THE Isle of Wight rail service provided by Island Line will operate to a reduced timetable, starting tomorrow (Thursday).

Island Line will operate one train per hour — as opposed to its normal two per hour — while its five Class 484 trains trains undergo additional maintenance at South Western Railway's (SWR) Ryde Traincare Depot.

The normal timetable of two trains per hour will operate again during Easter, the early May bank holiday and the summer holidays.

The hourly service, between Ryde Pier Head and Shanklin, will be necessary to allow more train availability for the busier times of year.

The Island Line will operate an hourly service between tomorrow and Saturday, March 23; Monday, April 15 to Friday, May 3; and Sunday, May 12 to Thursday, May 23.

Customers are also reminded a five-day closure for essential maintenance and improvements will take place between Friday, March 8, and Tuesday, March 12, with buses replacing trains between Ryde Pier Head and Shanklin.

A full service will run between Sunday, March 24, and Sunday, April 14; Saturday, May 4 to Saturday, May 11; Friday, May 24 to Saturday, September 7.

Island Line general manager, Mark Dunn, said: “To ensure we are able to run a full service of two trains per hour at the busiest times of the year, we have made the difficult decision to move to an hourly timetable.

“We have recently found our Class 484 fleet requires more maintenance than we would normally expect.

"By running our trains less frequently, we will have more time to complete that maintenance and will thereby increase their availability.

“We understand just how important the Easter, May bank holiday and summer holidays are to the Island, and the link with ferries to the mainland, so we want to do all we can to ensure a full service can run at those busier times.”

Bus timetables during this closure are available on the SWR website.