It’s official - the Douglas Bay Horse Tramway will not run the full length of the Promenade in time for its 150th anniversary in 2026.

Infrastructure Minister Dr Michelle Haywood said ‘realistically there was no way this would ever have been ready for 2026 unless work had started across winter 2024/25’, confirming the single-line track to the Sea Terminal will not be reinstated before the milestone.

Instead, the department is pressing ahead with a business case for Treasury and Tynwald seeking re-approval of funding to install track suitable for future use by electric trams, alongside refurbishing the derelict Tramway Terrace houses fronting the historic stables.

‘Work on the Prom has to be suspended at really busy times like TT and is exposed to weather during winter that can slow progress so that always lengthens the time needed,’ Dr Haywood said.

‘When I came into post as Minister in late November 2024 there wasn’t a business case fit to take forward. Since then I have been working to get the best business case I can to take for Treasury approval and then to Tynwald to get the funding. Even if and when that is agreed, it will take time to put the contract out, get a contractor ready to do the work, and then about 10 months to complete it and get the necessary safety inspections.’

She added: ‘By the time I came in as Minister it was already too late to have this sorted for 2026. However, my hope is that we can get this moving in the right direction and at least get funding agreed by 2026, so that the work can finally get started in winter 2026/7.’

The horse trams were launched in 1876 to serve the island’s tourism trade and are now part of the government’s heritage railway offering. The service was suspended in 2018 during the £26m Promenade redevelopment, returning in 2022 on a shortened route between Derby Castle and Broadway.

Plans to continue the line to the Sea Terminal were paused in 2021 after funding for the remainder of the track was reallocated – a decision that has continued to draw criticism. The Manx Electric Railway Society has argued that a truncated line damages the island’s reputation.

Passenger journeys fell from 78,000 in 2018, the last season trams reached the Sea Terminal, to 45,000 in 2023. Covid-era disruption and construction defects delayed the wider Promenade scheme, and money earmarked to reinstate the full length of track was redirected.

Although Treasury had set aside £1.2m for the work, it was never spent. Last year, then-Infrastructure Minister Tim Crookall said rail sections bought for the extension had corroded in storage but remained usable.

In April, Arbory, Castletown and Malew MHK Tim Glover asked when the April 2017 resolution mandating a single line between the Sea Terminal and the War Memorial would be honoured. Dr Haywood said the design project plan and business case were under consideration, with a policy development meeting in April before submission to Treasury and Tynwald.

For now, the horses will continue to turn at Broadway, with the anniversary likely to pass without the Sea Terminal backdrop – though the DoI insists the groundwork to secure the tramway’s long-term future is being laid.