Island Line trains won’t be serving Ryde Pier Head for at least 3 months to facilitate a £17million critical repair project to the railway, it has been revealed.
It’s said that the platform superstructure at the end of Ryde Pier is coming towards the end of its operational life and requires renewal and refurbishment to allow it to continue to operate safely. If the works aren’t completed before December this year the line will be forced to close for safety reasons.
It is proposed that works will get underway at the end of June and will continue until at least mid-February, during which time the line needs to be closed north of Ryde Esplanade for a time. It will include replacing the dilapidated weather screen that greets visitors to the Island.
As well as the more serious repairs to the structure, engineers are set to replace the track along the length of the pier. In addition, smaller refurbishment works are proposed to take place from the beginning of June until December this year.
It’s understood an area of the ‘wet end’ car park used by fishermen will be taken over as a works compound, meaning less available parking at Pier Head.
The 7-month long scheme won’t be the end of the story though as it is envisioned that refurbishment works will continue until 2024 as work is dictated by tides and weather. Furthermore, Ryde Esplanade station is due an upgrade as part of the wider Esplanade redevelopment.
The major scheme comes after a £26million project to upgrade the entire Island Line – and many may be left wondering why the work wasn’t completed at the same time.
UPDATE @ 11:41 – Despite official documentation stating the line will be closed for a 7-month period, Network Rail says they aim to keep the line closed for a shorter period of at least 3 months.
A spokesperson has told Island Echo:
“We are finalising plans to complete safety-critical maintenance on Ryde Pier. It is likely that the line between Ryde Pier Head and Ryde Esplanade will be closed for at least 12 weeks, starting in September. We will announce exact dates as soon as they are available.
“We have timed our programme of work so that it has the lowest possible impact on our passengers. It was not possible to complete our work during the Island Line closure in 2021 as our programme of work had not been finalised.”
Editor’s footnote: article title updated to reflect the change in information from Network Rail
Why are the RMT balloting members to go on strike soon? All they have to do is get IslandLine to take over their trains. Then they won’t run at all and staff remain on full pay.
Train operators have nothing to do with track maintenance. They are striking because they plan to get rid of 2000 plus operatives. Not office staff but the actual people who do the repairs.
Island railway – the gift that keeps on taking…..
Surely they must have known about this,when they done surveying for the works that have been done ???
Another contract with more money. It’s like a call out charge for a plumber.
To be fair it barely services the pier head as it is…There have been numerous occasions when the train has departed without waiting for passengers from the ferry, leaving them stranded for over an hour. Very poor service.
They leave because the train has a timetable to adhere to. Also because the railway line is mostly single tracked trains have to pass each other at Brading. If the train doesnt leave on time then not just one but both trains lose their timetable. Because of works at Portsmouth Harbour most Wightlink services are running behind schedule. The Train services first commitment is to their own timetable not making up for Wightlinks inability to run to theirs.
just If we lived in a world with common sence. trains and boat timetables would work together and allow time for small delays.
Agreed! I have a feeling that if the trains exceed a certain amount of lateness Island line get fined. Apparently a train did wait five minutes today for a late ferry to come in but 5 minutes is about the maximum.
So we had no trains for nearly a year in 21,
Why wasn’t the work scheduled to at least start and run alongside the upgrade at the same time?it’s beyond belief,Brio railway management
Tony, I was thinking the same. It reminds me of when Great Preston Road in Ryde was resurfaced, only to find it dug up shortly after by Utility companies. Why don’t they communicate with each other? I am struggling to understand why the pier railway’s infrastructure wasn’t upgraded when IslandLine was working on improving the track and stations?
What resurface !!! They did a small stretch down the bottom end ,to which has now got many sink holes. But the top end has only seen pot holes filled ,but that doesn’t last long ,there is more potholes than road up that end. They also need to put double yellow lines on one side of the road too.
Have they got many regular customers left?
Those who has gone through the last few years and still kept the faith deserve a medal.
Will not make much difference, wight link are cutting back so many of their sailings that there will be no use for the pier anymore. They should just extend the rail way too Portsmouth harbour as an underground. So easy to do these days. Cut the Solent pirates out of the equation. The pier could then be built on with visitor attractions. Service the people going to work everyday and leave the holiday makers to fight with the ferries.
Am I missing something here? Didn’t they just have a year off to upgrade the line? Has it fallen into disrepair so quickly?
It’s said that the platform superstructure at the end of Ryde Pier is coming towards the end of its operational life…
That they couldn’t be bothered to fix whilst all the upgrades were underway – useless and lazy
Concrete over the rails and run a buses only service