Leisure travel to the Isle of Wight developed, but the Portsmouth station was not at all close to the steamer terminal; the Gosport station was also awkwardly located. A new pier at Stokes Bay was opened, with a branch line off the Fareham to Gosport line; this offered a direct transfer from train to steamer, but the railway transit from London was rather circuitous, and the opening of the Portsmouth Direct line in 1859 and the extension of the railway at Portsmouth to Portsmouth Harbour station and the steamer berth there, negated the advantage. Also branching from the Gosport line was a branch to Lee-on-the-Solent, in support of a new seaside resort with its own pleasure pier. The development was not commercially successful.
