You may have been seeing some people working on the section of railway line that goes up Ryde Pier.
News OnTheWight readers have, which led them to get in touch.
They came to us with concerns about the robustness of the line and wondered if they would be able to take the new 484 trains that will (eventually) run on Island Line.
We put a number of questions to Network Rail, who are responsible for that section of track, to see if they could cast light on the current situation.
Their spokesperson told News OnTheWight,
“There is a renewal project underway which is looking to preserve the long-term future of the pier. This has involved a number of inspections of the structure by Network Rail staff over the past few months. The majority of it is in better condition than we thought, however there is some repair work to do which will be completed this weekend.
“There won’t be any issues with the new trains running once the initial repairs are complete.”
Regular examinations of the track
On examinations of the line on the pier they told us,
“The pier is on a regular examination regime. The last detailed examination was undertaken in August 2020. A corrosion survey was undertaken on local areas more recently in May/June, which identified the majority of the pier was in better condition than previously assumed.”
Specifically addressing the question on if they new 484 trains will be OK to run down the pier, they said:
“The new trains will be able to traverse the pier safely. The existing assessment was reviewed for the new trains and this assessment assumes crowd loading as do all assessments for passenger traffic.
“There are no plans to renew any piles nor trestles.”
Image: yellowbookltd under CC BY 2.0
