Red Funnel will be running a revised timetable using just 1 of its 3 vehicle ferries tomorrow (Wednesday) as the company nurses its ageing fleet, with news also coming through that Red Falcon won’t be returning for another 6 weeks…
Red Osprey needs to be taken out of service as a matter of urgency for essential maintenance to take place, leaving Red Eagle to solely operate the East Cowes-Southampton route.
At the weekend, the cross-Solent operator hardly ran its vehicle ferry service due to Storm Darragh with the ‘operating limits’ of Red Osprey – thought to mean that it is running at reduced engine power – being exceeded. It appears tomorrow’s period of maintenance hopes to resolve some of the issues.
Red Falcon – the third ferry in the fleet – is currently in drydock at Falmouth as part of its annual refit. It has been revealed to Island Echo that the works will overrun due to all 16 engine pistons – and a damaged drive gear – having to be replaced.
It’s understood that every piston from the 2 engines have been condemned, but there are only 7 pistons readily available to Red Funnel’s engineering team. It means 9 more pistons are now being desperately sought to put the engines back together, but these are not expected to arrive until January.
Red Funnel is currently anticipating Red Falcon returning to the Solent around 18th January 2025, meaning the whole operation will be reliant on just 2 ferries for the next 6 weeks.
Red Osprey is expected to then go into drydock with engineers anticipating her engines to be in a similar state. A 3-boat service is not expected to resume until the end of March 2025.
It has been confirmed that the following sailings will be operating tomorrow (Wednesday 10th December):
Departing Southampton: 03:00, 06:00, 09:00, 12:00, 15:00, 18:00, 21:00, 23:55
Departing East Cowes: 01:30, 04:30, 07:30, 10:30, 13:30, 16:30, 19:30, 22:30
Low numbers using the Ferries are the problem,
high prices are putting people off travelling.
It’s not just the high prices that put people off, it’s the lack of reliability of the ancient ferries and lack of accountability of Red Funnel. If they’d invested in their fleet instead of taking huge bonuses and dividends we may have had fewer cancellations of sailings.
Management diverting money into shareholders’ pockets, when it should be spent on crew, engineers, maintenance and a stock of spares.
If the ferries had a reguator, Red Funnel would be in Special Measures. It iis commonly held that restricted services are about combining part full sailings to save running costs.The question is, why are the ferries so relatively underutilised and much of the answer has to lie with their high cost to users. The two operators have always pegged their prices to give neither a marketing advantage over the other. However, in the past Wightlink was operated by the British Rail company Sealink – the fares were reasonable and Red Funnel pegged their fares accordingly to remain in the running. Now that shareholder dividends provide a constant upward force on prices to maximise profits (at the least cost, hence the elderly fleet of RF vessels) prices are becoming unaffordable and demand is falling. Red Funnel combine services to mitigate diminished profits. It ain’t rocket science, just greed.