The RCTS: then and now
THE heavily-used former holiday line from Havant to Hayling Island had its origins with the Independent Hayling Railway Company, which was incorporated in 1860 to build four-anda-half miles of single line with passing loops.
The line opened in two stages, the first between Havant and Langstone in 1865 and then from Langstone to Hayling in 1867. The line served four stations along the route: Langstone, Langstone Bridge, North Hayling and Hayling Island. Interesting to note that the ‘e’ in Langstone was eventually removed from the spelling.
The completion of the route only came about after quite fierce exchanges had taken place between employees of the London Brighton and South Coast and the London and South Western Railway companies. The exchanges took place at the trackside in the Havant area and were usually between the two sets of navvies, and was all about the rivalry between the two companies as both the LB&SCR and L&SWR came together at Havant.
The rivalry started when the race was on to construct a line to Portsmouth. The LB&SCR won by a few years when it opened a line to Portsmouth via Chichester in 1847.
The L&SWR followed in 1858 when the ‘Portsmouth Direct’ was opened between Farncombe and Havant. An agreement in running powers over the junction just to the east of Havant, where the two companies lines converged, was not reached until 1859.
A section of the Hayling branch was constructed over the sea and trains travelled over the famous Langstone Viaduct. Weight restrictions over the viaduct limited motive power to the 0-6-0 ‘Terrier’ tank locomotives. There was hardly any freight traffic, and the freight that did operate was attached to the rear of passenger trains.
The timetable consisted of a 30-minute service frequency and operated daily. The distance from Havant to Hayling Island was just over four miles with the journey time taking approximately 16 minutes.
For a short period, a train ferry was operated between Langstone Harbour and Brading Harbour on the Isle of Wight. This was owned and operated by the Isle of Wight Marine Transit Company. This service started in 1884 after purchasing a second-hand vessel called Carrier from the North British Railway. Unfortunately, the service did not last very long.
In 1885, the Isle of Wight Marine Transit Company was brought by the London Brighton and South
Coast Railway as it was experiencing financial difficulties. The LB&SCR too encountered similar problems. The last sailing from Langstone Harbour to Brading Harbour took place in March 1888.
The demise of the Hayling Island branch was caused by the increasing popularity in the use of the motor car. By 1960, the closure of the level crossings along the route for the passage of trains on summer Saturdays was causing long queues to build up, with motorists becoming frustrated. By that time, the majority of the line’s holiday traffic had unfortunately been lost to the road.
So many branch lines were affected by the line closures and Beeching cuts in the late 1950s and 1960s, as previously reported in the Railway Observer. This one was no different and unfortunately closure occurred on November 4, 1963.
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