Island Line half hourly timetable start date?

[Marlin]

Sorry can’t see it anywhere but there is still no sign of the promised 30 min service does anyone know when it might start ?

will it just be limited to the summer school holidays ?

If southwesternrailways don’t deliver a 30 min service could they be fined ? After all all lit of the £26 million was spent putting the passing loop in .

 

[Desiro123]

Sorry can’t see it anywhere but there is still no sign of the promised 30 min service does anyone know when it might start ?

will it just be limited to the summer school holidays ?

If southwesternrailways don’t deliver a 30 min service could they be fined ? After all all lit of the £26 million was spent putting the passing loop in .

Not due to start before Easter I believe

 

[pompeyfan]

Sunday the 19th December by the looks of things.

 

[Gloster]

I asked at lunchtime and they had no idea of when the current timetable would run to. There have been rumours elsewhere that when a second train is added it will terminate at Esplanade and won’t go down the pier as there is no boat connection.

 

[hermit]

I asked at lunchtime and they had no idea of when the current timetable would run to. There have been rumours elsewhere that when a second train is added it will terminate at Esplanade and won’t go down the pier as there is no boat connection.

I hope the rumours are unfounded. I’ve already experienced a delayed cat missing the train at Pierhead with an hour to wait for the next one.

I chose to walk down the pier and catch an SV bus to my destination at St John’s (arriving there just as the train turned up on its way back). That wouldn’t be an option for less mobile passengers or those with heavy luggage, or on a dark and stormy night.

The second train would make the connection more resilient, and any saving from stopping short at Esplanade would surely be minimal.

 

[Gloster]

I hope the rumours are unfounded. I’ve already experienced a delayed cat missing the train at Pierhead with an hour to wait for the next one.

I chose to walk down the pier and catch an SV bus to my destination at St John’s (arriving there just as the train turned up on its way back). That wouldn’t be an option for less mobile passengers or those with heavy luggage, or on a dark and stormy night.

The second train would make the connection more resilient, and any saving from stopping short at Esplanade would surely be minimal.

One would hope that if a train/Cat connection was missed, the train a half-hour later would continue to and from the Pier Head. However, this does require a level of cooperation, common sense and flexibility that seems alien to the modern railway.

 

[pompeyfan]

Realtime Trains | Departures from Ryde Esplanade all day on 14/12/2021

Train information at Ryde Esplanade all day on 14/12/2021. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

An all day line up at Ryde Esplanade shows several services starting and finishing there but not appearing to run.

 

[30907]

Realtime Trains | Departures from Ryde Esplanade all day on 14/12/2021

Train information at Ryde Esplanade all day on 14/12/2021. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

An all day line up at Ryde Esplanade shows several services starting and finishing there but not appearing to run.

Morning and evening "peaks" and booked to run until May - but cancelled at a few days' notice.

 

[Simon11]

SWR announces two Island Line trains per hour during peak periods

www.southwesternrailway.com

Some further information

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Realtime Trains | Departures from Ryde Esplanade all day on 14/12/2021

Train information at Ryde Esplanade all day on 14/12/2021. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

An all day line up at Ryde Esplanade shows several services starting and finishing there but not appearing to run.

I saw this myself, and as I was originally hoping to go to Wight today on the way home from Uni (before I realised all my luggage made that impossible) I enquired about the legitimacy of these services to SWR's Twitter. They confirmed that they are not running more than the usual hourly service today.

 

[Chris125]

This would explain why they've started upgrading the new (but dim) platform lamps at Brading, they've got a week to get it ready...

 

[Gloster]

The timetable shows, contrary to the press release, that the 08.48 Shanklin terminates at St Johns Road, not Esplanade. This seems to be a bit of short sighted penny-pinching: more people are likely to be wanting to go to Esplanade than St Johns Road.

 

[hermit]

SWR announces two Island Line trains per hour during peak periods

www.southwesternrailway.com

Some further information

Good news as far as it goes, but it’s a bit thoughtless of SWR to head their announcement with a nice aerial view of the pier - the one part of the line that the extra trains won’t use!

 

[swt_passenger]

Just checked through RTT for Esplanade and Shanklin during this mornings peak period and it looks like the 2 tph ran fairly efficiently with no significant delays at either end of the route?
Shanklin:

Realtime Trains | Departures from Shanklin between 0600 and 1000 on 20/12/2021

Train information at Shanklin between 0600 and 1000 on 20/12/2021. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

Ryde Esplanade:

Realtime Trains | Departures from Ryde Esplanade between 0600 and 1000 on 20/12/2021

Train information at Ryde Esplanade between 0600 and 1000 on 20/12/2021. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

 

[Chris125]

The half hour timetable seems to be working well, better than I expected considering the timekeeping struggles before Christmas - fewer door issues perhaps, and it helps the 5mph restriction at Brading is no more.

