Isle of Wight Island line updates/news

[Gloster]

If you look at the Islandline website the only information you will get is about the original shutdown in…whenever it was: there is nothing on the current bus replacement service. If you do a search for ‘timetable‘ you will get to the SWR site and they have got the timetable there (it wasn’t there a couple of days ago), but only for until 6 October. There is nothing to say that Pier-Esplanade will not reopen on 6 October but will stay closed until the twelfth of never. Presumably, when handing out the massive wedges of cash right, left and centre for the project, they didn’t bother to hand out one to somebody who would ‘keep the passengers informed’. It is a terribly old-fashioned, public service idea and we really don’t want that on today’s money-making railway.

 

[Chris125]

To be fair it's little more than a tick box exercise, experience suggests most will use Southern Vectis and they'll run largely empty.

Interestingly Brading Town Council have slightly more specific info on the work underway: https://www.brading.gov.uk/upcoming-works-to-close-the-island-line-and-ryde-pier/

The large-scale programme of works along the length of the Island Line includes:
• Track renewals and structural repairs between Ryde Esplanade and Ryde Pier station
• Renewing bridges at Park Road and Rink Road, which will include the resurfacing of the highway and strengthening of the abutments
• Through the support of the local authority, upgrading the footbridge at Ryde Esplanade with a strengthened footway after concrete repairs and repainting
• Removing the listed footbridge at Brading station and taking it away for repairs. The listed footbridge will then be reinstalled in September with the temporary footbridge currently in place being removed
• Structural maintenance repairs on St John’s Road Bridge and Wall End Lane Road Bridge at Brading
• Replacing signals (the traffic lights of the railway) between Smallbrook Junction and Ryde St Johns Road and refurbishing signal cables near Sandown station
• Carrying out track refurbishment at Sandown station
• Tamping, which uses specialist machines to restore the line and level of the track, between Truckles Bridge and Rowborough to improve the passenger experience over this section of the line.

 

[Gloster]

To be fair it's little more than a tick box exercise, everyone will take Southern Vectis.

Interestingly Brading Town Council have slightly more specific info on the work underway: https://www.brading.gov.uk/upcoming-works-to-close-the-island-line-and-ryde-pier/

Exactly. Why pay railfares when it is £2 all the way on Southern Vectis? The only people using the RRB are likely to be through fares from the mainland who don’t know and a few who don’t want to walk the pier. But, hey, isn’t it wonderful, as more taxpayers’ money is shovelled into the hands of private entrepreneurs.

 

[hermit]

As you might expect, the RRB is faster than the Southern Vectis services - 37 minutes between Shanklin and Esplanade, as opposed to 55 minutes on SV routes 2 and 3. But this advantage will be offset for many by the fact that the RRB doesn’t take you to the town centres in Sandown and Shanklin.

Certainly, observation yesterday and today suggests that the RRBs are not carrying many people.

 

[Meerkat]

https://x.com/NetworkRailWssx/status/1831623137550590349

Its a video on Twitter so I can’t paste a quote but the “South Western Railway Infrastructure Director” says that when the line opens up again on the 6th October they will be running half hourly.

Anyone know which signals are being replaced?

 

[hermit]

Journey planners are showing a regular half hourly service, on the hour and half hour from each end, when the line reopens from Esplanade to Shanklin in October.

The journey time is shown as 23 minutes. This clearly does not allow time for the service to be extended every half hour up to Pierhead when the pier reopens, planned for next May. It remains to be seen how this conundrum will be resolved then. The 40-minute summer timetable which has just ended provided good and pretty reliable connections with half the catamaran crossings at the expense of extended waits for the other half. Not ideal as a long term solution, but better than the previous timetable under which all connections were too tight to be reliable.

 

[Meerkat]

Journey planners are showing a regular half hourly service, on the hour and half hour from each end, when the line reopens from Esplanade to Shanklin in October.

The journey time is shown as 23 minutes. This clearly does not allow time for the service to be extended every half hour up to Pierhead when the pier reopens, planned for next May. It remains to be seen how this conundrum will be resolved then. The 40-minute summer timetable which has just ended provided good and pretty reliable connections with half the catamaran crossings at the expense of extended waits for the other half. Not ideal as a long term solution, but better than the previous timetable under which all connections were too tight to be reliable.

Is this work not speeding up the service enough to make it half hourly for the whole line?!

