We always welcome a Letter to the Editor to share with our readers – unsurprisingly they don’t always reflect the views of this publication. If you have something you’d like to share, get in touch and of course, your considered comments are welcome below. This from Michael Saunders in Shalfleet. Ed
Given that the Isle of Wight depends on tourism for a lot of its revenue, I find it hard to understand why the Ryde-Shanklin train is such a disgrace.
You come off a sleek catamaran to find that the train is not as regular as it should be, requiring a long wait in some cases.
The train itself is a down at heel, tatty, 1938 issue, couple of carriages which looks what it is. The badly peeling tops of the carriages for example look like a war zone.
The station front is tatty and the stretch leading to the pier head run down and rusty.
Impressions to visitors are very important and it behoves the Council to spend some money on this link.
A look at Gatwick Airport might be in order. Passengers are served by two driverless trains which run every few minutes on a switchback system. Why cannot this be considered here?
Yes, it costs money but sometimes you have to speculate to accumulate.
Image: tompagenet under CC BY 2.0
