Works on the Island Line, which have forced a temporary full-line closure over the October half-term, are progressing well, South Western Railway has confirmed.
A full line closure has been in place since Saturday 18th October with the line set to completely reopen on Monday 17th November.
During the closure period the following works are being tackled:
- Replacing the switches and crossings at Ryde Esplanade, which allow the trains to change track
- Replacing rail between Ryde Esplanade and Ryde St John’s Road, through Ryde Tunnel
- Refurbishing Ryde St Johns Footbridge
- Improving the fencing on Rink Road, Ryde to make the railway safer
- Tamping, lifting the track over the ballast, along the whole line to ensure a smoother ride for passengers
- Vegetation management to reduce the risk of trees falling onto the line and leaf-fall impacting services
- Detailed track inspection to check for areas that need repairs and improvement
Signal boxes on the track near Ryde Esplanade are being moved and lifted up to prevent further issues in the event of flooding.
Some of the above works are already finished, whilst others – including the refurb of the Ryde St Johns Footbridge and the rail replacement through Ryde Tunnel – are progressing well and scheduled to complete on time.
Speaking to Island Echo, South Western Railway’s Engineering Director, Neil Drury has said:
“Doing all these things on a planned basis means we shouldn’t have to come in and do works on an unplanned basis.
“Lots of the changes are all about reliability and making the system more reliable and more resilient for the future.
“The idea is that each year, similar to what we do on the mainland, we will do a planned intervention out of season to make best use of the time we have to do works that need doing.”
“When people ask why do we invest in this section of the network, it’s simple. It’s because the service is a real community lifeline for the people who live here.”
More resilient don’t hold your breath
It has been many years since Island Line could be called remotely reliable.
About the only thing you can rely on is that as soon as they finish one long closure they’ll announce another.
I used to commute by train every day but not any more – I can’t take the chance.
What is the point of spending tens of millions of pounds on a railway when the schedulers think it’s ok for ferries to departs a few minutes before the train arrives. There is only a coordinated connection once every 2 hours. Maybe they collect their subsidy so don’t need to worry about maximising passengers?
This is the biggest mess of a railway project in the UK. It was supposed to be a 13 week closure when announced at Brading in 2019. I was there, the only railway trade journalist and fairly involved in KILF which saved the line from closure a few years earlier. Mismanagement locally and by the Department for Transport.
How about a train tunnel across to Portsmouth..???..