Twenty-one sailings each way on a weekday, twenty-four on a Saturday and fourteen on a Sunday: that is the whole Red Jet timetable, and it is the same grid before and after the clocks change. What varies is the week — two Saturday round trips are off on 26 September and 3 October while Red Funnel works on its Southampton berth.
Summer timetable 24 March to 2 November 2026 and winter timetable 3 November 2026 to 21 March 2027, both read on redfunnel.co.uk on 25 September 2026. The two sheets carry identical sailing times. Red Funnel — Red Jet summer and winter timetables (PDF) · 2026-09-25
Twenty-one sailings leave Southampton's Town Quay for West Cowes each weekday, starting at 05:30 and finishing at 22:30, and twenty-one come back, ending with the 23:05 from the island. Saturdays have twenty-four each way, Sundays fourteen. Those numbers do not change on 3 November: Red Funnel's winter sheet for 2026–27 repeats the summer sailing times exactly, so the grid on this page holds until 21 March 2027.
The Red Jet is Red Funnel's passenger-only catamaran, and three things are easily confused with it. Red Funnel's own car ferry leaves from Terminal 1 next door and goes to East Cowes, on the other side of the River Medina, in about an hour. Hovertravel's hovercraft and Wightlink's catamaran cross from Portsmouth, not from Southampton. The Red Jet leaves Terminal 2, lands at a pontoon in West Cowes a few steps from the High Street, and carries people, bicycles and dogs, nothing with an engine of its own; like the rest of England's crossings on this site, it leaves the car on the shore.
Red Funnel's own figure is 1.1 million passengers a year on the Red Jet. Much of that is commuting, which explains the shape of the day: a boat every 35 minutes at the peaks, every 70 or so through the late morning, and a thin but reliable evening that brings the last one home from the island after 23:00.
A single across costs an adult £23.65 whichever way you go, and at that price the timing of a return decides almost everything. Leave Southampton after 18:15 on a weekday, or at any time at a weekend, and an off-peak day return is £24.10 — barely more than one way. Travel as a pair or a group after 10:55 and the super off-peak day return drops to £14.00 an adult, seven days a week, provided everyone on the ticket travels together both ways.
Children aged 5 to 15 pay about half, infants under five need no ticket, and dogs and bicycles cross free. Foot-passenger tickets bought on Red Funnel's website are valid on either of its routes, and a Red Jet season ticket also covers the car ferry; a car-ferry season ticket does not cover the Red Jet.
| Adult (16–59) single | £ 23.65 |
| Senior (60+) single | £ 15.60 |
| Child (5–15) single | £ 11.80 |
| Adult off-peak day return | £ 24.10 |
| Senior off-peak day return | £ 16.20 |
| Adult super off-peak day return (2+ together) | £ 14 |
| Child super off-peak day return | £ 7 |
| Family day return (3 or 4 people) | £ 48.90 |
| Adult off-peak group day return (4+) | £ 18.10 |
| Infant (0–4) | Free |
| Adult standard period return | £ 40.80 |
| Senior standard period return | £ 27.40 |
| Child standard period return | £ 20.30 |
| Adult off-peak period return | £ 29.70 |
| Red Jet / car ferry combi day return, adult | £ 30.75 |
| Adult 7-day season ticket | £ 155.25 |
| Adult 30-day season ticket | £ 486 |
| Dog or bicycle | Free |
Foot passenger fares valid from 3 January 2026, as published on redfunnel.co.uk on 25 September 2026. Red Funnel — passenger fares to the Isle of Wight and to Southampton · 2026-09-25
Red Funnel puts the sailing distance at 11.7 miles. Plotted from the stop records the Department for Transport keeps, the two terminals sit about sixteen and a half kilometres apart as the crow flies, and the route runs the length of Southampton Water past Hythe Pier, Netley and Calshot before crossing the Solent into the mouth of the Medina at Cowes. Twenty-eight minutes is the timetabled figure; Red Funnel's route page rounds it to thirty. Red Funnel bills it as the fastest way from London to West Cowes by train. The other Solent crossing on this site is further east: Hovertravel's Southsea–Ryde hovercraft, a different operator landing on a different shore.
Terminal 2 is the Red Jet's own building on Town Quay, a short walk from Terminal 1, where Red Funnel's car ferry to East Cowes loads. The Hythe ferry uses Terminal 2 as well, so check which queue you are in. Inside there is a ticket office, a Costa counter, toilets, luggage trolleys and free Wi-Fi; Red Funnel gives the building's hours as 07:30 to 19:00 on weekdays and 08:00 to 19:00 at weekends, which means the earliest and latest boats run while the doors are officially shut. Arrive five to fifteen minutes before your sailing.
