Island Line will switch to an hourly service from tomorrow (Thursday) until further notice as the ‘new’ Class 484 trains are proving problematic. Despite a recent £26million investment in the Ryde Pier Head to Shanklin service, which promised greater connectivity, South Western Railway has confirmed that it must now run a reduced timetable moving forward to ensure that it can run 2 trains at the busiest times of the year. The Class 484 trains, which were converted by Vivarail, are requiring more maintenance than would normally be expected, it is said. It means that engineers are struggling to keep 2 trains running at all times, despite having 5 trains in total. From tomorrow, Island Line will only operate 1 train per hour with a view to running 2 trains per hour during the Easter, early May bank holiday and Summer holidays – indicating that the reduced timetable is likely to remain in place for the next 6 months at least. Mark Dunn, South Western Railway’s Island Line General Manager, has said:
“To ensure that we are able to run a full service of two trains per hour at the busiest times of the year, we have made the difficult decision to move to an hourly timetable from Thursday 29 February. “We have recently found that our Class 484 fleet requires more maintenance than we would normally expect. By running our trains less frequently we will have more time to complete that maintenance and will thereby increase their availability. “We understand just how important the Easter, May bank holiday and summer holidays are to the Island, and the link with ferries to the mainland, so we want to do all we can to ensure a full service can run at those busier times.”
A full service will run between 24th March and 14th April, 4th May to 11th May and 24th May to 7th September. It was in September 2019 that great fanfare was made of a major investment in the Island’s railway, with a 30-minute service a key part of the project. The scheme to improve the line between Ryde and Shanklin got underway in January 2021 but was not completed until 1st November that year, some 8 months later than anticipated. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWRIPc7USgU At the time, Claire Mann, Managing Director of South Western Railway, said:
“The new trains and upgraded infrastructure will give a real boost to the customer experience, delivering the modern, punctual and accessible railway that people expect and deserve”.
During testing of the new Class 484 trains a number of software issues were flagged up, which was a contributory factor to the significant delay in re-opening Island Line. Then, in November 2022, Vivarail entered administration. A 2-train service ran over Christmas 2021 did not begin fully until April 2023, with the timetable taken back down to hourly later in the year due to flooding. A 2-train operation then resumed in early November.
