Travelling the Best London Train outside London

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Since the start of the year, passengers on South Western Railway’s service on the Isle of Wight have been travelling no by train, but by bus. This week, the Island Line has re-opened, so what better way to spend a day off than freezing my brain on the open deck of the Wightlink Fastcat and then freezing it some more on the micro-climate that is the east coast of the Island.

The line upgrade has taken significantly longer than originally planned and the summer season that would have seen families and enthusiasts pouring over the new trains didn’t happen. I did hear on the grapevine yesterday that the service was busy, but disrupted by both Island Line issues and a line side fire.

⛔ Unfortunately the line is part suspended between Ryde St Johns Road and Shanklin due to a fire next to the track, a shuttle service will be in place between St Johns Road and Pier Head.
On a positive note we are all happy that the line has finally reopened! 🙂

— Island Line (@IslandLineUK) November 1, 2021

The service at the moment, quite possibly until the trains and crews are bedded in, is running on an hourly frequency.

These leave the Ryde Pier Head and Fastcat terminal at xx:45 which is well planned to meet the arriving Wightlink Fastcat service.

The downside of this was that teething problems appeared to contributed to delays. Roger French (far better writing about these things than me) remarking that drivers were being cautious approaching stations and doors appear to be slow to open and close.

Certainly, todays driver appeared cautious approaching some stations, but no more than I would expect. Yes the doors felt a bit slow to open, maybe a tweak needed, maybe just a few weeks of opening and closing them will do the trick. By the time darkness had fallen, the train struggled to make the departing FastCat. The 17:39 arrival on the Pier was still at St Johns Road at that time, albeit Wightlink maintained the connection for us.

Travelling on board, it felt like a trip down a mainland branch line. The train felt modern inside and yes a little rattle and roll but I expected that anyway.

Despite many of the platforms having work to bring them level to the train, platform ramps are still needed. Not all the platforms were tight to the step boards. I am not overly surprised at that. Some of the platforms, notably Ryde Esplanade, are on quite a curve. To have exacting level boarding would probably mean that it would get hit by the trains as they enter the station.

Shanklin – End of the Line

I took my first stop in beautiful Shanklin. Inside the station, the rarity of an independent station café was a nice touch, as well as an up-to-date timetable which proffers the hourly timetable until next month. Whether that changes, who knows. It’s a shame that the ticket office closes at 12:30, which the station shop is contained within.

A coach stationed in Shanklin Station car park, suggests that there is a reserve in place should the new service fail. Outside of normal service problems, you would hope that this is not the case.

A wander into the Shanklin town shows a lovely range of shops, largely independent but intertwined with Poundland, banks and charity shops. Not having much time on the Island, I forwent a trip down to the beach and the cold air was not calling me. I understand it is a beautiful summer spot for families though, with plenty for the kids to do.

I did however, manage to grab a pint of HSB in The Falcon, before making my next move, the next train approaches…. or rather the train that I alighted an hour ago returns.

I regret….

At this point I got a little tangent. A friend was also taking trip number one of the same new service. I planned to go to Sandown and explore; but I ended up back in Ryde instead. There are some lovely beaches on the Island; Shanklin, Sandown and Ryde all feel like little summer tourist traps and certainly I can imagine them being packed.

If you are looking for something different next warm season, getting the train down to either Shanklin or Sandown is fairly painless, but the walk back from the beach is quite uphill. Southern Vectis (or rather Island Buses) do have a Shanklin Breezer in the summer to take you down to the sand, but when I was there on a Tuesday, many of the local independent shops were shut.

Anyway, I spent an hour or so in Ryde, a bite to eat and an obligatory visit to a Wetherspoons before heading back down the line, where I found a problem for my rather large frame. For those that enjoy their trains and buses and things, I did catch Geoff Marshall filming around Ryde (and I am sure catching me on camera would have broken a lens) – along with a number of railway staff getting their bash of the new stock.

Anyway, large frame…. and another picture of a seat:

I just about fit. The longitudinal seats through the train are quite narrow. I managed to squeeze myself into one and it was not comfortable. There are some standard seats, without the extremely hard arm rests, in each coach but not many. With an end to end journey time of less than half an hour though, getting a seat is not going to be a desperate need for many.

What you will notice though is that there is USB charging points. Charging is available throughout the coach, but in some places there are blanking plates across what looked about the size of a standard three pin plug socket. Whether this was a planned inclusion or not I do not know, but again with less than half an hour end to end, I wonder how many people will get out their three pin plug for a laptop fiddle around plugging it only to realise it is time to get off again.

Sandown

I did eventually get to Sandown though and walk down to the lovely – but chilly – sandy beach. Along the beach front there are various places to grab an ice cream or a snack in the summer, there is a Pier which still had an open amusement arcade around 4pm when I was there.

Time was getting on though and I did not want to miss my booked FastCat back to the mainland. A very quick wander though the deserted town led me back to the final train of the day.

The new trains on the Island Line are still bedding in. The current hourly timetable is only being advertised as until the national timetable change in December, so whether this will become half-hourly at that point, we can only wait and find out. When next summer comes though, this is going to be a great way to take the children somewhere different for the day with FastCats from the train and trains from the FastCat. I might head over myself again soon, I forgot all about getting pictures of buses as well as trains and…. well as it is a rare day out of the office I took the time to indulge.