm’s hi-speed Red Jet service between West Cowes and Southampton. 6 sailings have been scrubbed including the 07:15, 08:25 and 09:35 from Southampton, alongside the 07:50, 09:00 and 10:20 from West Cowes. Isle of Wight MP Bob Seely has said that the excuse of ‘limited availability of crew’ is not good enough. He’s said:
“You were meant to be hiring more staff to stop these cancellations happening. Have you hired those new staff members yet? Have they started work yet? “Cancelling services because of everyday personnel issues is not acceptable. You are running a (frankly very expensive) service that is letting Islanders down”.
Vehicle Ferry Revised Timetable
Saturday 13th April From Southampton: 03:00 / 06:00 / 07:00 / 09:00 / 10:00 / 12:00 / 13:00 / 14:00 / 15:00 / 16:00 / 17:00 / 18:00 / 19:00 / 20:15 / 22:00 / 23:59 From East Cowes: 01:30 / 04:30 / 07:30 / 08:30 / 10:30 / 11:30 / 13:30 / 14:30 / 15:30 / 16:30 / 17:30 / 18:30 / 19:30 / 20:30 / 21:45 / 23:30 Sunday 14th April From Southampton: 06:00 / 07:00 / 08:00 / 09:00 / 10:00 / 11:00 / 12:00 / 13:00 / 14:00 / 15:00 / 16:00 / 17:00 / 18:00 / 19:00 / 22:00 / 23:59 From East Cowes: 01:30 / 07:30 / 08:30 / 09:30 / 10:30 / 11:30 / 12:30 / 13:30 / 14:30 / 15:30 / 16:30 / 17:30 / 18:30 / 19:30 / 20:30 / 23:30
Red jet staff don’t fancy getting up early for work this weekend then
Something really has to be done against this company. Why do they keep saying staff shortages. We really do have to seriously look into a fixed link.
A Bridge or Tunnel is the answer.
Pop up Bob time for another strongly worded letter and best pen out again .. sadly you are not value for the money .. time for change .. enough is enough.
Well the staff on the check in gates are always damn rude, and that points to crap conditions and pay. Red Finished. I give them 6 months before they go to the wall, and leave the island up s**t creek literally.
They won’t go under. They have guaranteed income, low opex and a huge amount of assets.
Late September or early October, and the island will be without Red Ripoff, watch this space.
red funnel were the cream of the cross solent operators under the old CEO – say no more.
If he’s spoken to them directly as this piece suggests…what was their response? Can we use the same argument for cancelled NHS services?
Why don’t they take Seely on as a deck hand he has plenty of time on his hands
Oh really good idea!
Soon Bob will be booking a 1 way ticket to the mainland when the Elections
are over.
Who actually gives negative response to the comments as they are perfectly true ,,,ish probably not all the ferries are fully booked and can’t make a killing on fares ,,,simple cancel a few and fill the others .
This is not a public service it a scandalous money making scheme
Reduce your sky high fares and you might get something back in return like more people using the ferry .
A lot of people are struggling to make ends meet and this will have the snowball effect on everything on this island that relies on the public supporting it ,you’ve only got to walk down the high streets or look in the pubs and restaurants during the week to see what’s happening
Managed to escape from the Isle of Wight at age 62 now live in Somerset better NHS care choice of hospitals and not held to ransom by ferry companies owned by someone on the other side of the world. Yes, I was born in East Cowes In 1952, you should have lived on the island longer than me before you flame me
The trouble is a vicious circle is happening with the lack of staff with both cross Solent companies. They pay peanuts to staff who are in the front line for unfair public abuse with lack of visible higher management available when the ever increasing cancellations happen so the staff either throw sickies or leave to do other employment with higher rates of pay and less stress and abuse. You need the top managers, CEOs and directors to be present at all the terminals backing the staff and taking the flak and then maybe they might take proper action. Will that ever happen? Of course not. They will sit in their ivory towers happy to contemplate their obscene salaries and bonuses and sod the staff and paying public.
Across all sectors of public-facing staff. Teachers, nurses, doctors, dentists, social carers, social workers, train drivers….too few people doing too much work with too much stress, and far too much profit-driven top-down management.
Wait till labour get in you think its bad now…
Fiver says not. Give it a couple of years to drag us out of the mire first though.
Funny how they never experience these “staff shortages” when the festival is on or during Cowes week, isn’t it?
There are few vacancies on their website. An unknown number of engineering officers, one cleaning team leader and one retail excellence manager (fixed term, 12 months). The last two shouldn’t stop the ferries from running, so maybe they should pay their engineers a bit more and they’d find recruitment a bit easier.