RICHARD C. LONG discusses ways in which the Isle of Wight’s railways might be developed over the coming years
On 27 July 2019 the Isle of Wight’s MP Bob Seely, while addressing a meeting in Ryde, is reported to have expressed the hope that the Government would announce a multimillion- pound upgrade for the Island Line between Ryde and Shanklin ‘at some point later this year’.
Promising as this sounds, it is worth noting that the anticipated Department for Transport announcement was originally expected by the end of last year, before being deferred, initially until 31 March 2019. Significantly this was also the date when Island Line’s 25-year infrastructure lease was due to expire (uniquely on the national rail network the Isle of Wight has a vertical franchise, whereby the infrastructure is leased to the franchise holder, currently FirstGroup/ MTR in the guise of South Western Railway).
However, with the March deadline passing it was subsequently revealed that the lease had been temporarily extended while the long-delayed DfT decision was deferred once more, seemingly indefinitely. Assuming that an announcement really is to be expected sometime later this year, what might the future hold for Island Li…
