With the 150th year anniversary of the steam railway marked last week, we asked the public how often they use the unique form of transport and whether it’s worth the government subsidy.

Paul Hatton said: ‘I grew up in Port Erin in the 1970s and having a railway station on your front door step I’ve always been very interested in the history of the Isle of Man railways. So much so that I collect old postcards and I’ve got some railway books too.

‘I also love walking along the old railway lines.

‘When people talk about the figures they probably do make a loss, but I think the money is generated elsewhere in terms of people coming over to the Isle of Man for this unique tourist attraction.

‘I would love to see the old sections reinstated but it’s probably more fantasy than reality. I think the problem with the Douglas to Peel line is that a lot of the land has been reclaimed.’

Jan Withey, from Colby, said she thinks the steam railway is ‘wonderful’.

She continued: ‘I love it, it’s part of our heritage and I hope it continues.

‘We like to do the special meal deals on the train. The food with the previous people who ran it was really good but now the new caterers have made the food even better.

‘We tend to go on the train in a group and the atmosphere is brilliant, and it’s lovely to see all the scenery and parts of the island you don’t normally get to see.’

Richard Sicard and Jackie Montgomery are visiting from Sydney in Australia, and have tried all the public transport in the island.

Richard said: ‘We went on the first tram of the day to Laxey and from there got the electric train up Snaefell.

‘We just stopped wherever and got off at weird places and walked really far, it was fun seeing all the small villages.’

Jackie added: ‘We actually were looking for Kirk Lonan cemetery because I think my fathers ancestors were buried there but we weren’t sure.

Mr Sicard went on to explain why he liked the train so much.

He said: ‘The train is so great because you can just shove your hand out and they’ll stop, it doesn’t matter where you are.

‘It was totally brilliant, we got the day pass which was good, and we did 22km of walking and riding on the train, which was a great experience.

‘We knew about the transport options in the island from Google but they’re better than we expected.’

Helene Faragher, from Ballabeg, and Chris Corrin, from Colby, said they haven’t been on the steam train in over a year.

Chris said: ‘We have done the father Christmas train, the Halloween one, the pie and mash one, Sunday lunch but we haven’t done the Easter yet.’

‘Our favourite out of all of them is probably the pie and mash train – it’s brilliant.’

‘How often do you get a place where you’ve got a steam train that actually does what it says on the can.’

Discussing the horse trams, both Helene and Chris agree that they would’ve made them run the full length of Douglas Promenade.

Helene said: ‘I will say that I think the horse trams should absolutely run to the Sea Terminal, and I think they should’ve put the tracks on the prom’.

Chris added: ‘It’s not the horse trams fault, but it has to go from the bottom to the top of the prom because why just go to the middle?’