FRIDAY FERRY CHAOS AS RED FUNNEL CONFIRMS MASS CANCELLATIONS

Cross-Solent operator Red Funnel has cancelled a large number of vehicle ferry sailings for tonight (Thursday) and throughout Friday – 12 in total – due to a propulsion issue.

The 20:15 sailing from Southampton and the 21:45 from East Cowes were both cancelled earlier this evening, due to what is said to be unplanned maintenance of the propulsion equipment.

Now, Red Funnel has confirmed the 05:00, 08:00, 11:00, 14:00 and 17:00 sailings from Southampton have been pulled for tomorrow, alongside the 06:30, 09:30, 12:30, 15:30 and 18:30 sailings from East Cowes.

It is unclear at this stage if there will be any further cancellations throughout Friday, on what is one of the busiest days of the week – and at the start of a heatwave weekend.

There is potential for the disruption to continue into the weekend, if the problem cannot be fixed in the next 24 hours.

On Tuesday night, Red funnel cancelled 2 sailings due to unplanned maintenance of onboard equipment.

Island Echo is told there is also an issue with Red Eagle’s passenger gangway.

This week demonstrates yet another challenging period for the operator, which is battling numerous issues with its aging Raptor-class fleet of vehicle ferries, which are due to be replaced – but not for at least another 4 years.