RED FUNNEL has warned its customers that all "stay in vehicle" sailings will now be reverted back to their usual format, with passengers having to exit their cars for the duration of the journey.

The ferry company 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, but this will soon be changing and passengers will have to ascent to the designated passenger decks.

Transitioning back to standard vehicle sailings will come in two phases.

The first, effective on Monday, July 13 will see the 3pm departure from Southampton and the 4.30pm departure from East Cowes revert to standard crossings, no longer operating as ‘stay in vehicle’ sailings.

While the 9pm departure from Southampton and 10.30pm departure from East Cowes will remain as ‘stay in vehicle’ sailings until July 31, with all crossings returning to the original format from August 1 in line with the latest government guidance.

Fran Collins, CEO of Red Funnel, said: “With the government withdrawing its advice to shield from August 1, 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.”