Red Funnel's Quayconnect shuttle runs roughly every half hour between Town Quay and the south side of Southampton Central station via WestQuay, free with a Red Funnel ticket and £2 return otherwise. When it stops for the evening, a foot-passenger ticket also gets you on Bluestar's route 19 from the stop opposite the Platform Tavern. Drivers are pointed to the 270-space Triangle car park on Cunard Road, pay on arrival, five minutes' walk away; larger multi-storeys such as Ocean Car Park take longer stays.
The island terminal sits on the pontoon at Fountain Yard, off Cowes High Street, with a ticket office that also sells rail and National Express through tickets, a cycle hub, toilets and two parking bays for NHS patients that must be booked. Fountain Yard itself allows ten minutes for dropping off or collecting, enforced around the clock. Long-stay parking is in Park Road, Mornington Road and Brunswick Road, and there is a park-and-ride at Somerton on the A3020.
Bus service 1 to Newport leaves from outside the M&S Foodhall, two minutes' walk, every ten minutes in the daytime. East Cowes, where the car ferry and Osborne House are, is across the Medina: the Cowes Floating Bridge, £1.50 return, is a twelve-minute walk from the Red Jet pontoon.
Red Funnel calls the route non-bookable: you buy a ticket, online, in the app or at the terminal, and board the next boat. Online foot-passenger tickets are sold at standard rates and are valid via either Cowes terminal; off-peak and group tickets are sold at the ticket offices.
Red Jet 6 and 7 each carry 11 racks, for bikes up to 25 kg with tyres no wider than 63 mm. Folding bikes go in a bag on the luggage rack. Bicycles are free, and e-bikes are allowed as long as nobody tries to charge them.
Dogs and other domestic pets travel at no charge under Red Funnel's pet policy. Both Red Jets are listed as pet friendly.
Electric scooters are banned from the boats and from every terminal area, including charging and carrying them folded. Push scooters must be wheeled, not ridden.
The Red Jet has no vehicle deck. Red Funnel's car ferry leaves Terminal 1, a short walk along Town Quay, for East Cowes and takes about an hour; its own timetable and fares are not listed here.
The 23:05 from West Cowes is the final scheduled crossing every night. Red Funnel offers a late-night Red Jet charter for groups and events once the timetable has finished.
Red Funnel was formed in 1861 and has chased speed across the Solent for most of the time since. Its own history lists an eleven-seat sea coach in 1933, a hovercraft trial in 1968 that the company admits was noisy and rough, and from 1969 a series of hydrofoils starting with Shearwater I, which crossed in 23 minutes but had a reputation for a bumpy ride. In 1991 came Red Jet 1, the Solent's first waterjet-propelled fast ferry, and the name has stuck through every boat since.
Both current catamarans were built on the island, at yards in East Cowes, and each seats 275. Red Funnel has also announced an all-electric foiling passenger ferry, developed with Artemis Technologies, as the first zero-emission service between the south coast and the Isle of Wight. When this page was checked it was not yet listed in the fleet, so the timetable above is run by Red Jet 6 and Red Jet 7.
No. Both belong to Red Funnel, but the car ferry leaves Terminal 1 for East Cowes and takes about an hour, while the Red Jet leaves Terminal 2 for West Cowes in about 28 minutes and carries foot passengers only. The two towns are on opposite banks of the Medina, linked by the Floating Bridge.
The 23:05 from West Cowes, seven days a week, reaching Town Quay just after half past eleven. The last boat out of Southampton is the 22:30. On a few Saturday nights this autumn an extra 00:40 from West Cowes has been added while the East Cowes car ferry's late sailing is off.
Because the weekday timetable switches from its 35-minute commuter pattern to a 70-minute one after the morning peak. The same gap appears on the island side, between the 09:35 and the 10:55. On Saturdays the 35-minute pattern runs all day.
No. Red Funnel describes the route as non-bookable: a ticket is valid on any Red Jet on its date and you board in order of arrival at the terminal. Buying online in advance simply saves queuing at the ticket office.
On both Saturdays, 26 September and 3 October, Red Funnel has withdrawn the 13:15 and 17:20 from Southampton and the 13:50 and 17:55 from West Cowes while it works on its Southampton berth. Every other sailing runs as normal, boarding from a secondary berth.
If you travel together after 10:55, the super off-peak day return is £14.00 each, £28.00 for the pair. At other times two off-peak day returns, available from Southampton after 18:15 on weekdays or all day at weekends, cost £24.10 each.
Usually. Each Red Jet has 11 bike racks for bicycles of up to 25 kg with tyres no wider than 63 mm, and there is no charge. Folding bikes in a bag go on the luggage rack instead.
No. Red Funnel runs the route all year except 25 December. Bank holidays follow the Sunday timetable, with 14 sailings each way.