Finally! Friday 29th July saw the much anticipated return of the Douglas Bay Horse Tramway with a free re-introductory service running as part of the Manx Summer Transport Festival ahead of a full return from the following day. Its been a long-time coming but at least it has finally come!
It was 3rd November 2019 that any form of public service last ran on the tramway and whilst it was expected there would be a brief interruption in the service during the Promenade redevelopment works no-one could have imagined that it would have been nearly 33 months without the horse trams running. (Mind you no-one could have predicted a major global pandemic either!)
The service was officially launched again by Infrastructure Minister Chris Thomas MHK (who also reopened the refurbished Strathallan Depot). At the launch event he also confirmed there would be no work to extend the tramway back to the Sea Terminal until 2023 – and of course there remains no guarantee that this will ever happen.
But today is a day of celebrations so we won’t go back over the usual ground of the delayed Prom redevelopment, the truncated line, single/double track or centre of the road/side of the road debate.
The service was restarted by Torrin – a regular horse for several seasons now – who hauled tram 36 on the free journeys to celebrate the return of the tramway.
The Douglas Bay Horse Tramway will now run every Tuesday to Sunday until Sunday 11th September (starting from Saturday 30th July) and will then operate Wednesday to Sunday until Sunday 30th October.
Trams will run every half an hour between 0935 and 1700 with the journey from Derby Castle to Villa Marina timed at 10 minutes. It looks like it will be a one tram service at all times with a five minute layover provided at each between trips.
Go Explore tickets remains valid for travel and there are also per journey tickets (£2.50 adults, £1.00 children) and day tickets (£5.00 adults, £2.50 children).
Had a close look around the trailer depot early this afternoon:
The surviving trailers fall into 5 clear categories:
In use: 36
Marked – Not to be used (No transducer) 18, 42, 45.
Marked – Not to be used (No reason stated) 1, 12, 38, 44
Minor repairs: 43
Being restored: 32 (A guess as no number visible)
OK for traffic: 21, 27, 29 (unused so far)
Also “trailer” 34 was seen driven along the promenade yesterday fitted with
some sort of engine. There were no passengers aboard so could have been some
sort of test drive.
Hope this is useful
I am sorry but this is NOT a celebration. The inept Manx Government ( and in particular the totally inept DOI, or is it now DFI) should have progressed the line through to Sea Terminal now! The whole of the promenade rebuild has been a complete fiasco!
“Trailer”34 with an engine? Isn’t that the MER loco?