 

[43055]

Looking at the Wightlink ferry timetable it shows a half hourly service will run on selected dates between April and September. Maybe the half hourly service will be extended to connect with the additional ferries.

 

[SAPhil]

I've just done a trip to the Island last weekend and had the same issue as hermit. Ferry arriving just as the train leaves and an hour to wait. With only one train an hour, surely they can build a bit more slack into the timetable? On my way down the pier I passed two or three people with walking difficulties who were clearly struggling.

 

[Gloster]

The trouble is that the trains have to make it back to the Pier Head in time for passengers to catch the next FastCat. Bear in mind that boarding the cat is a slightly longer process than disembarking: there is always somebody who gets to the front of the queue and can’t find their ticket, drops all their luggage or jams a pushchair crosswise in the gangway. If you hold the train for passengers to the island, particularly those who don’t hurry of the cat if it is late, there is a risk of making it more difficult to get back to timetable.

It would be a reasonable practice to extend the terminators along the pier if the previous departure had left before all the passengers had boarded, but that has the disadvantage of putting the passengers’ convenience over that of the railway. To be fair, it is almost impossible to cover all eventualities.

 

[swt_passenger]

I've just done a trip to the Island last weekend and had the same issue as hermit. Ferry arriving just as the train leaves and an hour to wait. With only one train an hour, surely they can build a bit more slack into the timetable? On my way down the pier I passed two or three people with walking difficulties who were clearly struggling.

It couldn‘t remain a clock face timetable if you built in more slack. Back in the main thread discussing the upgrade it was said during trials that they weren’t completing an out and back trip within the hour, including turnround time.

 

[hermit]

The trouble is that the trains have to make it back to the Pier Head in time for passengers to catch the next FastCat. Bear in mind that boarding the cat is a slightly longer process than disembarking: there is always somebody who gets to the front of the queue and can’t find their ticket, drops all their luggage or jams a pushchair crosswise in the gangway. If you hold the train for passengers to the island, particularly those who don’t hurry of the cat if it is late, there is a risk of making it more difficult to get back to timetable.

It would be a reasonable practice to extend the terminators along the pier if the previous departure had left before all the passengers had boarded, but that has the disadvantage of putting the passengers’ convenience over that of the railway. To be fair, it is almost impossible to cover all eventualities.

I agree that trains should not be held for more than a few minutes for late-running catamarans. But as I have said before there is no downside to extending all the Esplanade terminators to Pierhead so as to reduce the delay for affected passengers. The extra cost of running up the pier must be trifling.

Unfortunately the problem of missed connections is not going to get easier in the next few weeks (months?). Wightlink are engaged in a major rebuild of the terminal at Portsmouth, during which time passengers are embarking/disembarking via a temporary walkway including a staircase on to the roof of the building. Outbound passengers have to wait in the station until all those arriving have cleared the walkway. The whole process is much slower than normal, and means that at busy periods the catamaran will have difficulty in keeping to timetable.

 

[pompeyfan]

I agree that trains should not be held for more than a few minutes for late-running catamarans. But as I have said before there is no downside to extending all the Esplanade terminators to Pierhead so as to reduce the delay for affected passengers. The extra cost of running up the pier must be trifling.

Unfortunately the problem of missed connections is not going to get easier in the next few weeks (months?). Wightlink are engaged in a major rebuild of the terminal at Portsmouth, during which time passengers are embarking/disembarking via a temporary walkway including a staircase on to the roof of the building. Outbound passengers have to wait in the station until all those arriving have cleared the walkway. The whole process is much slower than normal, and means that at busy periods the catamaran will have difficulty in keeping to timetable.

If you extend the Esplanade terminator to the pier head, it then runs late, knocking the next up one at Brading, which means the booked connection misses the boat.

 

[Bletchleyite]

If you extend the Esplanade terminator to the pier head, it then runs late, knocking the next up one at Brading, which means the booked connection misses the boat.

Given that a fair chunk of the purpose of the line is to link to the boat, it seems like someone didn't think this through properly. That connection has to be reliable.

Does every station always have passengers? Would it be possible to eke out a slightly shorter running time by making all the intermediates other than Brading request stops, and fitting bus style stop buttons to the units?

Do the units have very slow doors like the LNR 230s? Could replacing the door mechanisms (or even the whole door setup) to something that operates faster such as a two-leaf plug arrangement, plus switching to driver release, get a couple of minutes off the run? You definitely could on the Marston Vale.

