Isle of Wight's refurbished trains delayed until summer

The new trains were in service on the London Underground's District Line until 2002

A £26m project to overhaul the Isle of Wight railway line will be completed at least four months late, its operator has said.

The track and platform upgrades between Shanklin and Ryde Esplanade began in January and were expected to take three months.

South Western Railway (SWR) has blamed "complex software issues" holding up delivery of refurbished trains.

It said the scheme may be completed "later in the summer".

In March, SWR said the line closure would then last about six weeks longer than planned and blamed the Covid-19 pandemic causing "unforeseen challenges".

Infrastructure work has since largely been completed, with a new loop for trains to pass built at Brading and platforms altered to accommodate larger trains.

One of the refurbished former London Underground trains arrived by ferry at Fishbourne at the end of last year

However, only one of the five refurbished class 484 trains ordered has so far arrived on the island.

Vivarail Ltd, which is carrying out the refurbishment work on the 40-year-old rolling stock, said live testing had highlighted "serious issues" with the software.

Chief executive Adrian Shooter said: "It would be easy to hide behind Covid and point the finger at the pandemic, but we had in fact managed to claw back a lot of that lost time.

"Our priority is to deliver safe and reliable trains, so I have instructed my team to undertake a thorough review rather than try to 'patch' the software."

SWR said it could not give a specific completion date for the project.

More replacement buses will operate between Shanklin and Ryde Esplanade from mid-May, with user numbers expected to rise as lockdown restrictions ease.

Island Line upgrade

• To include new passing loop at Brading to allow trains to run half-hourly to Ryde pier to connect with Portsmouth ferry services

• Existing trains which date from 1938 to be replaced with five refurbished London Underground trains from the District Line

• One of the trains, which has operated since the late 1980s, to be preserved at the Isle of Wight Steam Railway

• Upgrades paid for by the Department for Transport, with £1m for the passing loop coming jointly from Isle of Wight Council and Solent Local Enterprise Partnership

The previous fleet of trains were built back in 1938 for the London Underground network before starting service on the Isle of Wight in 1989