Island Line is a railway line on the Isle of Wight, running some 8½ miles from Ryde Pier Head to Shanklin down the eastern side of the island. The line was electrified (750 V DC third rail) in 1967.
In the mid-1990s it was planned to reopen the line south of Shanklin, to the original terminus at Ventnor. However, this now seems unlikely to happen, due in part to the high costs involved.

History
In 1948, the Southern Railway was nationalised, forming British Railways, later British Rail. Steam trains were withdrawn from the line in 1967, following its electrification. In the 1980s British Rail was sectorised and the line became part of the Network SouthEast sector. Services on the line were branded as Ryde Rail.

British Rail (1948-1996)
Following the Privatisation of British Rail, the rights to run services on the line were put out to tender as a franchise. Stagecoach Group were announced as the winner of the franchise and from October 1996 they operated the line under the name Island Line. The rolling stock was painted into a new livery with large pictures of dinosaurs. Two units were painted back into London Transport colours that the units would have had when operating on the London Underground. The difference was that the front ends of the units had yellow warning panels, for the benefit of track workers.

Island Line franchise (1996-2007)
From February 2007, the Island Line franchise was merged with the South Western franchise on the mainland. Stagecoach were announced as the winner of the new franchise, and they now operate the line through their South West Trains subsidiary. However, the branding from the previous operator has been retained.