Island Line Trains - Rolling Stock

Rolling Stock

Standard National Rail vehicle types cannot be used by Island Line Trains, due to the low ceiling of Ryde Tunnel. Instead, services are operated using Class 483 units, which are refurbished ex London Underground tube trains originally built in 1938. These replaced the older Class 485 and Class 486 units, which dated from 1923 and were introduced to the island in 1967 when the line was electrified.

When the Class 483 trains were introduced, they were painted in the standard Network SouthEast livery. In 2000, several years after the start of the original franchise, the stock was painted into a blue livery with large pictures of dinosaurs, aiming to entice tourists in the summer months when passenger numbers are high. Two units were later painted into London Transport colours, which the units would have had when operating on the London Underground. There are yellow warning panels on the front ends of the units, a modern feature for the benefit of track workers and a change compared with the original red. The entire fleet was repainted into this livery by the end of 2008.

Following its successful bid for the new integrated franchise, South West Trains announced that there were no plans to replace the current rolling stock, instead they would invest "to ensure the continued viability of the existing Island Line rolling stock and infrastructure". By 2017, when the current franchise is due to end, the rolling stock will be almost 80 years old.

As a cost-cutting exercise, South West Trains bought the rolling stock from the leasing company HSBC Rail in March 2007. This means the leasing costs, which were reimbursed by the government, have been eliminated, thereby lowering the line's tax burden.