Large-scale plans to upgrade and redevelop Red Funnel’s East Cowes ferry terminal, including moving the marshalling yard and rerouting the traffic flow have today (Monday) been launched, and Red Funnel wants your opinion on them.
The cross-Solent operator is looking to transform all 3 of its sites in East Cowes and create a new ‘Red Funnel Port’
Today (Monday) a 4-week consultation has been launched with Islanders urged to have their say on the proposed plans.
One of the proposals is that both embarking and disembarking ferry traffic will be routed via Well Road and York Avenue, which are both distributor roads serving East Cowes. At peak times, such as last week during the Isle of Wight Festival traffic heading back to Southampton was backed up all along York Avenue as far as Connaught Road.
By moving the marshalling yard to the nearby Reduk Yard – where occasionally traffic is redirected upon disembarking – it will allow for greater capacity, efficiency and the ability to install technologies to aid the process.
Check-in would be accessed off Castle Street leading customers straight into the Reduk Yard.
Increased space within the marshalling yard will also allow simultaneous disembarkation of the lower and upper ferry ramps and provide space for disembarking traffic to queue internally prior to exiting onto the public highway. This will limit delays during disembarkation and improve service reliability regardless of any other delays on the public highway including negotiating the Dover Road roundabout and the traffic lights opposite Waitrose.
Access to check-in for ferry traffic will be simplified, removing the existing confusion and conflicts with access to the floating bridge and/or to the terminal building for drop-off.
In place at the Trinity Yard will be a multi-use space comprising of shops and properties and at Phoenix Yard off Ferry Road a hotel is being touted, only if plans are successful of course.
Red Funnel is also considering a designated reserve dock for the Red Jet at East Cowes as part of the proposal. This would be used for Red Jets that are not in use, or in the unlikely event that the West Cowes port cannot be accessed. The vessel would be docked off Trinity Yard.
Leanna Lakes, Operations Director at Red Funnel said:
“We are proud that our port at East Cowes is a gateway to the Isle of Wight and are very conscious that alongside providing a lifeline service, we provide a welcome for locals and visitors alike.
“It’s essential that our operations remain resilient and meet the future needs of the communities and customers we serve. Over the last 12months we have rigorously reviewed our plans and designs to make sure they provide the strongest outcome for East Cowes and the Island. We know how important it is to build resilience whilst enhancing the overall look of the waterfront and are ensuring that our plans to improve our marshalling facilities and access to our terminal aligns with the vision the Island strives to convey to visitors arriving from the mainland.
“We’re keen to gather the thoughts of the local community and are excited to present our plans during this consultation. We’re welcoming as much feedback as possible to help develop our plans, so I would encourage everyone to get involved and have their say.”
Red Funnel is encouraging feedback from the community, businesses, and stakeholders in a 4-week long consultation to help shape its plans, which will look to redesign Red Funnel’s 3 existing sites within East Cowes: Phoenix Yard, Trinity Yard and Redux Yard.
Residents can have their say on the proposed plans for Red Funnel Port by visiting the website: www.redfunnelport.com. Red Funnel will also host a public exhibition at East Cowes Town Hall on Saturday 15th July between 10:00 and 16:00, where members of the public can meet with representatives from Red Funnel and the planning team to discuss the proposals in more detail.
Stop the destruction of our towns by these corporate behemoths!
Fundamental design flaw – the foot passengers would now have to cross the flows of embarking / disembarking vehicles?
They have to do it now already and it’s even worse because terminal traffic has a dangerous right turn through the pedestrian path – currently it goes partially through that blue path at the bottom.
This proposal actually splits bridge traffic from terminal traffic and moves the latter to Well Rdwhich has traffic lights, no turning into pedestrian path and is safer to pass for pedestrians.
As a pedestrian I prefer new path.
At least a 10% increase on sailing price then.
3 /4 years ago, single midnight single in a car was around £30 or less. Now £40
Big increase for less service!
Who wants to chuck in and buy a ferry from Scotland todo the same? Would make a killing!
Most expensive crossing in the world and NO-ONE!(apart from half sausage with alot of envelopes) is doing anything.
People please do something. Its ruining the once beloved island.
Had family down here for 50+ years but yhink this maybe the last generation.
Would rather live in the shitty peak district miners town than a ruined seaside town that hit its prime in the 70/80s .
Hope im wrong!
Peace and love
What’s going to happen to the free to use public slipway that is on this plot? Red Funnel already make it difficult to access & use, like they own it! (they don’t), The slipway is a free public facility which allows all river users access to our island coastline. It should remain at all costs, not be swallowed up in a private company development in pursuit of greater profits!
More buildings on the first marshaling yard and vehicles will , instead, have to go round the roundabout at Sainsburys and then enter the Redux marshaling yard.
This could not possibly be an even greater cause of congestion due to traffic backing up – or could it?
The current provision for checking in for vehicles using 2 positions is often restricted to 1 outside of peak season (cost) resulting in traffic building up and I can’t see that changing under this new proposal, with even greater disruption resulting.
First off they’ve made the colours very similar so it’s hard to distinguish which way the traffic is flowing for embarking & disembarking traffic.
Then there’s the increased capacity meaning more not less vehicles in the area.
Plus people are now going to exit the hard and decide to either turn left or right & either end up blocking Cambridge road or back up to York avenue causing exactly the same issue.
And they complained that they lost money during the pandemic… “uhh we’ve lost 5m in profits because of it” I know let’s upgrade the ferry terminal … couldn’t of been that out of pocket bloody daylight robbery in the most literal sense
All this is is Red Funnel seeing an opportunity to send all its disembarking traffic up Old Road, causing absolute mayhem.