The Island Line Railway from Ryde Pier Head to Shanklin down the eastern side of the island. The line was electrified (630 V DC third rail) in 1967. Trains connect with passenger ferries to Portsmouth Harbour at Ryde Pier Head, and these ferries in turn connect with the rest of the National Rail network. The line also connects to the Isle of Wight Steam Railway, at Smallbrook Junction.

Standard National Rail vehicle types cannot operate on the Island Line, due to a tunnel at Ryde Esplande being 10 inches too low for the vehicles to clear. This makes this an unusual railway, it uses refurbished ex-London Underground tube trains, some quite historic, so although not officially classed as a historic line this line is of interest to a wide range of people.

Location:   Island Line, Isle of Wight Grid Reference: Ceremonial County:  Hampshire Map Link: Aerial photo: Getting there: You can get the IOW by ferry either with your car or as a foot passenger. There are special combination tickets for foot passengers, see under charges below. Ferry operators are Wightlink    Hovertravel and Red Funnel. Local bus on the Isle of Wight Access: Website: Island Trains Other Useful Websites: Wiki history Wiki on current trains and arrangements Email: Address: Customer Service Centre, South West Trains, Overline House, Blechynden Terrace, Southampton Postcode: SO15 1GW Telephone:  0845 6000 650  (6am-10pm) Opening Times: See timetable accessible from their website Printable timetables (pdf files) are available by clicking here Charges: Standard day single and return fares and 7 day season tickets are offered, plus some promotional and special tickets, see their website for information. Take a step back to Victorian Times on the Steam Railway. Island Line trains connect directly into a nostalgic world of yesteryear at Smallbrook Junction, Island Liner tickets give you a day's unlimited travel on both railways. It is only available on steam railway operating dates. See Isle of Wight steam railway company   for more information. Nearby Locations: Isle of Wight steam railway company Other Location Pages: Notes: This is not a heritage railway but a service railway with unusual features.

This page is a Quick Guide, the idea of Quick Guides is to allow very basic information and linking forward information to be added to the system rather than having to wait until a full location guide has been developed. It should therefore be considered a development stage rather than a finished objective. Once more information is known the objective is to create either a Location or Featured Location page which has two grids and far more information.

Please let us know any other information that we can add to the Further information and Planning Grids or page and any errors that you discover. Before making a long trip to any location it is always wise to double check the current information, websites like magazines may be correct at the time the information is written, but things change and it is of course impossible to double check all entries on a regular basis. If you have any good photographs that you feel would improve the illustration of this page then please let us have copies. In referring to this page it is helpful if you quote the CIN Page Ref at the bottom of the Planning Grid above. To print the planning grid select it then right click and print the selected area.

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