Red Funnel to operate vehicle ferry service from alternative berth on specific dates in March

Red Funnel has announced that its vehicle ferries will arrive and depart from an alternative berth in Southampton on specific dates in March. This temporary change in operation is necessary to enable essential maintenance of the operator’s shore infrastructure. The alternative berth selected is Berth 25, which is located approximately 5 minutes by car from Terminal 1.

The dates and times for the scheduled March works are:

• Sunday the 5th of March from 00:01 until Friday the 10th of March at 02:00
• Sunday the 19th of March from 00:01 until Friday the 24th of March at 02:00

The work at Terminal 1 pertains to the maintenance of one of Red Funnel’s mooring dolphins, which upon routine inspection was found to have endured steel loss resulting from corrosion. The dolphins play a vital role in allowing the ferries to moor alongside in the terminal, effectively keeping the vessels in place while passengers and vehicles embark and disembark.

Leanna Lakes, Operations Director at Red Funnel, said: “We heavily invest in regular inspections, maintenance, and improvements across our vessels and shore infrastructure. The works we’re undertaking are necessary to ensure that vessels can moor safely alongside in Southampton.

“The nature of the work requires underwater dive teams which means we will need to ensure no vessels are operating in the area at the same time. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause our passengers who are travelling with us during this time. We’ll be signposting this information across all our communication channels.”

Red Funnel will be contacting customers to advise of the temporary change to operations, including advising all vehicle traffic departing Southampton to proceed directly to Berth 25. Foot passengers should continue to arrive at Terminal 1, Southampton, where transport to Berth 25 will be provided.  

For more information, travel advice and maps, please visit Red Funnel’s dedicated ‘March Works’ page, here: https://www.redfunnel.co.uk/marchworks

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For further information, please contact [email protected] / 02380 382 970

Notes to editors

About Red Funnel

Red Funnel is the original Isle of Wight ferry company with roots tracing back to 1820. Based in the UK port of Southampton, Red Funnel carries 2.3m passengers and over 800,000 vehicles on its ferry route between the UK port of Southampton and East Cowes and 1.1m passengers between Southampton and West Cowes on its Red Jet Hi-Speed service.

In addition to ferry travel, Red Funnel is the only cross-Solent operator to offer ferry inclusive bonded holiday accommodation, attraction tickets, festival and event tickets and activity packages. Sub-brands include ‘Red Jet’ (the Hi-Speed passenger only ferry service serving West Cowes) and its on board café, ‘ReFuel’.

The Company is a founder member of Visit Isle of Wight Ltd, the Island’s not for profit destination management organisation and Red Funnel sponsors or supports most of the Island’s premier events including the IW Festival, Cowes Week, Rhythm Tree, Wight Proms, and Walk the Wight as well as a range of community and niche interest events. Red Funnel’s Charity of the Year, 2023 is Aspire.

For more information, visit www.redfunnel.co.uk