 

[Gloster]

Is this work not speeding up the service enough to make it half hourly for the whole line?!

Probably not. One could hope that work will be done to speed up the service south of Ryde and they are only keeping to the 23 minute timing while the pier is closed in order to allow things to bed in, but more likely they just aren’t doing anything. (Maybe we’ll get another closure to do that…or something.) They are removing a disused bridge at Sandown during the closure, though why that takes four weeks (and an eight-week road closure) I do not know. They are also doing two over bridges between Esplanade and St Johns Road: the roads are closed until 1 November, but trains should be back under them at the beginning of October. We shall see. As far as the signalling is concerned, they might be going to replace St Johns Road’s decrepit Distants…or even some of the semaphores.

 

[bramling]

Probably not. One could hope that work will be done to speed up the service south of Ryde and they are only keeping to the 23 minute timing while the pier is closed in order to allow things to bed in, but more likely they just aren’t doing anything. (Maybe we’ll get another closure to do that…or something.) They are removing a disused bridge at Sandown during the closure, though why that takes four weeks (and an eight-week road closure) I do not know. They are also doing two over bridges between Esplanade and St Johns Road: the roads are closed until 1 November, but trains should be back under them at the beginning of October. We shall see. As far as the signalling is concerned, they might be going to replace St Johns Road’s decrepit Distants…or even some of the semaphores.

It is rather depressing that here we are with yet another closure, yet for the end-user there isn’t really any improvement being delivered. The only real glimmer of light is, possibly, the prospect of 4-car trains at some point in the future - again with an element of maybe.

Honestly it’s a miracle there are any users left at the end of all this.

 

[Chris125]

https://x.com/NetworkRailWssx/status/1831623137550590349

Its a video on Twitter so I can’t paste a quote but the “South Western Railway Infrastructure Director” says that when the line opens up again on the 6th October they will be running half hourly.

Anyone know which signals are being replaced?

There are two semaphore's on the Up line approaching St Johns being replaced, seemingly responsible for a lengthy TSR since the upgrade - hopefully getting us nearer a full 30min service.

 

[weeklycommuter]

Looking at the bus service along Ryde Pier and the half hourly train service between Ryde Esplanade and Shanklin on Wednesday 9 October by viewing the service all day at Ryde Esplanade on Real Time Trains they are clearly designed to connect with fastcasts arriving xx37 and departing xx45
Bus departs to Ryde Pier Head xx32 arrives from Ryde Pier Head xx50
Trains arrive from Shanklin xx23 xx53 depart to Shanklin xx29 xx59
This is only a six minute turn around which would be just two minutes at Ryde Pier Head if the trains continue to Ryde Pier Head and turned around there but four minutes is needed to turn around. I note that before 0930 the trains arrive from Shanklin xx22 xx52 depart to Shanklin xx30 xx00 which is an eight minute turn around and would give the four minute turn around at Ryde Pier Head so this early morning timetable could be made into the long promised 30 minute interval timetable Ryde Pier Head to and from Shanklin with Wightlink passengers departing on each fastcat to Portsmouth arriving at Ryde Pier Head on one Island Line train and Wightlink passengers arriving from Portsmouth on the same fastcat departing Ryde Pier Head on the next Island Line train.
The difference between the train times before and after 0930 is that after 0930 the Island Line trains call additionally at Smallbrook Junction to connect with the Isle of Wight Steam Railway. The time intervals between Ryde Esplanade and Brading for the cross over show as 11 minutes without stopping at Smallbrook Junction but 12 minutes with a stop at Smallbrook Junction. This time interval needs to be reliably 11 minutes for a 13 minute time interval between Ryde Pier Head and Brading for the four minute turn around at Ryde Pier Head. However even without the stops at Smallbrook Junction the timing looks tight for running the 30 minute timetable reliably. Looks like the only way to get the 30 minute timetable to work is to take around a minute off the run time between Ryde Pier Head and Brading by increasing the speed of the trains from 45 mph to 60 mph on the two and a half mile section between Smallbrook Junction and Brading.

Realtime Trains | Departures from Ryde Esplanade all day on 09/10/2024

Train information at Ryde Esplanade all day on 09/10/2024. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

 

[Gloster]

According to the station information on National Rail, the taxis/minibuses to the Pier Head will operate from the bottom of Union Street, their normal location. However, it states that the RRB will operate from the Hovertravel car park, which is, so I believe, over the footbridge beyond the end of the bus station. A nice little route march between the two. (On the Islandline timetable I read that the buses will go off Stand D, but that is used by the number 9 and there are often two or three buses on it. The taxi will go from the lay-by outside the station: using the only one that I can think of will mean a Cook’s Tour down to the Dover Street roundabout and back for passengers to the Cat.)

