Delayed arrival for Isle of Wight's refurbished trains
Train company issues apology over Island Line hold-up
Last updated 27th Apr 2021
The reopening of the Isle of Wight's railway line has been delayed to later this summer.
Island Line is undergoing a £26m overhaul which includes track and platform improvements.
Operator South Western Railway said "complex software issues" were to blame for holding up the delivery of refurbished trains.
Alex Foulds, major projects director at SWR, said: "We are as disappointed as our customers by this delay.
"Our infrastructure works are largely on track, but there is a delay to the delivery of the trains and we apologise for the impact that will have on our customers and the communities we serve.
"We continue to work incredibly hard in partnership with our train supplier Vivarail to reopen a safe, reliable and fully upgraded Island Line as soon as possible."
Vivarail Ltd, which is refurbishing rolling stock for the 8.5 mile line, said live tests had uncovered "some serious issues".
Adrian Shooter, CEO of Vivarail Ltd, said: "Whilst we were able to deliver the first train to the Isle of Wight several months ago, the rest of the fleet are still at Eastleigh for mainline testing before delivery.
"We know that this is the second delay to the introduction of the new service, and acknowledge that South Western Railway is on schedule with its infrastructure upgrades.
"As a company we take full responsibility and offer our apologies to the passengers and staff of the Island Line.
"It would be easy to hide behind Covid and point the finger at the pandemic, but we had in fact managed to claw back a lot of that lost time and brought the build back on schedule and all trains have now left our factory.
"However, we have unforeseen difficulties with the software.
"Although in essence it is no different to the version we have used previously it needed some changes to enable the train to run on the 3rd rail.
"Planning and analysis began over 18 months ago and did not bring any problems to light, but the live tests have uncovered some serious issues.
"Our priority is to deliver safe and reliable trains, so I have instructed my team to undertake a thorough review rather than try to ‘patch’ the software."