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Further Disruption On Red Funnel — Firm Blames Strike Action

There is further disruption on Red Funnel this evening (Wednesday), with the firm blaming today's strike action.

Two of tonight's sailings from Southampton are being turned into one.

Fran Collins, Chief Executive at Red Funnel, said:

“It is with regret that, due to strike action, it has been necessary to make further amends to our vehicle ferry timetable today.

"We will be consolidating two round trips this evening into one new sailing at 9pm."

 Affected sailings:

Southampton – East Cowes 19:30

Southampton – East Cowes 22:30

New sailing:

Southampton – East Cowes 21:00

East Cowes – Southampton 22:30

Fran Collins added:

“We are working to ensure our customers are informed in good time and are contacting all passengers affected and will be transferring impacted bookings to the 18:00 or the 21:00 sailing.

“Onboard our ferries, we are required by law to have a certain number of critical roles to ensure the safety of passengers, and the ship is not permitted to sail should any of these critical roles be unfilled. There is also a minimum staff to passenger number required by law, meaning if we are unable to fully staff a sailing, we are unable to accept the maximum number of passengers on board.

“In addition to planned strike action today, we have experienced a higher-than-normal number of colleague absences.

“We ask for kindness toward our dedicated teams at work during strike days, who are working hard to keep customers sailing under challenging circumstances. We have introduced robust contingency plans including the redeployment of colleagues across the business into key roles.

“We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused and will keep customers updated on our social media channels and the Red Funnel service status page.”

Red Funnel service status: https://www.redfunnel.co.uk/en/isle-of-wight-ferry/service-status/

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