Island Line services between Ryde Pier Head and Shanklin are back in action today (Friday), but will finish earlier than usual this evening.
Services have been suspended for the past week as a result of both remaining trains being unfit for operation. However, engineers have worked hard to keep the Class 483 trains running and have been able to bring 1 (007) back into service.
An hourly timetable is now in operation departing Shanklin at XX:18 past the hour and Ryde Pier Head at XX:49.
Due to the testing of the new Class 484 trains, which are due to enter service in 2021, the line will close earlier than normal today with the last passenger trains running at 19:18 from Shanklin to Ryde Pier Head.
Information published suggests that the line will remain closed on Saturday and Sunday evenings also.
Island Line will be closed for the first 3 months of next year to allow a major improvement programme to be completed ahead of the new trains becoming operational. You can read more about this at https://www.southwesternrailway.com/destinations-and-offers/island-line/island-line-upgrade.
MoneyPenny would have sorted it if asked!
Very confusing. SWT website says these trains are out of action for longer. So the rail replacement cancelled now? Trying to plan a jounrey to the mainland today and impossible to know how to get to the Wightlink Fastcat,
Also I tried to take the train when it was active a couple of weeks ago and was cancelled due to break down, so cannot rely on this service to get you to ferry. We don’t all drive! Will have to use SV instead
There are always many ways to get from A to B; these trains have been reliable for many, many years on the island, thanks to the engineers’ hard work, for which we should all be grateful; if not for them, new trains woulds have been needed many years ago, with the consequent increased costs involved. I have never once gone to catch a train, and it has not run on time.
I hear some people Already taking sweep stakes, on when the new ones get pulled, because of track problems
That is precisely why they are undergoing four months of exhaustive testing, to prevent this from happening.
The starlight express runs again!!!! {007} Well done Ryde TCD. A fitting conclusion to the Island-Line’s 483 era and more so if 007 completes the final passenger service before the line shutdown in preparation for the introduction of the 484’s. Again, well done.
I must say these trains have just given up the ghost and i suggest they just call it a day. They look well tired and ragged and visitors would be shocked if thats the first thing they experience when coming to the Island. I suggest you all stand back about 25 yrds and just look at these poor old trains that have been worked to the bone!
Scrap them ,
will be sad to see the old 483s be retired.
it wont be sad. its way past time these rustbuckets went. They will serve again on historic railways, but the island deserves a proper decent smooth railway which works to timetable.
It also deserves extension to Ventnor, Newport, Cowes and the west wight – but that wont happen.