If you could get both services reaching the ferry, then (at the expense of a slightly slower journey and a bit of waiting) offsetting them by 15 minutes would make the connection largely reliable. Given how many tourists use it in summer and given how much tourists faff and get confused, this might be better than a "Swiss style" connection with almost no slack in either direction. If there's some sort of shop and cafe in the terminal that can easily deal with a 15 minute wait for tourists.

 

[hermit]

Given that a fair chunk of the purpose of the line is to link to the boat, it seems like someone didn't think this through properly. That connection has to be reliable.

Does every station always have passengers? Would it be possible to eke out a slightly shorter running time by making all the intermediates other than Brading request stops, and fitting bus style stop buttons to the units?

Do the units have very slow doors like the LNR 230s? Could replacing the door mechanisms (or even the whole door setup) to something that operates faster such as a two-leaf plug arrangement, plus switching to driver release, get a couple of minutes off the run? You definitely could on the Marston Vale.

If you could get both services reaching the ferry, then (at the expense of a slightly slower journey and a bit of waiting) offsetting them by 15 minutes would make the connection largely reliable. Given how many tourists use it in summer and given how much tourists faff and get confused, this might be better than a "Swiss style" connection with almost no slack in either direction. If there's some sort of shop and cafe in the terminal that can easily deal with a 15 minute wait for tourists.

There is no scope for making any of the existing stations request stops - I would think it would only be at Lake (and Brading, where the train stops anyway) that you would regularly see no passengers.

The doors are a bit slow and clunky, but not such as to be a material factor.

The basic problem with the two-train operation is that the passing place at Brading is not halfway down the line. It’s a mile nearer to Shanklin than to Pierhead. That is why the second trains are not running at precisely 30 minute intervals to the core hourly service - they run 3 minutes later up, and 3 minutes later down. And these timings do indeed make it difficult to run the second train up the pier at present.

All this is a far cry from the regular 30 minute service that was trumpeted when the new trains were inaugurated. Whether experience will allow timings to be tightened up remains to be seen.

The suggestion of more leisurely connections might be welcome to tourists (there is a Costa cafe at Pierhead, though still closed during covid) but not to locals. And it ignores the hard fact that the catamaran service is hourly, with very few exceptions, so the same train has to deliver and collect passengers. No scope for hanging about.

 

[Bletchleyite]

And it ignores the hard fact that the catamaran service is hourly, with very few exceptions, so the same train has to deliver and collect passengers.

That doesn't follow. If the catamaran arrives at xx50 and departs at xx10, say, then a train arriving xx40 and departing xx45 would bring passengers to it, and one arriving at xx10 and departing xx15 would take the arriving passengers.

If it's too tight it simply won't work and people won't use it, they'll drive to/from Ryde and walk up the pier.

 

[Gloster]

Unfortunately, the cats take 22 minutes each way (all being well) so there isn’t that much slack in their timetable, what with the time taken to disembark and board. If you add more time for the connection at Pier Head, you make the combined journey less attractive and people will drive rather than hang about. It is not just waiting an hour for the next cat in some cases: there are gaps in the cat timetable at 11.00 and 14.00.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Unfortunately, the cats take 22 minutes each way (all being well) so there isn’t that much slack in their timetable, what with the time taken to disembark and board. If you add more time for the connection at Pier Head, you make the combined journey less attractive and people will drive rather than hang about. It is not just waiting an hour for the next cat in some cases: there are gaps in the cat timetable at 11.00 and 14.00.

You wouldn't need to do anything to the cat's timetable. You just want the two half-hourly trains to be 15 minutes either side of the middle of the time period during which it is at the pier.

It should not be understated just how important this is. If the connection is not reliable, people simply will not use it and it might as well be closed forthwith.

This is an almighty oversight.

 

[Gloster]

But, taking your timings, travellers going to the mainland would expect to wait 30 minutes (say, 25 before boarding) and those coming to the island 25 (20). This might be acceptable to leisure travellers, but to regular travellers and those on business, this would be seen as a severe disincentive. That is over four hours a week for a commuter.

 

[Bletchleyite]

But, taking your timings, travellers going to the mainland would expect to wait 30 minutes (say, 25 before boarding) and those coming to the island 25 (20). This might be acceptable to leisure travellers, but to regulate travellers and those on business, this would be seen as a severe disincentive. That is over four hours a week for a commuter.

If the connection is going to miss frequently, it'll cost them a heck of a lot more than that - a full hour every time it misses.

 

[Gloster]

If the connection is going to miss frequently, it'll cost them a heck of a lot more than that - a full hour every time it misses.

Which is why they will drive.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Which is why they will drive.

Which means the whole thing was a spectacular and fairly useless waste of money.

Surely there's scope to speed things up to eke out enough time to get a half hourly service on the pier?