it opened between St John's Road station in Ryde and on 23 August 1864 and on to on 10 September 1866. This had a significant effect in shifting the route for trade access to the island: in February 1868 the Cowes and Newport Railway directors reported that their company's earnings were static following the opening of the IoWR; travellers forsook the Southampton and Cowes route in favour of Portsmouth and Ryde. Cowes railway station was inconveniently up a steep hill from the ferry port. Isle of Wight (Newport Junction) Railway From 1861, the pace of proposing further railways on the island accelerated. Some accepted that only one further line was commercially viable, but there was little agreement about its possible course. Nonetheless connecting Newport to the east coast was considered an important objective. In 1868, three bills came to Parliament; they were considered to be mutually exclusive, and over a very lengthy hearing evidence was given in favour of each, and against its presumed competitors. The dominance of the Portsmouth–Ryde ferry route had not yet been established, and in any case Cowes was assumed to be the port of entry for goods and minerals. The Isle of Wight (Newport Junction) Act was given Royal Assent on 31 July 1868, to build a line from Newport to the Sandown station of the Isle of Wight Railway. The competing proposals were rejected; those who favoured a line from Newport to Ryde were disappointed, and continued the struggle. Building the IoW(NJ)R The authorised capital of the Newport Junction line was £84,000, but it was not planned to pass through any major population centre that was not already rail-connected, and the Company found it difficult to raise the money it needed for construction. Moreover, successive resignations of directors made continuity of progress difficult. The first sod was finally cut at Shide on 14 October 1870. Early in 1871, a prospectus was published offering preference shares, although the Company was not authorised to issue these, and this was soon followed by acrimonious and public name-calling between the company and the Corporation of Newport. In 1872, the line between Sandown and Horringford was thought to be ready for opening, and on 20 June Colonel Yolland of the Board of Trade visited the line to carry out the inspection for passenger operation; as well as finding a considerable number of detail shortcomings, he was very critical of