‘Clearly’ a Case for Horse Trams

There is a clear strategic case for the reinstatement of the horse trams running the full length of the prom, but the financial case is harder to make.

The long-awaited review into the island’s heritage rail by SYSTRA included exploring whether the return to the full length is feasible.

In its report, SYSTRA said that its modelling found that the ‘financial case for reinstatement of the horse tram to either the War Memorial or the Sea Terminal would require very large increase in passenger numbers to avoid a further increase in subvention’.

However, it added: ‘There is clearly a strategic case for reinstatement to the Sea Terminal. This is an example where the change in emphasis around capital spending could produce benefits, with the Sea Terminal being utilised as part of the railways visitor facilities perhaps prior to investment in facilities at Derby Castle.’

Tynwald

What happened to the horse trams has long been a debated issue since the DoI bizarrely decided to move them from the centre of the road at the Sea Terminal end of the prom, a decision which required the introduction of the tram crossing red-lights near Broadway.

This has led to the joke that thanks to the prom works you can get a horse tram from a derelict site near a pub (Summerland) to close to something that isn’t quite a roundabout.

The first part of this arguably starts in Douglas Council when its members decided to ditch the horse trams due to the ongoing annual costs. Having spoken to councillors who were involved at the time, they had indicated that they do so fully believing that the gov would be forced to take them over.

In December 2016, an amendment by Douglas East MHK Chris Robertshaw led to Tynwald voting to instruct the DoI to install a single track, which in of itself was widely criticised from its current termination point vaguely near the Villa Marina to the Sea Terminal.

Fast forwarding a bit now to the 2020 Covid Budget and (as pointed out by Douglas Central MHK Chris Thomas) in amongst that Budget was the detachment of the trams from the rest of the scheme, basically Tynwald did a very Tynwaldy thing and kicked the can down the road, leaving a patch of mud and now grass where the tramway was meant to be built.

As a result of that, the return of trams to the Sea Terminal, were it ever to go ahead, would need Tynwald approval for the capital investment.