The recent cuts in service by Red Funnel brought about by a collision by one of the Red Jet vessels and its withdrawal from service have caused massive incovenience, extra costs and real distress to thousands of passengers over the last few days. The company has handled the whole business in a remarkably cackhanded fashion, making the situation much worse for passengers and looking like a shambolic monopoly who couldn't give a damn, a PR disaster for them which they could begin to rectify by some real practical gestures to the people who have been putting up with this for the last few days.

My wife and I both commute to Southampton from West Cowes. I do sessional work at Southampton University supporting students with disabilities and have had to let down students and lose money by missing sessions - I have to travel ridiculously early order to cover my timetable, but this is minor compared to the extra pressure on my wife, who has had to travel to Swindon twice for her organisation to deliver training and has ended up with 7 hours of travelling in a day, very little of which was the rail journey to and from Southampton. There are many other passengers who have faced problems with employers, issues around childcare, lost appointments and financial issues as a result of this.

Red Funnel really need to get on the case and show passengers that they can justify the level of fares they have been charging for what is currently a very shambolic service by:

reimbursement of part of season ticket and travel card holders' costs;
reimbursement of part of other passengers' costs where practicable;
a limited time cut in fares for all passengers when full service is restored as a good will gesture;
always ensure that there is a guaranteed backup service available before withdrawing a vessel for refit;
better planning for emergencies such as this, with all front line staff clear on what options are available to passengers with different needs, better signs visible to all passengers and an end to an excessive reliance on Twitter and Facebook;
Provision of seating for passengers forced to wait in long queues