Politics
Trams Attractive to Cruise Industry
Emails released under FoI show the DoI has outlined the possibility with consultants SYTRA.
Running horse trams to the Sea Terminal would be highly attractive to the island’s growing cruise industry.
Emails released under FoI show the DoI has outlined the possibility with consultants SYTRA.
It has been five years since horse trams last completed a trip along the length of the prom, despite Tynwald voting for the scheme to be completed.
As a result of the DoI using the money elsewhere, a move Speaker Juan Watterson called a ‘slap in the face’ for Tynwald, the tramway just runs from the Terminus Tavern to the Roundel at the bottom of Broadway.
However, in the email released following Gef’s FoI, an unnamed civil servant says that ‘the attractiveness of the DBHT experience for a cruise ship passenger is high if it were to commence at the point of debarkation at the Sea Terminal’.
They added: ‘With the current DBHT terminus location it is not an attractive event for cruise passengers consisting of a bus ride, tram trip and another short bus ride. Additionally the hotels on Loch promenade are no longer served by the DBHT route and we have some anecdotal evidence that we lose significant numbers of passengers for the DBHT due to this.’
This was sent in the context of potential passenger numbers for the DBHT.
The SYSTRA report has yet to be published.
You can find the email in full on the FoI website.
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