I may go in to Ryde tomorrow and see what is going on.

 

[hermit]

We are now about halfway through the Esplanade-Shanklin closure period, and the RRB seems to be carrying quite a few passengers, at least in daytime. It leaves from the bus station at Esplanade - therefore no long trek or bridge climb to the Hovercraft car park - but is beyond the regular Southern Vectis buses and as far as I could see there’s no signage to direct the unfamiliar traveller.

Whoever planned the service missed a trick in not routing the buses via the back entrance to Sandown station, which would have enabled them to avoid the lengthy diversion via Yaverland. This would have been quicker for through passengers but not so good for Sandown people who are more likely to be heading for the town than the station itself.

 

[Snow1964]

Network Rail media update on the work that was done during the closure with video

Over the past month, a wide range of important maintenance work has been jointly undertaken by Network Rail and SWR. This has included:

• Laying 110m of new track through Ryde Esplanade station with composite sleepers which are more resilient to this coastal environment and will last for at least 60 years
• Installing around 48 new rail bearers over 65m from the end of Ryde Esplanade toward Ryde Pierhead and amending signalling (the railways traffic lights) to enable train services to resume running between Ryde Esplanade and Shanklin
• Realigning the track through Ryde Esplanade station to reduce the gap between the train and platform, and renewing part of the track at Smallbrook Junction
• Replacing the bridge decks at both Park and Rink Road bridges, and bridge repairs in Sandown
• Renovations to the historic footbridge at Brading.

Following the conclusion of this first of a two-part closure, train services have resumed running, operating every 30 minutes between Ryde Esplanade and Shanklin. The first service will be the 06.01 from Ryde Esplanade to Shanklin.

All attention now turns to continuing work to repair and preserve the historic Ryde Pier structure, which began in October 2022. The pier will remain closed to trains until it is expected to reopen in early May 2025, in time for the summer holiday season.

Island Line services resume following completion of large programme of vital maintenance

South Western Railway (SWR) services resume this morning (Monday 7 October) following a month-long closure of the Island Line while engineers completed a comprehensive programme of critical maintenance.

www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk

 

[swt_passenger]

Does the fact it’s to be a regular 30m service mean it can also be a 30m service with the pier head included?

 

[Chris125]

Does the fact it’s to be a regular 30m service mean it can also be a 30m service with the pier head included?

I guess we'll find out next year, new signals mean up trains are approaching St Johns at linespeed again which saves a useful chunk of time.

 

[Russel]

Been looking at visiting the IOW for a while now, one thing that strikes me is that there has been so much disruption to the Island Line over the last few years that I have to wonder just how many regular passengers are left, especially given it is duplicated by multiple bus routes all charging £2 flat fares each way...

 

[ikcdab]

Fully agree. The fact that they can close it down for months at a time and life doesn't fall apart means that if it were closed completely it would have minimal practical effect. It's kept for emotional reasons only.

 

[Dougal2345]

Been looking at visiting the IOW for a while now, one thing that strikes me is that there has been so much disruption to the Island Line over the last few years that I have to wonder just how many regular passengers are left, especially given it is duplicated by multiple bus routes all charging £2 flat fares each way...

Fully agree. The fact that they can close it down for months at a time and life doesn't fall apart means that if it were closed completely it would have minimal practical effect. It's kept for emotional reasons only.

On the contrary, to the places it serves it's about twice as fast as the bus, much more comfortable, and a Railcard return fare for the entire length of the line is £4.75, a massive 75p more expensive than the bus - when the bus fare rises to £2.50 it will actually be cheaper by train (and a Railcard "Evening Out" return is £3.45).

It was still well used when I visited in the summer. By the logic above, one might say the buses are kept for "emotional reasons only" because if they stopped running people could walk or use scooters for free.

 

[DelW]

Been looking at visiting the IOW for a while now, one thing that strikes me is that there has been so much disruption to the Island Line over the last few years that I have to wonder just how many regular passengers are left, especially given it is duplicated by multiple bus routes all charging £2 flat fares each way...

Fully agree. The fact that they can close it down for months at a time and life doesn't fall apart means that if it were closed completely it would have minimal practical effect. It's kept for emotional reasons only.

