Post by TheoPost by MarlandIt seems counterintuitive but small Islands are maybe the worst places to
sustain rail transport.
Yes and no.
Post by MarlandRail is relatively expensive to provide and will rarely be close enough to
much of the population to obviate the need for road transport. Now that
main freight in the form of coal has long been superseded by electricity
for domestic energy needs the other advantages of rail which is high speed
over longer distances or transporting 1000’s of people at once to work in a
large town or city are not required on a small Island. The Railways on the
Channel of Jersey and Guernsey went in the 1930’s
as the bus and lorry were developed.
1. a network where you aren't far from a stop, like a tram system, so you
can walk or cycle there
A Mile or Kilometer stays the same even if it is on an Island, the I.O.W
may not be the largest Island in the World but it is still going to be
quite a trek for most of the population and neither is it particularly flat
so only those reasonably healthy would walk or cycle too far ,though there
will be like now those
who would do such journeys as part of a lifestyle or hobby choice*
Before the car age many people worked at or not too far from home , that
hasn’t been the case for some decades and though some can now do it again
with moving office based work to a home office not all can do that.
Post by Theo2. a restriction of car traffic: that might be congested roads and lack of
parking, or a lack of ferry services to get cars there in the first place
Like Sark, where the owners can impose such restrictions.
Post by Theo3. an unsuitability for a bus service: here it could be narrow country roads
versus a segregated railway network
Guernsey and Jersey mandate narrower buses than those in the UK for that
reason,
Post by Theo4. connectivity that can be achieved by rail that can't by road - eg a rail
tunnel to the mainland where the road equivalent was a slow ferry
5. a population density high enough to support no.1 and to cause no.2
Effectively an island with enough population to make a public transport
network sustainable.
The IoW has had cars for a long time and as such it seems unlikely to change
back any time soon, but it would be possible to imagine an alternative
universe where cars never became established on the Island and the railways
remained the primary means of transport.
Not actually a Geographic Island but a political one Gibraltar would appear
to be the sort of place,
it actually has quite good public transport with around 11 bus routes which
have a frequent service with buses 7m long max 2m wide.
Despite that and short walks or cycle rides to bus stops there are
around 17000 private cars and 5000 Motorbikes on the Peninsula. The
population is around 32,000 so it the the majority of adults who can own a
vehicle have one, in a place where the longest drive inside the “Island” is
about 5km and the same back again.
People just like their own transport too much.
* There was a cyclist on this part of the South Coast of England who used
to cycle to the Yarmouth Ferry to the West end of the Island and cycle to
the Fishbourne terminal at the East end and take the ferry back over to
Portsmouth . Home to work was 42 Miles 67km . Quite a lot shorter and
nicer roads than going between the same places on the mainland.
He used an electrical assisted bike and his reason for doing it was the
timing of of the train service,he
did it for over a year but eventually went back to the train.
GH