Island Line, Isle of Wight

For other uses, see Island Line.

Island Line, Isle of Wight
mi-ch ferries to Portsmouth 0-00 Ryde Pier Head Ryde Pier 0-32 Ryde Esplanade Hovercraft to Southsea tunnel under Ryde 396 yd 362 m B3330 St John's Road 1-19 Ryde St John's Road Ryde depot 2-17 Smallbrook Junction Isle of Wight Steam Railway to Havenstreet & Wootton A3055 to Bembridge 4-55 Brading Sandown Road A3055 to Newport and Cowes Sandown sidings 6-42 Sandown A3055 7-24 Lake A3055 8-29 Shanklin closed 1966 Wroxall tunnel under St Boniface Down Ventnor

A unit currently in service in London Transport livery at Ryde Pier Head railway station

Withdrawn unit 485045 at Shanklin, with Network SouthEast livery and Ryde Rail branding

Island Line is a railway line on the Isle of Wight, running some 8½ miles from Ryde Pier Head to Shanklin down the eastern side of the island. The line was electrified (750 V DC third rail) in 1967. Trains connect with passenger ferries to Portsmouth Harbour at Ryde Pier Head, and these ferries in turn connect with the rest of the National Rail network. The line also connects to the Isle of Wight Steam Railway, a steam operated heritage railway at Smallbrook Junction.

The UK's Department for Transport recently designated the line a 'Community Rail Line' under recent reforms to help boost use of rural and branch lines in the UK rail network.

In the mid-1990s it was planned to reopen the line south of Shanklin, to the original terminus at Ventnor. However, this now seems unlikely to happen, due in part to the high costs involved.

Operation history

The Island Line was originally owned and operated by British Rail. Steam trains were withdrawn from the line in 1967, following its electrification. In the 1980s British Rail was sectorised and the line became part of the Network SouthEast sector. Services on the line were branded as Ryde Rail.

Following the privatisation of British Rail, the rights to run services on the line were put out to tender as a franchise. Stagecoach Group were announced as the winner of the franchise and from October 1996 they operated the line under the name Island Line. The rolling stock was painted into a new livery with large pictures of dinosaurs. Two units were painted into back into London Transport colours that the units would have had when operating on the London Underground. The difference was that the front ends of the units had yellow warning panels, for the benefit of track workers.

From February 2007, the Island Line franchise was merged with the South Western franchise on the mainland. Stagecoach were announced as the winner of the new franchise, and they now operate the line through their South West Trains subsidiary. However, the branding from the previous operator has been retained.

Rolling stock

Standard National Rail vehicle types cannot operate on the Island Line, due to a tunnel at Ryde Esplande being 10 inches too short for the vehicles to clear. Instead, services are operated using Class 483 units, which are refurbished ex-London Underground tube trains originally built in 1938. These replaced the older Class 485 and Class 486 units, which dated from 1923.

Following its successful bid for the new integrated franchise, South West Trains announced that there were no plans to replace the current rolling stock, instead they would invest "to ensure the continued viability of the existing Island Line rolling stock and infrastructure". By 2016, when the current franchise is due to end, the rolling stock will be almost 80 years old.

The rolling stock has recently been bought outright by South West Trains from the leasing company HSBC Rail. This means the leasing costs, which were reimbursed by the government, will be eliminated, thereby lowering taxes paid to the government. The units will now be repainted, two in the current red and cream and four in a heritage cream and green. The stations will also be painted in the heritage cream and green, as part of a general station improvement package.

See also

• Island Line (train operating company)
• Isle of Wight Railway
• Isle of Wight
• National Rail

External links

• BBC Travel News - Island Line