Red Funnel’s high-speed catamaran service, Red Jet, will be operating on a reduced timetable until next week, due to ongoing engine repair works and an annual refit.
Leanna Lakes, Operations Director at Red Funnel, said,
“Due to ongoing engine repair works, Red Jet 4 will remain temporarily out of service from later today up to and including Monday 28th March.
“Availability of contractors and spare parts have both led to unplanned delays to this work and our engineers are working hard to resolve the issue.”
Annual refit for Red Jet 6
She went on to explain,
“To date, we have maintained timetable with Red Jet 6 and Red Jet 7, however it is now necessary that Red Jet 6 is temporarily removed from service to undergo her required annual refit.
“Whilst this work is ongoing and, to provide certainty for passengers making travel arrangements, we plan to operate a reduced timetable starting late afternoon on Wednesday 23rd, up until end of day Monday 28th March.
“Our Sunday sailings will remain as scheduled.”
Leanna finished by saying,
“We apologise for the difficulties this may cause to customer journeys and would like to thank them for their patience during this time. We are working towards resuming our normal timetable as quickly and as safely as possible.
“We encourage customers to plan ahead by checking the live departures on our website. Customers may also consider using our vehicle ferries as an alternative option, which are currently running to timetable.”
Reduced timetable
Love: We must get some accountability into the service levels
In response to the news, Cllr Karl Love, the Isle of Wight councillor for East Cowes, told News OnTheWight,
“Red Funnel service operations have truly become an appalling service since Christmas for our Island Residents. They have service cancellations every week with one thing or another and its never been like this before.
“One can accept delay issues about fog and sea state to some extent, but there is no excuse now for staffing delays and parts. An operation of this scale and importance should have parts to hand and a variety of contractors on call.
“What impact does such a poor service record have on tourism, bookings and connectivity? We have people with medical issues needing treatments and any Island service providers are affected by poor connectivity and reliability.
“We must get some accountability into the service levels of cross Solent services and that’s down to our MP to fight for regulatory powers and controls to be implemented like any other public service operation.”
Article edit
10.32am 23rd Mar 2022 – Comment from Cllr Love added
Image: © Richard Bache
