Railways on the Isle of Wight

v t e Railways on the Isle of Wight
Legend
Cowes-Southampton Ryde-Portsmouth Yarmouth-Lymington Ryde Pier Head Freshwater Ryde Pier Yarmouth Ryde Esplanade Cowes Ryde Pier Tramway Ryde St John's Road Mill Hill (Cowes) Ryde depot Medina Wharf Halt Bembridge Cement Mills Halt St Helens Smallbrook Junction Ningwood Calbourne & Shalfleet Ashey Watchingwell Brading Carisbrooke Ashey Racecourse FYNR trains reverse Ashey Quarry Newport (FY&NR) Havenstreet Wootton Newport Whippingham River Medina Pan Lane Sandown Shide Alverstone Blackwater Newchurch Merstone Horringford Godshill Lake Whitwell Halt Shanklin Wroxall St Lawrence Ventnor West Ventnor

There once existed a 55+1⁄2-mile (89.3 km) network of railway lines on the Isle of Wight, which operated both as a self-contained railway network, and as links to ferry services between the island and the South coast of Great Britain. The routes were opened by several companies between 1862 and 1901 and modernised after The Grouping in the 1920s. Most of them were permanently closed between 1952 and 1966, whilst the 8+1⁄2-mile-long (13.7 km) Island Line^[1] was temporarily closed in 1966 and rebuilt for electric train services, introduced in 1967. Replacement trains were introduced in 1990, and again in 2021 along with a major renewal of the line. A further 5+1⁄2 miles (8.9 km) have reopened as a heritage line known as the Isle of Wight Steam Railway^[2] and there have been several proposals to expand the network further since the 1960s, either with conventional heavy rail or by conversion to light rail.