For people travelling on Wightlink to or from Portsmouth, the bus <> catamaran transfer is a half mile walk along the pier. The recently segregated walkway is an improvement over dodging the traffic on the narrow vehicle pier, but it's still something many people choose to avoid on a wet, windy or cold day.

Plus there are people who may not be physically able to make the walk, even in good weather. Ryde <> Portsmouth is the easiest public transport route on and off the island, because of the quick connection at Portsmouth Harbour station.

 

[hermit]

A bit of perspective for those tempted to write off Island Line as a basket case. In 2023/24 Shanklin’s usage was comparable to Whitby’s, more than Newquay’s, and three times that of Milford Haven’s (to take three other random ‘remote’ termini). The line is still pretty well used even in its present truncated state.
As has been pointed out above (several times) the parallel bus services take twice as long and are not much use for people with heavy luggage or cycles.

 

[Russel]

A bit of perspective for those tempted to write off Island Line as a basket case. In 2023/24 Shanklin’s usage was comparable to Whitby’s, more than Newquay’s, and three times that of Milford Haven’s (to take three other random ‘remote’ termini). The line is still pretty well used even in its present truncated state.
As has been pointed out above (several times) the parallel bus services take twice as long and are not much use for people with heavy luggage or cycles.

The Whitby comparison, to me, casts even more doubt about the lines viability...

Whitby has 5 trains a day, Shanklin has an hourly service, with the same amount of passengers...

 

[Gloster]

The Whitby comparison, to me, casts even more doubt about the lines viability...

Whitby has 5 trains a day, Shanklin has an hourly service, with the same amount of passengers...

Both the trains and the ’bus’ are half-hourly now. The problem is that the line has repeatedly been hit by lengthy engineering blockades on the pier and that dissuades a fair proportion of the optional travellers. How long will it take to win back the traffic that found alternatives as they didn’t like the bus transfer. Still, the consultants and engineering companies made a packet out of the work, so it must be a good thing.

 

[weeklycommuter]

Now the Island Line is returning to public ownership on 25 May 2025 as part of South Western Railway the Conservative MP for Isle of Wight East is calling for the Isle of Wight ferries to be included in plans to nationalise the railways. I assume he is referring to the three Wightlink ferries, the Portsmouth-Fishbourne and Lymington-Yarmouth car ferries and the Portsmouth Harbour to Ryde Pier Head fastcat which were part of British Railways and privatised by the Conservative Government in the 1980s. The two Wightlink Portsmouth ferries serve his constituency. His call for these ferry services to be returned to public ownership is contrary to everything his party has done over the last 40 years but I agree with his view on this. One of the issues which puts people off visiting the Isle of Wight and therefore undermines the usage and finances of the Island Line is the cost of the ferries which are the only way to travel to and from the Isle of Wight.

"Unjust" not to include ferries in rail nationalisation plans, says MP

He has also written to the new Transport Secretary.

www.countypress.co.uk

Isle of Wight ferry firms should be nationalised like trains says MP

One of the Isle of Wight's MPs has called on government to include Island ferries in plans to nationalise the railways, saying it would be "unjust" not to do so.
Joe Robertson, MP for IW East, said he has written to new Transport Secretary, Heidi Alexander to ask her to meet with himself, IW West MP Richard Quigley and council leader, Phil Jordan.
His comments follow an announcement that South Western Railway — which runs Island Line — will be the first to transfer into public ownership next year.
The government said the transition to a publicly owned railway will improve reliability and support its number one priority of boosting economic growth by encouraging more people to use the railway.
He said: “The government cannot, with any credibility, nationalise Island Line, give millions of pounds for our buses, but take no action at all on our ferries.
"The rationale for action on trains and buses is to improve experience, reliability, and cost for transport users. All those arguments apply to ferry users with the added issue that Islanders are entirely reliant on them. There is no other way of getting on and off the Island.
”The one-sided status quo cannot be allowed to continue, particularly when action is being taken elsewhere. Wightlink used to be part of British Rail but was not franchised when it was privatised."
Following their election earlier this year, Mr Quigley and Mr Robertson had both met with previous Transport Secretary Louise Haigh to discuss problems with the ferries.
In July, the IW East MP (Conservative) said she appeared "genuinely receptive" to the idea of including cross-Solent operators in plans to nationalise the railways.

