Problems with newly-laid tram tracks have created a further headache for Prom scheme contractors.

A 100m section of defective rail has been removed from Central Promenade after it failed quality control tests.

More track could be removed in May.

The Department of Infrastructure said work to replace the rail will be at the contractor’s expense.

And it had insisted their plans for the tramway have not changed. No funding has yet been approved for the tramway extension south to the Sea Terminal, however.

The section of faulty track was laid opposite Clarence Terrace where the line crosses the road.

A spokesman for MyProm said defective rail had been removed from the ’interchange area’ on Central Promenade,

She said: ’A 100m section of tram rail has been removed following a failure of quality control testing.

‘A further 20m of track is scheduled to be removed in May once the traffic management has changed and this track can be safely accessed.

’This is not rail that was bought and supplied by the department for use along most of the Promenade.

’It is a different type of rail that is used for areas such as switches and crossings.’

She added: ’Responsibility for replacing this rail lies with Auldyn Construction Ltd and, as such, no cost will be borne by the department for its replacement.’

The rail corridor will be temporarily filled with tarmac allowing it to be used as highway, permitting other construction works to continue and limiting any delay to the overall programme, the spokesman explained.

’The plans for tram track have not changed,’ she insisted.

Those plans will see the horse tramway terminate at Broadway by March this year.

But work to continue the line across the road to the War Memorial and then on to the Sea Terminal will not go ahead until after the general election.

Despite commitments from Ministers and a Tynwald resolution, this will be a matter for the next administration - and reliant on a vote for funding approval.

We reported in November that the double track crossing being installed near Broadway appeared to differ from the original design that received planning consent.

That design showed the tracks converging as an ’interlaced’ arrangement as they cross the road between Esplanade Lane and Castle Mona Avenue.

Quite what the advantage was over a simple single track crossing the road was not clear.

But the crossing constructed towards the end of last year, and now lifted again, had the two lines separated.

The DoI said at the time that the design had been ’simplified’ following a review.

Department chief executive Nick Black was asked about this when he gave evidence to a Tynwald scrutiny committee.

The minutes said Mr Black had replied: ’I’m not sure I quite understand what you mean. We have a section of interlaced track there where the dual track comes into one to move across round Broadway.

’If it looks wrong we will explain what’s changed. We have been engaging with the railway safety inspector.’

Minutes of a meeting held to discuss horse tramway signalling and the Castle Mona crossing were released under Freedom of Information last year. They show automatic systems were being considered.

The minutes note the project team were looking to find a supplier for a ’holistic tram crossing control using transponders for detection’.

They were to ’identify a single traffic control supplier to provide a solution for the Castle Mona crossing, which will utilise ground loop transponders for automatic operation’.

Points would be operated using ’H&K controllers linked to a purpose built signal controller, triggered by line side tag readers’.

It all seems a far cry from the technology associated with a Victorian horse tramway.