More than £3.3m has been spent on track renewals on the Manx Electric Railway over the last three years.

Figures released under Freedom of Information show that a further £1.6m is due to be spent this year.

Work on the heritage railways resumed this week after Covid restrictions on construction schemes were eased.

Contractors have been working on the track just north of the Liverpool Arms at Baldrine.

Isle of Man Transport said its projects have been ’carefully thought through and redesigned’ to enable social distancing.

The FoI request asked how much had been spent on new track and infrastructure for the MER over the last three years.

In 2016-17, £409,139 was spent on track renewal on the MER.

The figure was £1,185,018 in 2017-18 and £1,795,081 in 2018-19.

No figure is given in the FoI response for the amount spent in 2019-20.

Costs for infrastructure works were £143,799 in 2016-17, £225,836 in 2017-18 and £200,845 in 2018-19.

Again, no figures are given for 2019-20.

The 2020-21 estimated spend on the MER track renewals programme for the current financial year is £1,669,305.

Figures for 2023-24 have not yet been determined, said Isle of Man Transport.

It said: ’Our strategic programme includes a number of planned projects spread over a five-year period.

’However the work specified in each period will depend on detailed cost estimates and dynamic asset management assessments which are not available this far in advance.

’We have approximately 60 miles of railway track and need to renew approximately two miles per annum to maintain the assets.’

Direct revenue from ticket sales was £566,545 in 2018-19 and £517,479 in 2019-20.

Income from combined rail explorer tickets was £1,022,939 and £875,915 respectively for those two years.