Aspirations of the Isle of Wight MP for Island Line railway service to be extended to Newport and Ventnor have been rejected, a Government report reveals.
In March 2020, Isle of Wight Conservative MP, Bob Seely sought funding for a feasibility study to look in extending the lines and in May 2020, the council received up to £50,000 from the Restoring Your Railways programme to prepare a feasibility study for restoring former rail links between Newport and Ryde and Ventnor and Shanklin.
However, Department for Transport’s Restoring Your Railway (RYR) report released this week reveals that the reinstatement of branch lines on the Isle of Wight have been dropped.
French: “A hopeless fantasy”
In response to the report’s findings, transport expert, Roger French, said,
“Reinstating branch lines on the Isle of Wight were always a hopeless fantasy and frankly should never have attracted funding from the ‘Ideas Fund’ to progress any form of business case at all.”
MP’s response
News OnTheWight has written to Bob Seely to ask for his response to the news.
Bob told News OnTheWight,
“I am disappointed, but at the same time recognise that there were a number of logistical issues which ultimately proved too challenging to overcome. This included the need to avoid any adverse impact on the operation of the Island’s heritage steam railway, which must not be compromised.
“This is the whole point of a feasibility study: to work out whether something might be possible. In this case, it proved not to be – and at least we now know that.
“However, there are alternative opportunities which can now be looked into. For example, I am keen to explore with the Isle of Wight Steam Railway whether their previously-stated ambitions to extend to Ryde St Johns could now be taken forward, particularly given that Island Line’s passing loop has moved to Brading (thereby freeing up a platform in Ryde).
“Over the past 50 years, this award-winning attraction has been enjoyed by millions of visitors, and I remain supportive of their efforts to further strengthen their unique heritage offer. I look forward to catching up with them again soon.
“I can’t promise to win every battle, but I promised to fight every battle.”
Read the reports
Read more detail about the business case for extending the line to Newport that was submitted by the Isle of Wight council in July 2021.
The RYR Report can be found below, embedded for your convenience.
Our thanks to the several readers who gave the heads-up about the report.
Article update
5.25pm 24th Jun 2022 – Comment from BS added
