I've always liked the Isle of Wight railway network, even if today it's a lot smaller than it was and will be again. One of the daftest closures of the Beeching years was the Shanklin-Ventnor line which connected the busy seaside town of Ventnor to the outside world. Of course BR at the time fully expected the IOW railways to all have closed by 1975, so that the rather silly situation with the line terminating short at Shanklin would have been short lived. Fortunately at least part of the essential Newport and Cowes line is currently being operated as a heritage line, I can't seriously see Cowes and Newport staying off the network for many more years!
it did seem short sited to close the line to Ventnor, but most of the hotels/guest houses were some way from the station & would have needed a taxi to complete your journey, the replacement bus service from Shanklin station to Ventnor via Wroxall (ser 39) ran every 12 minutes on Summer Saturdays, calling at Wroxall, Ventnor old town station & Ventnor town centre, the rail service ran 2 trains per hour in comparison . The service ran from 1967 to its withdrawal in the early 1980s, currently the bus service(3) is Ventnor then Wroxall, & connects with the boat trains only
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