Sailings on Red Funnel's Red Jet will now stop earlier, as the Isle of Wight ferry firm's new timetable comes into effect from today (Wednesday).

Last month (December), the company announced there would be fewer late night crossings on the service.

The cuts have been made due to a "reduction in demand", it said.

Last year, there were five sailings between 6.30pm and 11.10pm from Southampton.

From today, that has reduced to four sailings, from 6.30pm, with the final one of the day being at 10.30pm.

From Cowes, the number of late evening crossings have also gone from five to four. The first will stay the same at 7.05pm but the last will now stop 40 minutes earlier, at 11.05pm.

The last four crossings in each direction are as follows:
 

Southampton to Cowes:

Departing at: 18.30, 19.40, 21.05, 22.30

Cowes to Southampton:

Departing at: 19.05, 20.15, 21.40, 23.05

Leanna Lakes, Operations Director at Red Funnel, said: “We apologise for any inconvenience these adjustments to Red Jet timetable may cause.

"The updates are due to a reduction in demand, which has dropped off substantially since 2019.

"We will continue to monitor passenger numbers travelling on all services and make timetable adjustments as necessary.”

Red Funnel said there are later sailings on its car ferry service and it will also adjust timetables on Southampton FC match days.