Isle of Wight reopenings

I have always admired Barry Doe’s thorough research and helpful information, but I am very disheartened by his dismissal of the two exciting and much-needed new projects on the Isle of Wight ( The Fare Dealer, RAIL 907).

Has Barry ever travelled along the traffic-clogged A3054 from Ryde to Newport, as I have on many occasions by car and coach? And how can any proud county town be without a train service?

To dismiss this encouraging announcement as a line going “from Ryde to somewhere near Newport via nowhere of any importance” is belittling the scheme’s importance.

Secondly, what if the station at

Ventnor is “way above the town’? It is far better and a lot shorter than an expensive taxi ride, or a tiresome bus journey from Shanklin!

The island’s much-depleted railway ‘system’ (if we can call it that post-1960s) has been much-derided in recent decades. Surely it now needs this boost to restore confidence and increase ridership to this beleaguered, Beeching-botched network?

Michael L. Gill, Tunbridge Wells