Red Funnel Service Update

11 October 2006:

Red Funnel, the Isle of Wight Specialist, is pleased to announce that from Sunday 12 November a brand new Red Jet Hi-Speed timetable will be introduced on the Southampton / West Cowes route.

The new timetable is based on up to 34 departures per day in each direction, with sailings at 15 and 45 minutes past each hour, decreasing to an hourly service in the evenings. The change comes after extensive research carried out with Island residents and passengers to establish an optimum timetable that suits the majority of the 1.2 million customers that travel annually.

Some 12,000 people helped devise the new schedule and onboard research carried out in September showed that over 46% of passengers favoured the change, 42% believed they would be unaffected and less than 12% were against. The full results are available online at www.redfunnel.co.uk/research

The new schedule provides far better integration with SW Trains London Waterloo services and with revisions to CityLink bus timetable (also from the 12 Nov), the West Cowes / Southampton route offers the fastest and most reliable service to Waterloo, taking an average of just 126 minutes. The importance attached to rail connectivity for business and leisure travellers, including strong links to Southampton Airport, are believed to be the main reasons why there's been such overwhelming support for the change.

For further information:
Contact: Jonathan Green, Head of Marketing & Communications
Tel: 023 8072 4505
Fax: 0870 444 8897