South Western Railway increases Island Line summer services

The Island Line runs between Ryde Pier Head and Shanklin

Rail services on the Isle of Wight are set to increase for the summer.

South Western Railway has announced temporary timetable changes, which will remain in place until the autumn.

The operator confirmed it will run one train every 40 minutes from 2 June, as opposed to the current one train per hour.

The Island Line has been operating half its scheduled service since the start of the year.

The journey between Ryde and Shanklin usually runs two trains in both directions every hour.

Island Line general manager Mark Dunn said: "We recognise the Island Line's overall performance has not been at the levels our customers expect.

"We want to do all we can to make our services as reliable as possible."

Island Line has five two-carriage Class 484 trains, built from former London Underground vehicles and bought from Vivarail, a company which collapsed in 2022.

In February 2023 the decision was taken to operate one of the five trains at a time, as two suffered extensive damage during flooding. The other three were affected by excessive wheel wear.

Customers were previously told the Island Line would return to its two-trains-per-hour service in the summer.

Mr Dunn continued: "We have listened carefully to feedback from our customers and stakeholders and, while we still aim to deliver a two train per hour timetable, we want to do all we can to make our services as reliable as possible, especially for the holiday seasons."

South Western Railway also confirmed the mainland schedule would change from 2 June.

Services between Portsmouth Harbour and London Waterloo will be retimed, which a spokesperson said would "improve connections with ferries".

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