A report into the future of the Island Line on the Isle of Wight – currently part of the South West Trains railway franchise – has suggested that the best option could be that it is converted to become a tramway using second hand trams. The report – commissioned by Isle of Wight Council as part of the consultation into the new South West Trains franchise which is due to start next year – was prepared by transport expert Christopher Garnett and looked at all ways that the line could be made more self sufficient.
Currently the Island Line – which runs between Ryde Pier Head and Shanklin – uses a small fleet of former London Underground 1938 stock trains to operate services; these are the oldest trains currently in regular operation on the UK rail network. Passenger numbers have fallen rapidly in recent years on the railway with losses also, unsurprisingly, rising at the same time which has led some to call for the line to be split from the more profitable main South West Trains network. As a result of these comments Isle of Wight Council commissioned this report to see ways that losses could be cut and an improved service could be offered.
The main result of the report is that regardless of what way forward is taken a significant level of investment is required on the infrastructure full stop, whether that be the retention of the line as a standard railway or conversion to a tramway. The report concludes:
* more needs to be known regarding the condition of the rolling stock and infrastructure, in particular Ryde Pier
* more detailed consideration should be given by the government to the future of the Island Line
* the line needs significant investment to bring it up to acceptable standards
* it should have the normal protection that a franchised railway has in the event of a failure of the operator, or experience unforeseen issues with the track or infrastructure
* a light rail based solution could reduce operating costs compared to the existing heavy rail operation
* it should be promoted and managed more effectively and remain as part of the national network for timetabling and ticketing
Obviously for this website the most interesting point above is the fifth comment about a light rail based solution. The report states that local consultees agreed that a tram system could be the most appropriate solution in order to maintain the existing route as well as offering the potential to extend the line in the future. It is thought that this would simplify the operation, has the potential to reduce costs, increase frequency and ultimately build future opportunity for the line.
Suggestions are that if they went down the light rail route second hand trams would be used – although no details of where these could be sourced from are mentioned. But it is still very early days in these plans and for the time being the Island Line will be retained as part of the South West Trains franchise with incumbent operator Stagecoach up against First to run the line from next year. Whether it remains as part of this franchise going forward though remains up for debate and if it was separated (as it was when privatisation was first introduced in the 1990s) this would be the potential time for a decision to made as to whether it goes over to light rail operation.
What makes this report on suggested use of tramway/light railway
for the Isle of Wight so intriguing is that the author is Chris Garnett, the one-time chief executive of GNER, the greatest railway of modern times, and he who transformed an ailing ECML into a hugely popular trunk route.
The reason that the Island Line uses ex-Underground stock is the extremely restricted loading gauge – modern mainland rolling stock simply would not fit! There is also no way that a conventional Overhead Line supplied tramway would fit without rebuilding every bridge and tunnel on the line. The costs would be phenomenal – in £ per mile it would almost certainly exceed any other conversion and even most new-build tramways…
As it is a self contained system, the report is correct that matching mainland heavy rail construction standards is not necessary, so a Docklands Light Railway style 3rd / 4th rail system may be possible, as an alternative to the recently proposed transfer of 1978 Underground Stock, but I doubt we will see Flexities or Citadis running to Ryde.
Considering that they use ex London Underground stock due to the tunnel at Ryde having insufficient clearance for main line trains I don’t know how they’re going to get clearance for overhead wires without considerably lowering the trackbed, which I believe already gets flooded.
Its not the first time that a light rail option has been considered for the island. I recall that the idea came up back in the 1960s to use lightweight diesel vehicles at a time when the network was bigger (Sadler Vectrail). There have also been suggestions that trams could be used to reopen the Shanklin to Ventnor section.
Whatever is decided, the steam railway needs a line to connect with at Smallbrook Junction.
I have always understood the reason for use of ex-tube stock to be because of size, particularly height, restrictions in at least one tunnel. So, if true, how can secondhand trams be used? They would need extensive alteration. Current pickup, for instance could not be via the traditional pantogragh. I am guessing, but most trams I’ve seen have dimensions, again height in particular, as mainline rail vehicles. I hope I’m wrong but it seems to me that this report could easily provide the excuse to close this line on the basis that cost of replacement stock, alterations to infrastructure, etc. is excessive.
Maybe they are thinking that because the old Midland Metro trams are stored they will be able to get hold of them for use on the Isle of Wight. That is, if these trams are not in reserve for the decades-delayed Merry Hill line, once (if) it gets built.
When the line was converted from steam the trackbed in Ryde tunnels and bridges was raised to its present level because the present stock did not need as much headroom, the local BBC television news showed the old Midland metro trams in storage being a possible source of trams
If the clearance problems are genuine (they ran mainline loading-gauge steam locomotives on that line once), then it would be intriguing to see how modern low-floor trams could be converted to third rail. They are not like the old North Shore interurban cars in Chicago years ago, which were dual third rail/overhead fitted.
As the main obstruction to increasing the loading gauge would be the tunnel at Ryde, I wonder if the will and the money could be found to bypass it by constructing a section of on street track. With the sort of headways likely on the line, it ought to be possible to thread a single track through the streets above the tunnel. (Most of the rest of the line is single track anyway.) Before the tunnel was built, there was a horse tramway linking St Johns Road with the Esplanade.
The main problem with this line is accessability Pierhead stn is at the end of a long pier, Esplanade has a bus station but is remote from Hotels and shops, St Johns is in the suberbs and remote from other transport, Smallbrook only connects to the Steam Railway, Brading is on the village outskirts the centre of which has a super bus service, Sandown is remote from the hotels and shops and has no transport links, Shanklin has a bus route and car park but is remote from shops and even further (uphill !) from the hotels
To respond to Nigel Pennick’s comment about the loading gauge, I quote from Hardy’s “Tube Trains on the Isle of Wight”:
“The locomotives…and coaches..were of smaller loading gauge than normal, necessitated by the restricted clearance of the tunnels at Ryde, which reduced the height of the island railway cross section by 10 inches compared with that of the main line railways. Any replacement rolling stock would have to meet this requirement , thus standard size EMUs or DMUs were out of the question unless very expensive alterations were to be made to the structure and profile of Ryde tunnels. Furthermore there was no way that the economics of the island’s railways could justify a special build of rolling stock.”
When the electrified service started, the basic service was hourly in winter and half hourly in summer, with a 12 minute service on summer Saturdays – and that with 7 car trains. Today there is an 18/42 minute service throughout the year with a 4 car set if you’re lucky. To the extent that the holiday traffic hasn’t flown off to the sun, it largely comes across by the car ferry. For local traffic, there are 4 buses an hour between Ryde and Shanklin which arguably serve the town centres better.
The point of the foregoing is that given the greatly reduced traffic on offer, it is difficult to see how anything other than a (relatively) cheap fix could be justified.
I have examined my photographs from 1962 of steam locomotives No. 20 and 22 and trains on the Isle of Wight under British Railways, and while the locomotive cabs appear to have been cut down, the chimneys and domes were definitely higher than the cab roof, which again was lower than the carriages the locomotives pulled. At the time the line was electrified, I heard that they chose second-hand tube trains as the cheapest option.
I believe that after steam was withdrawn in 1966, the whole line was closed for track works which included raising the trackbed in Ryde tunnel by 2ft. This was done to help reduce the flooding problem, and also make the gradients a little better. The result is that the clearance is 10″ less than the national loading gauge at that time. This was the reason that when the line reopened in 1967, the “new” stock was formed of former tube stock (the 4-VEC and 3-TIS unts).