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IoW light rail conversion proposed


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The IW Council have published a summary of their 'restoring your railway' proposals, the best they could come up was Ryde-Newport... via Sandown, a laughably impractical idea using 'hybrid light rail'. A missed opportunity and a waste of £50,000 unfortunately.

 

https://iwightinvest.com/regeneration-prospectus/restoring-your-railway/

 

https://iwightinvest.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/RYR-SOBC-Executive-Summary.pdf

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On 06/07/2021 at 15:02, Christopher125 said:

The IW Council have published a summary of their 'restoring your railway' proposals, the best they could come up was Ryde-Newport... via Sandown, a laughably impractical idea using 'hybrid light rail'. A missed opportunity and a waste of £50,000 unfortunately.

 

https://iwightinvest.com/regeneration-prospectus/restoring-your-railway/

 

https://iwightinvest.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/RYR-SOBC-Executive-Summary.pdf

 

Very informative - thank you.

 

The envisaged journey time, of between 21 and 26 minutes is not exactly competitive. The average bus journey (Ryde Esplanade to Newport) is 24 minutes, with the fastest being 17 minutes. Car/taxi is estimated at 14 minutes. So I am not sure which segment of the population they believe would use rail in preference?

 

As for hybrid light rail, they also refer to tram/train, which could be a viable option, but would explain the slow end-to-end timing, quite apart from the extra mileage. They suggest the old railway route would be used, but surely, with tram/train, the route would be varied to suit existing and new settlements and adopt a different route into Newport - the existing route only serves "proposed" new development in the main.

 

The report is not detailed enough to understand why the direct (Wooton) route would be so much more expensive - I can guess, but it would be helpful to have it explained, officially.

 

Overall, C Minus for this consultant's offering.

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4 hours ago, Mike Storey said:

The envisaged journey time, of between 21 and 26 minutes is not exactly competitive. The average bus journey (Ryde Esplanade to Newport) is 24 minutes, with the fastest being 17 minutes. Car/taxi is estimated at 14 minutes. So I am not sure which segment of the population they believe would use rail in preference?

 

It's worse than that - as that journey time at a guess is Shanklin to Newport.

 

This YouTube cab ride from 1989 clocks Shanklin - Ryde Pier at 18 minutes, so it must be a 45 minute total journey?

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jonGfBkGu6s

 

Quote

As for hybrid light rail, they also refer to tram/train, which could be a viable option, but would explain the slow end-to-end timing, quite apart from the extra mileage. They suggest the old railway route would be used, but surely, with tram/train, the route would be varied to suit existing and new settlements and adopt a different route into Newport - the existing route only serves "proposed" new development in the main.

 

The basic problem, from a quick read of the report, is that the Island government came up with the conclusion they wanted and are attempting to fit reality into the conclusion no matter how absurd it is.

 

As far as I can tell the insistence on developing Newport for future business directly goes against a goal of having good connection to the mainland - if the mainland ferry connection is viewed as that critical then they need to move the development to where the good transport is available.

 

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Overall, C Minus for this consultant's offering.

 

Maybe it's all the money could afford?

Edited by mdvle
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The "old route" to Newport happens to be occupied by the steam railway. there is the famous landslip at Wootton to deal with at vast expense plus a new route into Newport. Not forgetting recompense to the steam railway for loss of their trackbed and income.

 

The IWSR has made several studies into the feasibility of running into Newport, none of which make business sense.

 

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The economics for the IWSR would be very different to a government backed transport scheme. That would have to take account of the impact on the IWSR, and the further reaching impact on the loss of one of the Island's premier league tourist attractions. It would presumably need to be moved elsewhere on the island, though quite where would be suitable i wouldn't know.

Edited by Zomboid
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3 hours ago, lmsforever said:

Pity they cant restore the line to Ventnor that would have at least created the chance to add more passengers and connected a major centre on the island.

 

The study covers that (well, "covers" given the document is only about 7 pages covering both extensions to Ventnor and Newport) - the restoration of service to Ventnor actually appears to work out unlike Newport.

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Some photos of the new panel in the box at St Johns - looks like the Up signals at Smallbrook have been moved from the Ryde side of the junction to the Brading side?

 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/355569249197459/posts/528943238526725/

 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/355569249197459/posts/528905068530542/

 

Edited by Christopher125
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On 09/07/2021 at 15:09, mdvle said:

 

The study covers that (well, "covers" given the document is only about 7 pages covering both extensions to Ventnor and Newport) - the restoration of service to Ventnor actually appears to work out unlike Newport.

 

Not true - the document makes it clear that restoration to Ventnor would only be viable if the Newport connection was created.

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On 09/07/2021 at 02:03, roythebus1 said:

The "old route" to Newport happens to be occupied by the steam railway. there is the famous landslip at Wootton to deal with at vast expense plus a new route into Newport. Not forgetting recompense to the steam railway for loss of their trackbed and income.

 

The IWSR has made several studies into the feasibility of running into Newport, none of which make business sense.

