It’s an event that will have people saying “only on the Isle of Wight”.
Commuters were struck by travel delays earlier this morning (Thursday) after Island Line trains had to suspend their service due to ‘horses on the line’.
National Rail tweeted,
NEW; Disruption between Ryde Pier Head and Shanklin expected until 08:30 #Shanklin https://t.co/L9ghcywFBE
— National Rail (@NRE_Island_Line) March 17, 2016
Luckily the horses were swiftly moved on and the train service was back to normal by 8.30am.
Steam train to the rescue
However, for Island Line the disruption didn’t end there, because just before 11am a train heading for Ryde failed with what appeared to be a total power failure at Smallbrook Junction.
By chance, an Isle of Wight Steam Railway train was also at Smallbrook Junction on the opposite platform.
Rather than passengers wait for power to be restored, the steam train took the Island Line passengers to Havenstreet, where waiting taxis took the passengers on to Ryde.
Peter Vail, General Manager of the Isle of Wight Steam Railway commented
“We were only too pleased to be of assistance. It was a little ironic that our locomotive in service is the newly restored Ivatt 41298 which was built in 1951. This is modern technology compared to the 1938 tube stock operated by Island Line.”
