The Douglas Bay Horse Tramway, Manx Electric Railway and Snaefell Mountain Railway have all enjoyed record breaking TT periods with more passengers carried combining with the steam railway and Bus Vannin for a 14% increase compared to 2017.
The TT period is traditionally by far the busiest for the Isle of Man and this year took place between Friday 25th May and Sunday 10th June and 2018 was no exception to this with major increases on all transport networks.
The biggest increase of the three systems we concentrate on was on the Snaefell Mountain Railway where 61% more passengers enjoyed a ride on the line with 16,454 passengers recorded (up from 10,191).
On the Manx Electric Railway there were 18,939 passengers (14,096 in 2017) which was a rise of 34% whilst for the Douglas Bay Horse Tramway there was an increase of 21% with 8,739 passengers (up from 7,202).
In total 287,035 passengers were recorded as travelling on the island’s transport network (up from 250,919 – 14% increase). This included 234,418 on the buses and 8,485 on the steam railway.
The busiest day was on Tuesday 5th June (almost 26,500 passengers on all systems) whilst during the period revenue earnt was £590,378.
Ian Longworth, Director of Isle of Man Transport, said: “What a fantastic 2018 TT. I believe the main reasons for our success this year has been the extra promotion of our unlimited travel Go Cards, the launch of contactless payments on buses and the simple online journey planner Traveline – all this sprinkled with great weather. I personally would like to thank all employees of Isle of Man Transport for the hard work, commitment and extra hours they put in over the TT period.”
Jason Moorhouse, Member with political responsibility for Public Transport, said: “This is another quite outstanding set of passenger figures for Isle of Man Transport. Over the TT period a special timetable is put in place to meet the additional demand, including more frequent services and stops at popular campsites. Each year the department looks at ways to improve customer satisfaction, services and capacity. I know they are already working on 2019.”