Red Funnel will be running a 1-boat revised timetable on its hi-speed Red Jet service tomorrow (Wednesday), and again on Thursday, due to a lack of ‘critical staff’.
The following sailings will be operating on 10th and 11th November:
Southampton: 05:35, 06:55, 08:15, 09:35, 10:55, 12:15, 13:35, 14:55, 16:15, 17:35, 18:55, 20:15, 21:35, 22:55
West Cowes: 06:15, 07:35, 08:55, 10:15, 11:35, 12:55, 14:15, 15:35, 16:55, 18:15, 19:35, 20:55, 22:15, 23:35
It’s not the first time that a lack of staff has led to the cancellation of Red Jet crossings. Donald Wilks has taken to Twitter this afternoon to express his frustration, saying:
“For heaven’s sake, you must be able to sort this issue out; it is just not acceptable to cancel services because one person is not available, what about back up and standby crew?”
Red Funnel apologies for any inconvenience caused.
It’s mad watching the many failures of the Island limp on. I’ve been reading the same stories weekly for what seems to be years now.
Bring on that bridge as soon as possible !
This is pathetic. pathetic, pathetic.
How about a fixed link?
It is getting really quite bizarre. This has been going on for weeks and weeks now. This was never an issue before so what has changed? A genuine question from me as I cannot fathom out what on earth is going on at Red Funnel. Is it lack of key staff generally? Very odd.
Bankso, due to heatlth and safety and the public suing IF every remote, unlikely happening is not covered, then they have to have medically trained staff, fire trained staff, etc etc.
So if one of these persons is off, then the whole show ends, as their insurance would not cover them IF a ‘trained’ member of staff was not in attendance when Johnny chocked on a peanut and the distraught parents then sued for millions to dry the tears.
Is anybody actually believing this excuse any more, the management of the two ferry companies should be held to account for mismanagement of what should be an essential service to the public.
Since the new CEO took over and the pandemic hit Red funnel have laid off a considerable number of staff. There is no business resilience built in any longer so as to reduce costs. It is the same on the car ferry as well as the Red jet. I am very glad I am not now commuting daily. The service is appalling, including what appears to be ship planned maintenance which is affecting reliability and service
Pathetic. Government regulation required. Any business that fails to build in resilience for such a critical service deserves to fail.
I don’t understand how they can forecast a lack of ‘critical staff” before it happens, time after time. Instead of cancelling the RJ and repeatedly inconveniencing passengers who are already paying too much, how about some standby crew? How about an explanation as to why staff can’t turn to? And apparently this is an award-winning service.
I do not support a fixed link, but equally I can see if the ferry companies carry on like this, it will happen.