Transport
Commuter Service is ‘Plausible’
Thirteen recommendations have been published today following SYSTRA’s review into the island’s railways.
It would require 88 passengers per journey to bring a positive return on operating commuter trams, a report has found.
Thirteen recommendations have been published today following SYSTRA’s review into the island’s railways.
One of the areas it looked at was whether or not the railways could be used for a commuter service.
Focussing on Ramsey to Douglas, SYSTRA found that ‘the low marginal cost of an additional service justified appraising the value of introducing two morning and two evening commuter services on the MER’.
It evaluated the case for a new electric train to provide services from Ramsey to Derby Castle, with additional points to allow it to run closer to the town centre.
However, the review said: ’88 passengers per service would be required to return positive value for money – an
ambitious but plausible number of passengers.’
The northern section of the line is anecdotally used by some residents of Maughold and its surrounding area as a commuter system into Ramsey, but this has not been observed in the review.
