Colonnade News No 160 June 2017 The East Southsea Railway The East Southsea railway line from Fratton cost £55,000 and took nine months to build. It opened on 1 st July, 1885,Edwin Galt, a former mayor of Portsmouth and prime mover in the development, said the railway would 'be the making of Southsea' as he envisaged people flocking to the growing resort. Amazingly there were even ambitious plans to extend the line to Hayling Island and join up with the Hayling service by building a bridge across Langstone Harbour, but the scheme came to nothing. Early trains were yellow with a black chimney, but had no carriage heating. Although the journey would take little more than five minutes, staff at Fratton hired out hot water bottles. By 1902 major changes had to be made or the railway could have gone bust. It was singled and rail cars, which were cheaper to run were introduced. Two halts, Jessie Road and Albert Road, were introduced to attr...