bramling
Veteran Member
I can see why usage has fallen, as I found the service too infrequent and the bus network a lot better. Of course I had to try it out for nostalgia, but it's not really something (as it stands) that I can see being that popular.
When it's busy with tourists, locals must hate it even more.
I think that with loads of investment (which I know isn't going to happen) there has to be scope to improve the service, which would improve usage. It has worked in many other cases, and is also the case for most new roads.
It's not as if IoW has a tiny population, and people still live and work there out of season. We're all getting older, so public transport seems likely to survive better than a lot of other towns and cities that have terrible provision a lot of the time.
I guess we have to wait and see what SWR suggests. Perhaps we'll be genuinely surprised. Or not.
I suspect another issue is something which a lot of preserved railways find - they can have some very busy trips in the middle of the day, but after about 1500 things die off very heavily. It's not like the line can even really offer a scenic experience - travelling on a semi-comfortable and extremely rough-riding ex Tube train is something of a niche market.
Don't forget, the infrastructure as it stands is geared up for a 20-minute service. This was presumably scaled back because the sums didn't add up. I can't really see a half-hourly service really making that much difference - locals presumably know the times anyway (and it's not like anyone on the island is really in a great hurry to get anywhere), whilst non-locals would probably just wait once they've got as far as getting to the platform.
If they wanted to cut costs, a 4-car train every hour would save a crew, but could drive down demand further.
My money's on status quo. Keeping the 38 stock going is always going to be the simplest option, even if getting parts becomes increasingly difficult / expensive. For what it's worth they are lovely trains, so long may they continue! They came close to 50 years on the Northern Line, will they manage 50 years in their second life? Time will tell, but it could be worth a small wager.
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