Red Funnel has provided advance notice to its customers that it will be transitioning all sailings back to their usual format, whereby every passenger on board will need to vacate their vehicles and ascend to the designated passenger decks.
Red Funnel worked with the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) in March to temporarily allow passengers to remain in vehicles on select crossings, in order to protect those passengers who were shielding during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The transition back to standard vehicle sailings will come in two phases: The first, effective Monday, 13th July will see the 15:00 departure from Southampton and the 16:30 departure from East Cowes revert to standard crossings, no longer operating as ‘stay in vehicle’ sailings. The 21:00 departure from Southampton and 22:30 departure from East Cowes will remain as ‘stay in vehicle’ sailings until 31st July, with all crossings returning to the original format from 1st August 2020, in line with the latest government announcement on shielding guidance ending on 31st July 2020.
Red Funnel has consistently ensured its operations and travel guidance are in line with the latest government and public health recommendations. The latest change from Red Funnel coincides with the further relaxation of lockdown restrictions and the opening of industries, in addition to the COVID-19 incident level moving from a level 4 to level 3 and the continued reduction of the ‘R’ rate (infection rate). Red Funnel has also obtained the UK-wide industry standard “We’re Good to Go” mark from Visit England. The mark shows that Red Funnel is adhering to government and Public Health England guidelines and that it has robust COVID-19 risk assessments and clear processes to keep customers safe.
Fran Collins, CEO of Red Funnel commented: “With the government withdrawing its advice to shield from 1 August 2020, now is the right time for us to make changes to our ‘stay in vehicle’ crossings and move closer to resuming our usual operations. We hope that by giving customers as much notice as possible this will benefit our passengers and prepare them for the changes. We have put a lot of measures in place to ensure the safety and wellbeing of our passengers, including reducing our overall capacity to enable social distancing. We want to emphasise that passengers should feel safe to travel on our ferries and we have all of the provisions in place to welcome them back on board safely.”
Red Funnel will continue to offer assistance to extremely vulnerable passengers to remain in their vehicle if they are travelling to or from an NHS appointment. For more information about this option and how to request it, customers should visit www.redfunnel.co.uk/SailSafe.
For further information about the latest government advice about shielding and the changes effective 1st August, see here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-on-shielding-and-protecting-extremely-vulnerable-persons-from-covid-19/guidance-on-shielding-and-protecting-extremely-vulnerable-persons-from-covid-19