 

[Gloster]

Now the Island Line is returning to public ownership on 25 May 2025 as part of South Western Railway the Conservative MP for Isle of Wight East is calling for the Isle of Wight ferries to be included in plans to nationalise the railways. I assume he is referring to the three Wightlink ferries, the Portsmouth-Fishbourne and Lymington-Yarmouth car ferries and the Portsmouth Harbour to Ryde Pier Head fastcat which were part of British Railways and privatised by the Conservative Government in the 1980s. The two Wightlink Portsmouth ferries serve his constituency. His call for these ferry services to be returned to public ownership is contrary to everything his party has done over the last 40 years but I agree with his view on this. One of the issues which puts people off visiting the Isle of Wight and therefore undermines the usage and finances of the Island Line is the cost of the ferries which are the only way to travel to and from the Isle of Wight.

This sounds to me as if he is putting forward an idea in the knowledge that it will fail. Wightlink is owned by two infrastructure investment companies (Basalt and Fiera) and they are hardly likley to sell it except at a healthy profit. Much as it would be a good idea, a lot of hard cash would be needed and that is something that the government is not likely to have in the next few years. But Robertson will be able to claim that because they won’t take up his marvellous idea, the nasty Labour government don’t care about the interests of the island.

 

[AB93]

Both the trains and the ’bus’ are half-hourly now. The problem is that the line has repeatedly been hit by lengthy engineering blockades on the pier and that dissuades a fair proportion of the optional travellers. How long will it take to win back the traffic that found alternatives as they didn’t like the bus transfer. Still, the consultants and engineering companies made a packet out of the work, so it must be a good thing.

Buses between Shanklin and Ryde run every 15 minutes.

 

[Gloster]

Buses between Shanklin and Ryde run every 15 minutes.

I was referring to the ‘bus‘ along the pier. It is actually a large taxi, which is not really disability friendly.

 

[Towers]

Now the Island Line is returning to public ownership on 25 May 2025 as part of South Western Railway the Conservative MP for Isle of Wight East is calling for the Isle of Wight ferries to be included in plans to nationalise the railways. I assume he is referring to the three Wightlink ferries, the Portsmouth-Fishbourne and Lymington-Yarmouth car ferries and the Portsmouth Harbour to Ryde Pier Head fastcat which were part of British Railways and privatised by the Conservative Government in the 1980s. The two Wightlink Portsmouth ferries serve his constituency. His call for these ferry services to be returned to public ownership is contrary to everything his party has done over the last 40 years but I agree with his view on this. One of the issues which puts people off visiting the Isle of Wight and therefore undermines the usage and finances of the Island Line is the cost of the ferries which are the only way to travel to and from the Isle of Wight.

He’s got absolutely no chance!

 

[DelW]

I can't believe that there would be any rationale or enthusiasm for nationalising the Wightlink car ferry routes. The fastcat route via Ryde pier is effectively a completely separate operation and could be split off and incorporated into the SWR / Island Line system. I can't see it ever happening though.

It's also one heck of a piece of hypocrisy from a Tory MP, since it was his party that broke up integrated public transport systems in the 1980s and '90s and flogged them off to their profiteering cronies in the name of an illusory "competition" agenda.

 

[zwk500]

It's also one heck of a piece of hypocrisy from a Tory MP, since it was his party that broke up integrated public transport systems in the 1980s and '90s and flogged them off to their profiteering cronies in the name of an illusory "competition" agenda.

To be fair to this MP, he was born in 1984 and therefore around 10 at the time of privatisation, and individuals do not necessarily have to agree with the entire agenda of the party they belong to on a personal or local level.
However it is quite funny to see him complain of high costs on what is prima facie a commercially competitive set of services.

A bit of perspective for those tempted to write off Island Line as a basket case. In 2023/24 Shanklin’s usage was comparable to Whitby’s, more than Newquay’s, and three times that of Milford Haven’s (to take three other random ‘remote’ termini). The line is still pretty well used even in its present truncated state.
As has been pointed out above (several times) the parallel bus services take twice as long and are not much use for people with heavy luggage or cycles.

This lends quite a lot of credence to people who suggested it should be a light railway or even a tram. Shanklin received 150,000 entries and exits last year (down a bit from pre-Covid highs of nearly 250,000). This is well within the capabilities of a tram. A Tram would also have been able to bypass Ryde Tunnel with street-running if it needed to, and has scope for further extension within or without the railway alignment.