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.
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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 it came in through Brading Harbour. This included considerable volumes of building materials, feeding the development of residential and boarding house building.
In 1867, 384,000 passenger journeys were made, with goods traffic receipts amounting to about 10% of the passenger income. However, in that year working expenses had ballooned due to unspecified exceptional expenditure, and slightly exceeded the gross income. In subsequent years working expenses settled down to 65% (1869) and 63% (1870) of gross receipts.
Maycock states that during the summer of 1867 there were extensive military manoeuvres in Sandown Bay and a temporary halt was opened, named either Yarbridge or Morton Common, but this is not confirmed by other sources.
The nuisance of the long gap between the pier and the IoWR station continued to be objectionable; a connection had long been proposed. A major difficulty was that local residents objected to the degradation of the view at the sea front by any tramway construction, as the gradients into the town would require substantial engineering works; moreover the foreseen smoke nuisance from locomotives was objected to. However on 7 August 1871, a street-running horse tramway was opened by the Ryde Pier Company between the pier and the station. The tramway terminated on the north side of St Johns Road and the railway was extended across the road to meet it. The station platforms were lengthened, and engine release movements from the platforms now had to cross the road twice to complete the manoeuvre. The tramway passed through an archway on the ground floor of a house (17 The Strand) at the junction of The Strand and Cornwall Street in Ryde; the archway has now been closed and a bay window installed.
Although business was brisk, the Company was perpetually short of capital, and some dubious measures were adopted; income rose during 1872 but it was swallowed up by pre-existing cash liabilities. The Board negotiated a bank loan of £1,500 to pay interest on other loans, and this loan had to be guaranteed by a director personally. That year the Board declared a dividend on its preference stock, although payment had to be made by the issue of additional preference stock.
An accident took place on 15 April 1871 when two trains collided head on in the single line section near Sandown. It emerged that the train staff and ticket regulations for operating single lines safely were frequently ignored by the signalmen.
