Memories as a child by Gina Watkins

The billy passing over the viaduct at sunset

I was born and lived on Hayling Island as a child; my mother was a dancer and taught there. I travelled on the Billy Line from as young as three months old. My grandmother used to take me, I used to go to school in Woking so would travel on the Billy Line every day and change at Havant Station. Can you imagine that happening now? A child of 8 travelling and changing trains!

I remember once being in the back of my mother’s car with my friend Jessie, we had to stop and pay a toll at the old Langstone Toll House – that was when I decided never to travel from Hayling by car again! I would use the Billy Line.

It’s such a shame that it was closed, if we could afford to get the Billy Line back I think it would do so well, people loved it. I used to love travelling on it so much. I’ll never forget the way it would go over the water.