Cross-Solent operator Red Funnel has received backlash from users of X – formerly known as Twitter – after announcing that individual sailing updates will no longer be pushed out through the social platform. For several years, Red Funnel has used X to notify customers – and the press – of cancellations and changes to individual sailings through the account @RF_Travel_News. But earlier this month it was suddenly revealed that the service will soon stop. From 27th May, the account – which has over 11,000 followers – will no longer ‘tweet’ about unexpected or emergency cancellations and delays. It will, however, continue to tweet about planned disruption, additional sailings and other general travel advice. Island Echo has raised concerns with Red Funnel this week about how the press will be informed of cancellations, with fears that the stopping of news for specific sailings will mask the state of the service provided. In the past few days alone the @RF_Travel_News account has been vital in informing customers and the media about 4 days of disruption to the vehicle ferry service, and 2 mornings of cancellations on the Red Jet service due to a lack of staff. In response, a spokesperson has said:
“Like many transport operators, Red Funnel will continue to communicate any timetable changes to customers via www.redfunnel.co.uk/service and through the Red Funnel app. Customers can also sign up for SMS alerts under the Notification Preferences on their online Red Funnel customer account. “Any significant delays, planned works that may impact the timetable, news about additional sailings and general travel advice will still be communicated on the RF Service News X handle (formerly known as Twitter), as normal.
Since the announcement of changes to the @RF_Travel_News account, Island Echo has been trialling the SMS notification system offered by Red Funnel. Early testing shows that this does provide a push notification of cancellations, albeit in a less convenient way than previously.
Ideal opportunity for half saussage to get on the voting bandwagon.
Absolute shitshow of a broken crap company..
The Broken, Run Down, State of the Island is now so obvious.
Just look at the state of it and that includes the Council neglect too.
But who now even has X ?…..
245 million daily active users worldwide, would apparently be the answer.
They’ve had that many cancellations X have probably told Red Funnel they’ve exceeded their post limit for this year.
Probably been told by X to stop the ‘tweets’, as their constant notifications on delays and breakdowns are taking up too much space on their platform. They probably wouldn’t have this problem if they actually did what they said they would do and run a reasonably reliable service with more staff and more boats.
Based on their own figures, one in ten crossings are cancelled. Seems like they are hiding what is happening. And to make it worse, the Tories have pushed most of the NHS services to the mainland. Make sure when you have a hart attack that the ferries are running.