 

 

But the IWSR studies did not envisage a through, regular interval, public service from Ryde to Newport, as its basis. The studies primarily sought an extension of the steam railway, with the possibility of a through service, but without losing the characteristics of the heritage steam operation.

 

Despite the landslip issue, I would still appreciate an understanding of the relative costs and, especially, benefits compared to the recommended option. This mini report simply does not do that - I assume that the council received a rather more detailed analysis - even a table-top exercise such as this gives you an awful lot for 50 grand. Why can't we (or at least the taxpayers of the IOW) see it?

 

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36 minutes ago, Mike Storey said:

 

Not true - the document makes it clear that restoration to Ventnor would only be viable if the Newport connection was created.

 

I have just re-read the document, and don't see that stated anywhere?

 

The best I can see is the comment that the Ventor option is strengthened if the Newport connection is built, but I take that to be strengthened on top of the provided figures.

 

31 minutes ago, Mike Storey said:

Despite the landslip issue, I would still appreciate an understanding of the relative costs and, especially, benefits compared to the recommended option. This mini report simply does not do that - I assume that the council received a rather more detailed analysis - even a table-top exercise such as this gives you an awful lot for 50 grand. Why can't we (or at least the taxpayers of the IOW) see it?

 

Agree, this document is seriously lacking.

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On 09/07/2021 at 06:11, Zomboid said:

The economics for the IWSR would be very different to a government backed transport scheme. That would have to take account of the impact on the IWSR, and the further reaching impact on the loss of one of the Island's premier league tourist attractions. It would presumably need to be moved elsewhere on the island, though quite where would be suitable i wouldn't know.

The IWSR is probably THE major tourist attraction on the island. The IWSR owns all its property, land, buildings, rolling stock, the lot. I doubt if there's anywhere on the island that could accommodate what is now at Havenstreet without major demolition and cost. They've just had £x million in grants for the new workshops, Train Story and the museum, as well as rolling stock restoration. there's also the recent rebuilding of Wootton Station. There's simply nowhere for a NR connection to go.

 

 

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I guess the lack of figures is due to "Alice in Wightland" numbers not adding up.  IWSR visited by friend last week with a colleague who was almost wheelchair bound and found service and care wonderful and were amazed at the museum on site at Haven Street. I suspect any attempt to move would be a heartbreaking killer.  Seems to be well worth a visit.  

It would change the character of the ISWR business if it was the main operator on the lsland but  Newport - Cowes -Wotton , if route was available would be a big leap, but then nobody thought the WHR would reopen in the TLC of Wales. Think big win big. 

Hopefully the 484s will make the grade and the massive rebuild works out, seeing the picture of Brading reminds me of Ardrahan on the Ennis - Galway. A standard urban station dumped in a rural environment- no idea of cost/ value/ relevance just somebody able to open a suppliers catalogue and order a R600 standard station. Is it value for money ?       

Cannot wait to ride the line in the future.

Robert  

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16 hours ago, Christopher125 said:

Big day today - the first proper test runs have taken place since the upgrade, with 001 seen at Shanklin. 002+003 have also started daytime running to Fareham:

 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/355569249197459/posts/530414731712909/

 

51310171137_7b300bc97e.jpg
484003HedgeEnd140721(b) by Simon Howard, on Flickr

They look the part, actually. Not at all out of place on the "big" railway. I wonder what SR commuters would have thought if one or two D stock sets, suitably modified, had been placed in service alongside SR class 508's, back in the day? I think for shorter runs they might have compared favourably.

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3 hours ago, Chris116 said:

They should get one for the Lymington branch so it could be an electric railway seven days a week. 

They'd need more than one, at least one other to cover for servicing and repairs. Sadly its not viable unless you have several units as keeping spares for only one or two unique units is a none-starter. It only works on the I-o-W because of the circumstances prevailing on the island.

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15 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

They'd need more than one, at least one other to cover for servicing and repairs. Sadly its not viable unless you have several units as keeping spares for only one or two unique units is a none-starter. It only works on the I-o-W because of the circumstances prevailing on the island.

I understood that they use a DMU during the week and an EMU at weekends on the Lymington branch so they might be able to replace the DMU but keep the current EMU for weekends. The DMU would then be the spare for the 484 during the week. Obviously you could not have two 484's due to the costs involved. 

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4 hours ago, Chris116 said:

They should get one for the Lymington branch so it could be an electric railway seven days a week. 

 

That's been the case for a few years now hasn't it? Last photo of a 158 on flickr is 2018.

 

Here's a video of the testing at Fareham, looks like some management turned up to check how things are going: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wIrkqN73lg

 

 

 

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30 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

They'd need more than one, at least one other to cover for servicing and repairs. Sadly its not viable unless you have several units as keeping spares for only one or two unique units is a none-starter. It only works on the I-o-W because of the circumstances prevailing on the island.

Perhaps if the Fawley branch gets reopened there will be enough potential use for a bi-mode 484 to justify having a small fleet on the south coast.

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