start operations: the sleepers had been installed at a pitch of and the LSWR, who would be responsible for day to day track maintenance, insisted on the standard . After this work was done, the line opened to passenger traffic on 12 July 1858; goods traffic probably started on 23 July 1858. The LSWR declined to operate ferries to Isle of Wight; they had a non-competitive agreement with the London Brighton and South Coast Railway, but the Solent Sea Steam Packet Company made four return trips from Lymington to Yarmouth every weekday, as well as other daily transits. A coach operated from Yarmouth to Freshwater. A shareholders' meeting on 12 August 1858 was told by the Company Chairman, Alfred Mew, that the Company "was more promising of success than had ever been counted on"; another director stated that the LSWR's Chairman, Vice-Chairman and two of the directors had come down to see what the Lymington Company was doing. A further Act was secured on 21 July 1859 authorising £11,800 of additional capital, and acquisition of the river ferry crossing the Lymington River at Boldre, about three miles (5km) from the terminus (and not immediately adjacent to the railway). The company's financial performance was not so rosy as forecast; in February 1861 the shareholders' meeting was told that net profit for the half year was £375. In 1859 the Portsmouth Direct line had opened, substantially shortening the distance from London to Portsmouth, and therefore to the Isle of Wight. This removed some of the advantage the Lymington route had enjoyed up to that point. In fact Lymington was in decline throughout the early life of the line, the salt industry in particular suffering because of competition from cheaper extractive action in Cheshire. Shirley Holms station was opened on 10 October 1860, but local people found Sway station, about away on the new main line to be more convenient after opening in 1888. Absorbed by the LSWR The line had been worked by the LSWR company from the outset, and it agreed to purchase the Lymington Company's line; this was done under the terms of the 6 August 1860 Act and took effect on 21 March 1879. The local company had paid a dividend of 3.5% in 1877. An urgent task for the LSWR after the takeover was the renewal of many of the underbridges on the line. The berth at Lymington