South Western Railway will finally operate a 2 trains per hour service on the Island Line from April – but no fixed date has been given as to when Ryde Pier Head will open once again.
The railway line between Ryde Esplanade and Ryde Pier Head has been closed since October 2022 to allow engineers to strengthen the 686-metre-long Victorian pier that was built in 1880.
Over the course of the winter, engineers continued refurbishing and strengthening the structure but were faced with several challenges, meaning that the programme has been extended further into the Spring. It now means that trains won’t be running up the pier to meet the Fastcat until ‘late Spring’ – which could be May or even June.
Despite the revised programme timescales, there is good news for Island Line customers as from Sunday 2nd April, SWR will operate 2 trains per hour between Ryde Esplanade and Shanklin, fulfilling a long-term franchise commitment.
Ahead of that, Ryde Esplanade station will be closed for a 2-week period as SWR begins platform improvement works at Ryde Esplanade, along with vital track maintenance.
From Monday 13th March until Saturday 1st April the station will be closed with a bus replacement service operating between Ryde Esplanade and Ryde St John’s.
Mini buses will then continue to run up and down Ryde Pier until the line re-opens to trains in late Spring – whatever date that may be.
Mark Dunn, South Western Railway’s Island Line general manager, has said:
“Strengthening work on the pier has been harder than anticipated due to the exceptionally difficult weather conditions, however, we have seen some good progress in recent weeks.
“Customers should be aware that buses will replace trains between Ryde Pier Head and Ryde St Johns from Monday 13th March, while we complete vital track and platform maintenance at Ryde Esplanade
“We know just how important Easter is for customers and businesses on the Island, so we will continue working hard with Network Rail to ensure we reopen Ryde Esplanade by Saturday 1st April.
“We’re very pleased to confirm that when we re-open Ryde Esplanade we will begin operating two trains per hour to Shanklin. A lot of hard work has gone into reaching this milestone, delivering on what is an important, long-term commitment to the Island Line.”
Further disruption is expected on Island Line in Ryde when work to replace bridge decks at Park Road and Rink Road gets underway, as exclusively reported by Island Echo. The project may well mean that trains are unable to run from Ryde St John’s to Ryde Pier Head at all for a period of time.
There shouldn’t be any problem running a two trains per hour service, with four car trains, for capacity, as they have five two-car units, leaving one spare.
And no unit undergoing maintenance or repair from a fault the previous day. Take a day off will you
Give them a week and there will be continius cancellations.
Crap service scrap the trains.
Try spellchecker, because that’s better than you . If the service can run it will. The staff are in place, as are the trains. But the line cannot be held responsible for a trespassing incident, power failure or anything else out of their control
Point being even if we get the superb service of 2 TRAINS AN HOUR ,we could tar mac the lot and have battery shuttle busses running four an hour without all the costly maintenance need for tracks, fencing, safety from electrocution, and the trains themselves.
No issue then with minor flooding etc either.
MOVE FORWARD WITH THE TIMES and keep trains where they are lovely at Havenstreet as a living museum for the bored to enjoy.
You’d still need to maintain the track (road), the fencing and the buses and the batteries.
Is that two trains per hour once the Pier Head station reopens?
No it’s 2 trains per hour from 2nd April as per the report from island echo. Try taking something to alleviate your issues
Um… Didn’t we already have a two trains per hour service before they “improved” it?
I’ll believe it when I see it. Even then I won’t be holding my breath.
We used to have the most reliable service in the country.
Nowadays we must be in the running for least reliable.
That will be a novelty, lucky if we get 1 per hour !!!!!
Have 2 say didn’t notice when they were on strike !!!!
Or if it was the usual sick note ploy …..
The old service was far better ….
No one notices when your on strike either, as you are full of hot air. Are you liz truss in disguise
April 2023 or April 2033?