Those travelling across the Solent with Red Funnel may face delays of up to 15 minutes due to a technical issue with the upper linkspan at the ferry operator’s Southampton terminal.
Vehicles are currently being loaded and unloaded from the car ferry just 1 deck at a time, which is leading to delays in the turnaround procedure.
It remains unclear why exactly vehicles are unable to use both the upper and lower linkspans at the same time.
Red Funnel have been unable to give an estimated repair time but have said that the bespoke part needed may not be ready ‘for some time’.
A spokesperson from Red Funnel has confirmed to Island Echo:
“We are continuing to operate a full service despite experiencing a minor technical issue with our upper linkspan (in Southampton) and are awaiting bespoke parts to fully rectify the problem. While we expect to get the parts quickly, it’s possible they may not be ready for some time and therefore we are also actively exploring other solutions to solve the problem more quickly.
“In the meantime, though, this issue means that it takes us a little more time to load the ferry and unfortunately, during peak busy sailings, some customers may experience minor delays. In most cases this delay should be under 15 minutes.
“As always, operating safely and efficiently is our number one priority and we appreciate our passengers’ patience as our teams work tirelessly to ensure a seamless operation and to implement a permanent solution”.
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