To be honest, the biggest barrier to entry for new bus operators is the fact that you're dealing with an island here. You'd either need to set up a new base on the island or ship vehicles back and forth to mainland depots on ferries, both of which are expensive options, and there's no way anyone else is going to be able to make significant dents in SV's customer base.
No. The age for a Senior Railcard Age is 60. The ENTCS age is the pension age, which is well north of 65 for men; I am not sure how much women have caught up. I have been entitled to a Senior Railcard for over a year, but have nearly five to go before I get my ENTCS.
IIRC until around 8 years ago (maybe more), both men and women could apply for an ENCTS card at age 60. Thereafter the qualifying age for both sexes was set at the female pension age, which moved upward in steps about once a month. In my case I could apply for my pass at age 62 & 1/2 (roughly), well before being eligible for my state pension at 65.
This makes the questionable assumption that most people want to go to the seafront. In Shanklin‘s case the beach is separated from the main body of the town by a cliff, so getting the train closer would be difficult (and apart from the local summer runaround, bus services don’t get much closer). The station is in fact pretty central to the town - it‘s on the main shopping street, and just round the corner from the bus station. It’s also the railhead for bus connections to Ventnor. Lidl and the holiday park yes, but also plenty of pretty dense housing.
I'm not really sure what you're trying to prove there, but if you're looking for why Sheringham has higher usage than Shanklin, I would have thought the reason was pretty obvious.
Also Sheringham has a connection with a major heritage railway, which must boost passenger numbers considerably on the days when it is running. I would suggest that while the connection with the IOW Steam Railway at Smallbrook is very useful, I doubt it would bring the same number of rail-borne visitors.
Probably still the case as the RRB timetable has some extras direct to and from the school in term time. However, that is probably the only substantial internal flow of passengers.
During COVID restrictions, several railways with mainline connections were not allowing boarding at the interchange stations! Incredibly frustrating for me, but clearly they thought it wasn't going to affect them too badly. It was a pain if you didn't have a car, but that's clearly the way most people get there.
I agree that the number of general tourists who arrive at most lines by rail is probably fairly small. The number may well be large enough to justify the facilities, but is probably of most use when there are enthusiast events and galas. The arrangements at Smallbrook Junction may be an exception, because it makes a day trip to the line from quite a large part of the central southern England possible without paying car-ferry prices. However, it may be a case that the numbers doing this are naturally declining as there are fewer grandads taking their grandkids to see trains ‘like they remember when they were kids’.
Is your point that the Island line would have much higher usage if it was cheaper? If so, I don't doubt it but would it be enough to offset the drop in fares? If the fares were to drop by half you'd need double the ridership to break even (and it's not quite as simple as that because of greater admin costs for more individual transactions etc). Given the ferry isn't part of the national network, who covers the shortfall in it's revenue?
I wasn't offering any answers - just trying to highlight the fatuous and misleading nature of some of the comparisons being made on here.
I sense some confusion here. People like myself visiting steam railways by public transport couldn't care less about a "mainline link". A steam railway is either accessible by public transport or it isn't. Getting to many of the National Rail connected steam railways isn't made any easier by that connection. A few examples; Bo'ness & Kinneil, Swanage, Kent & East Sussex (RVR), Wensleydale, Nottingham Heritage Railway (previously GCRN), Nene Valley, West Somerset, Gloucester & Warwickshire etc.
It’s an odd argument that says that the value of a line depends on the proportion of the local population it succeeds in attracting. It’s absolute numbers that count. To take two arguably similar examples of railways serving fairly remote seaside resorts, I see that Shanklin alone has twice the usage of Whitby, and much more than twice the usage of Newquay. I’ve no doubt both those lines lose money heavily too, but I’d be surprised to see threads advocating their closure.
Taxis are provided up and down the pier for those with rail tickets. There is an hourly connecting bus from Esplanade to Haven Street Station: this goes from a different place to the other RRB. You can do the trip, but it involves more changes than it used to.
I have in the past walked there from Ryde - it's only around 3 miles. The nearest stop on the Ryde circular bus route (37?) is only around a mile from the station, but unfortunately that mile is the least pleasant section, along a busy road mostly without a footway. On occasions when there were a group of us we've shared a taxi to or from Ryde or East Cowes at a fairly modest cost when divided between us.
