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The Island Line is the one railway left on the island. It runs some 8½ miles from Ryde Pier Head to Shanklin, down the eastern side of the island via Brading and Sandown.It was opened by the Isle of Wight Railway in 1864, and was nationalised in 1948, falling under the Southern Region of British Railways.
Eventually, Hovertravel took over running of the route on behalf of Seaspeed; however, in 1980, the decision was taken to discontinue the Cowes-Southampton service due to rising costs and increased competition from Red Funnel's hydrofoils, instead concentrating its resources on the Ryde-Southsea service, which was viewed as being more viable. [8]
Seaspeed was a jointly owned subsidiary of railway companies British Rail (under British Rail Hovercraft Limited) and France's SNCF, and was established in 1965. Seaspeed operated several services; its first route, running between Cowes and Southampton, was launched on 6 July 1966.
Most of them were permanently closed between 1952 and 1966, whilst the 8 + 1 ⁄ 2-mile-long (13.7 km) Island Line [1] was temporarily closed in 1966 and rebuilt for electric train services, introduced in 1967. Replacement trains were introduced in 1990, and again in 2021 along with a major renewal of the line.
Through rail tickets for travel via Pier Head station are available to and from other stations on the Isle of Wight. These include travel on the catamaran service to or from Portsmouth as appropriate. Trains run down the eastern coast of the Isle of Wight to Shanklin (the Island Line), the last remnant of a network of railways on the island.
To provide the link the rail ferry PS Carrier was moved from Scotland. The project was unsuccessful and despite being acquired in full by the LB&SCR in 1886 ended in 1888. [6] It remains the only rail ferry to have operated a service to the Isle of Wight. In 1884 the Lymington service was bought by the L&SWR. [4]
Newport railway station was a pivotal station within the unique railway network on the Isle of Wight, [1] that began in 1862 when the Cowes and Newport Railway opened for business. Situated in the centre of the town, [ 2 ] the station was enlarged in 1875 with the opening of the Ryde and Newport Railway in December 1875, [ 3 ] which also ...
Red Funnel's main competitor is Wightlink whose services operate from Portsmouth to Fishbourne and Ryde, and from Lymington to Yarmouth. The other major Solent ferry company, Hovertravel, operates between Southsea and Ryde. Both provide a frequent service to the Isle of Wight, but neither normally serve Southampton, Cowes or East Cowes.