The number of passenger journeys on the Douglas Bay horse tram has fallen from 78,000 to 45,000 in five years.

Members discussed the horse tram at length at this week’s House of Keys sitting, and were given statistics spanning the years between 2018 and 2023 including passenger numbers, income and the effect the shortening of the tramway length has potentially had on the attraction.

MHK for Douglas North, David Ashford, asked: ‘What impact has the shortened length of the horse tramway had? And has there been a change to the amount of Government funding?’

The Minister for Infrastructure, Tim Crookall MHK, said: ‘There were 78,000 passenger journeys on the Douglas Bay horse tram in 2018 compared to 45,000 in 2023.

‘The department’s direct income from the horse tram service was £140,000 in 2018 compared to £44,000 in 2023.

‘It is not known if this decrease in numbers can be attributed to the shorter length of track, and obviously we’re still recovering from the reconstruction of the tramway and the effect of Covid-19.

‘It must be noted that many more of our passengers now use multi-trip tickets called “go explore”, and these tickets have seen an increase of 42% in income since 2018.’

Detailing the level of Government funding the attraction receives, Mr Crookall said that there is no specific capital budget for the horse trams.

Describing the budget amounts, he said: ‘The revenue expenditure budget for the horse trams has decreased from £340,140 in 2018 to £313,808 in 2023 - a reduction of £26,332.

‘Spending on the horse trams has increased from £200,140 in 2018 to £269,000 in 2023, a substantial increase of £68,860.’

Mr Ashworth queried about the effect of the shortened length of the tram track, with Mr Crookall saying: ‘I think it’s made a difference not having the tram tracks the whole way since the renovation. But that will be a decision for the future. It could be a tough decision between this and something else that the department can or can’t do if it’s a capital project.’

In July 2017, Tynwald approved plans to spend up to £20,730,000 for works associated with the promenade. Between £5.2 and £5.5 million of this sum was set to be allocated towards work on the tramway.

However, a later report by the Public Accounts Committee said that the spending money allocated to the Douglas Bay horse tramway was spent on other parts of the promenade reconstruction project.