Hayling Island branch
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The Hayling Island Branch was a railway in Hampshire, United Kingdom. It's sometimes known as the Hayling Billy line.
[edit] History
The line was opened by the LBSCR for goods on January 19th 1865, and for passengers on July 16th 1897. It ran from Havant to Hayling Island station. There were two intermediate halts at Langstone and North Hayling.
The line itself was mainly used during the summer months as people from the South Coast would travel down to the beach on Hayling Island. The coaches would often be overflowing during these months, however would be virtually empty during the Winter, which would become a problem.
The LBSCR quickly ran into difficulty during the construction of the railway, as they had attempted to save on the cost of buying land on Hayling Island for the line by constructing an embankment on the mud flats in the sheltered waters of Langstone Harbour -- This was an ambitious plan, which also involved the construction of wet and dry docks at Sinah Lake. Though they were given a grant to the mudlands by William Padwick, who was himself behind the plan, and the promoters offered to build the embankment and Railway at a cost of £80,000, the area was not sheltered as had been hoped: the bank was severely eroded before the railway could be completed.
The board of trade inspector was invited to certify the line as being fit for passenger traffic, but he initially refused to do so as he found that many of the sleepers had begun to rot in the original section of the railway, and there was also an unauthorised level crossing at Langstone. The former problem was quickly fixed but the level crossing remained until the closure of the line in 1962.
Over the winter of 1962 it was decided to close the branch line, the reason being the old timber bridge that crossed Langstone Harbour needed expensive repairs. The company could not afford the repairs and thus the line took its final fare paying customers on November 3 1963.
Today the lines have been torn up but on the Havant side of the line, the area where the tracks once stood has been turned into a footpath. This enables people to walk from Havant station all the way to where the bridge and the Langstone halt stood.
If one were to continue walking south from Langstone halt, across the road bridge they would join the Hayling Island side of the line. This section of the line passes down the west side of the island, passing through where Victoria halt used to stand, and terminates at West town.
This section is now a combined footpath, bridleway and cycleway. It has recently become part of route 2 of the National Cycle Network, sponsored by Sustrans, a charity for sustainable transport.
