Hayling Island - Transport

Transport

The Hayling Ferry is the most convenient way to travel between Portsmouth and Hayling Island. The Ferry is busy in the summer if the weather is good, bringing tourists and cyclists to Hayling. In the winter, there is a significant reduction of use, and the ferry service to and from Portsea Island is subsidised by the local authorities. This leaves the ferry under constant threat of closure due to limited resources.

Apart from the ferry the only public connection between Hayling Island and the mainland is a single carriageway road linking Northney to Langstone, Havant. In summer in particular this road can become very congested rendering the journey between the bridge and South Hayling (the most populated area) anything from 30 minutes to an hour. A proposed Millennium project to create a new shared pedestrian and cycle bridge was unsuccessful.

Until 1963 when the line was closed, Terrier steam locomotives pulled carriages along the 5-mile (8 km) Hayling Billy line from Havant station on the mainland to a station which was located at the northern end of Staunton Avenue, passing through Langstone where there was a Halt. The only remaining railway building, a goods shed, has now been converted into a theatre which is run by HIADS.

A tourist attraction — the East Hayling Light Railway — is a 2 ft (610 mm) gauge railway that runs for just over 1 mile (1.6 km) from Beachlands Station to Eastoke Corner with aspirations to extend the route to Ferry Point within the next few years.

The nearest railway station to Hayling Island is Havant, just onto the mainland off Hayling Island. Alternatively, Portsmouth and Southsea is another railway station, used for connections to Bristol (Temple Meads) and Cardiff.