Red Funnel Ferries will be operating a reduced car ferry service due to the unexpected removal of Red Eagle from service.
Winter timetable
The operator will also switch to its winter timetable from Tuesday 15th October until 26 March 2020.
The following will be cancelled on Saturday (12th Oct), Sunday and Monday (14th)
- Southampton to East Cowes
05:00, 08:00, 11:00, 14:00, 17:00, 20:15 - East Cowes to Southampton
06:30, 09:30, 12:30, 15:30, 18:30, 21:45
CEO: “Additional damage”
Red Funnel’s CEO, Fran Collins, said:
“Whilst our initial inspections of Red Eagle showed only minor cosmetic damage resulting from the loss of one of her two anchors during the approach to Cowes Harbour on 1st October, we are very to sorry to report that a more detailed internal inspection of the ship’s Aft Voith Propulsion Unit has revealed additional damage to the gear linkages.
“Unfortunately, this means that Red Eagle must be withdrawn from service to permit repairs which will be undertaken in dry-dock and combined with her winter refit to minimise disruption to our customers.”
“In order to provide certainty to our customers whilst Red Eagle is being repaired we will begin our normal, two-boat service Winter Timetable 3 weeks early.
Bookings being changed
She continued:
“We are truly sorry for the inconvenience this unexpected situation has caused for our customers, and we thank everyone for their patience.
“Our booking and scheduling teams are busy making adjustments and will be contacting customers with affected bookings via text and email in due course.
“We will also continually assess the opportunity to leverage our freight-only ferry, Red Kestrel to make additional freight crossings should the need to add more space for vehicles on Red Falcon and Red Osprey arise.
“At this time, we do not believe that additional Kestrel sailings beyond the normal schedule would provide any extra benefit over the weekend as we except to have enough capacity to accommodate passenger vehicle bookings.”
