"Your committee regret to have to state that the available assets at the disposal of the company are practically nil." Operation and traffic There were eleven journeys each way on weekdays and two on Sundays when the line opened as far as Shanklin. The journey time was typically 25 minutes. By November 1864, the weekday service was reduced to seven trains each way. Passenger business was better than expected, although that at Brading was disappointing. When the line was extended to Ventnor, the same number of trains ran, and the journey time Ryde to Ventnor was 30 minutes. The passenger accommodation at Ryde was extremely limited, and within two years a second platform was provided to handle a more frequent train service than had been envisaged. During this period a turntable was put out of use, as the entire locomotive stock was tank engines. At Shanklin the line originally ended in a turntable used for engine release purposes, but this too was removed when the line was extended to Ventnor. The line was operated in two signal sections, from Ryde to Sandown and from Sandown to Ventnor, and the train staff and ticket system was used. Sandown was the only intermediate station at which passenger trains could cross, but the loop was on the north side of the station and only one platform was provided there. Ventnor station opened with a single narrow platform, but by 1872, a second platform face was provided there too. By this time Ryde Pier (the second structure) was 745 yards in length, and travellers using it had a long walk to the shore; this was a serious competitive disadvantage compared to Cowes, where no such difficulty existed. A horse tramway started operation on the pier itself on 27 August 1864, but the gap from the pier to the station at St Johns Road had no railway connection, and for some time was a source of inconvenience. Much of the seasonal traffic came from the mainland, and despite the inconvenience of the gap from the pier to the station, the traffic was buoyant. In 1867 it was decided to run 14 trains each way on weekdays, and this put a strain on the engine power available to the line. Goods traffic was run at night to free up the resources for passenger trains, but the goods traffic was important to the island economy; much of