Those crossing the Solent with Red Funnel face lengthy delays today (Wednesday) due to the mechanical breakdown of 2 of the company’s ferries.
Passengers report that the 10:30 has been unable to depart the Island as planned with the Red Funnel website stating the 10:30 from East Cowes is now delayed until 14:00.
Red Osprey is already out of service due to a potential issue highlighted during a routine maintenance check.
Red Funnel has in the past few minutes confirmed that a technical fault has been discovered on board Red Eagle, requiring immediate and further investigation. To allow for diagnostics and repair work to be carried out, the vessel must be temporarily removed from service.
With Red Osprey additionally out of service for repairs, the company will be operating a 1-boat shuttle service with Red Falcon until further notice. The vessel will depart from Southampton and East Cowes approximately every 3 hours, with the next scheduled departure from East Cowes expected at 14:00 and Southampton, 15:30.
Red Funnel teams are reaching out to all affected customers to notify them of the changes. It has updated its website with today’s revised crossing times, along with advice on when to arrive at the terminal. For the most up-to-date times please visit Red Funnel’s ‘Live Service Status’ page at www.redfunnel.co.uk/Service.
Leanna Lakes, Operations Director, Red Funnel said:
“We sincerely apologise for this additional disruption to our vehicle ferry service between Southampton and East Cowes, especially as we are already contending with the disruption to our network. Our teams shore-side and on board continue to work their hardest to get passengers to their destinations as quickly and as safely as possible and we wish to thank all our customers in
advance for their patience and understanding.Article continues below this advertisement We hope to have a second vessel back in operation from this evening and are completely focused on achieving this. We promise to keep customers informed of our progress and ask that they bear with our front-line teams as they do their very best to adapt to this stressful situation.
“We are working very hard to fix this and apologise again for the impact that this will have on our customers’ plans.”
Traffic is building on both sides of the Solent around each terminal.
Foot passengers are advised to travel via the Red Jet Hi-Speed service as an alternative.
And this is why this Island needs a fixed link. we live in the 21st century, not the 19th.
You don’t mind then if it comes out in your back yard then.
Fixed link will never happen so why do people keep going on about it!!!
my guess is a very low intelligence level
The ships of the 19th century were a lot more reliable so it’s a shame we don’t.. actually….
You know that for a fact do you??
Surely all the boats strapped together bow to stern, and the useless floating bridge to the narrowest point island to mainland ,its the start of a fixed link
Cue the usual “fixed link” “Bridge” “tunnel” robots.
All it really needs is for people to realise that things go wrong sometimes…
The high prices that the ferry companies charge could surely have paid for a newer fleet by now (esp if they stopped running empty Red Jets through the night) but that’s a different story..
Cue the usual “anti fixed link” “bridge” ” tunnel” robots….
you brought it up!!
XD
Two down – one to go
Yay, better isolation back again
It’s not so much a fixed link as ferry companys that care about the island not share holders profits
Ferry cartels hold island to ransom…. again!
Pathetic service. I would happily pay the toll for a fixed link enabling 24/7 access. No more traffic jams at the terminals. Free flow of traffic, a chance to get off the island to do some shopping instead of Newport’s rubbish.
No more piles of traffic unloading each hour blocking roads.
We need a bridge or tunnel NOW.
If it’s so bad why live here please don’t be shy answer be a Man not a?.
Forget this constant crap about fix linked, this council cannot even arrange a connection from West Cowes to East Cowes.
Lack of continued matenance leading up to the summer season, always happens same old same old occurrences every year, common sense tells me in the winter months take each ferry out of service and do real matenance, but will that happen No Way its all about the money and forget about the customers who will and are being badly inconvenienced every time year in year out.
The Island is special. Not as special as it was, but still special. If there was a fixed link, it would just become like everywhere else. What we need is a fixed penalty scheme so ferry companies are fined for each and every late or cancelled crossing. That would force them to up their game.
I don`t BELIEVE it!!
So what happened to social distancing?
A really poor service from a company that makes an absolute fortune this is just not good enough