Network Rail confirms Ryde Pier reopening remains 'on schedule' after nine-month closure

Network Rail says the line along Ryde Pier on the Isle of Wight will reopen in May next year, following the latest nine-month closure.

The infrastructure owner says the £19 million work to secure the pier’s safety remains on schedule, despite recent bad weather.

The pier connects the 8.5-mile (13.7km) line from Shanklin with ferries to and from Portsmouth.

The whole line closed for a month in September, when work to both track and trains was completed.

But the section along the pier will remain closed all winter while large parts of the rusting metal structure are replaced.

George Murrell, renewals director for Network Rail’s Wessex region, said: “We have delivered 23 of the 26 spans. Within each span, we are renewing the rail bearers, the sleepers and the rail.”

Engineers have installed 295m of the 590m of new rails needed and replaced 450 wooden sleepers with composite products more resilient to sea spray. In all 2,500m of new steel girders are needed, of which half have been fitted.

Murrell added: “We have seen very, very challenging conditions with recent storms. But we have learned lessons from previous work, and progress has been good.”

The line will have been closed for a total of two years out of the last four.

The whole route shut for ten months in 2021 for complete refurbishment, including track and signalling. Platform heights were raised, in preparation for replacement Class 484 trains.

The work had been scheduled to take three months.

The pier project was funded separately to the track upgrade and was not done at the same time.

So the pier closed for eight months in 2022-2023. Again, the work was planned to last only three months.

Less than half the work was completed. 60 days were lost due to bad winter weather.

In this September’s whole-route blockade, track through Ryde Esplanade was realigned to reduce the gap between train and platform, along with several bridge repairs.

Network Rail promised this latest additional nine-month closure will complete the task and secure the nineteenth-century structure for another 60 years.

A shuttle bus is taking passengers between Pier Head and Ryde Esplanade station during the work, with trains operating as normal on the rest of the route.

Ryde Pier is the world’s oldest pleasure pier, with construction starting in 1813. It is really three separate 680-metre long piers, with the railway pier added in 1880. A parallel tramway closed in 1969 and was rebuilt last year as a pedestrian walkway. The road pier was refurbished in 2011.

Unlike on the mainland, South Western Railway runs both track and trains on the Isle of Wight. But Network Rail remains responsible for the pier.