The Manx Electric Railway Society is calling on MHKs to ’save’ the horse tramline on Douglas Promenade.

It says Infrastructure Minister Tim Crookall’s decision not to ask for more funds for the scheme for at least the next year ’is not good enough’.

This comes after Mr Crookall said in the House of Keys sitting this week that the budget allocated for the tramway wasn’t enough to build it to the full length of the prom due to an overspend by the department.

Currently, the tramway runs only to the War Memorial but plans were originally for it to stretch to the Sea Terminal.

As yesterday’s Manx Independent reported, Mr Crookall said he was not prepared to bring the rest of the work forward for ’the next year or maybe two years’.

The MERS has called on MHKs to ’honour their democratic decision to save the line and to set a clear course for the completion of this wonderful asset’. It said: ’It is simply not good enough for the Minister Mr Crookall to declare that he is not prepared to ask for funds for this scheme for the next year or so and our democratic guardians should be encouraged to turn on the pressure to execute their decision to re-build the line for the full length of the route.’

The society felt the horse trams were of ’incalculable historic importance as the only survivor left on the planet of a working Victorian horse tramway’.

The last time the horse trams, which date back to 1876, operated across the full length of the prom was October 22, 2018.

’With this in mind Tynwald voted as long ago as 2016 to incorporate the tramway within the redevelopment of the Douglas promenades running the full length of the bay,’ the society said in a statement. ’When it reopens the line will be cut back to a point by the War Memorial, roughly half way along the seafront - in the context of Douglas seafront, in the middle of nowhere.’

It added: ’The cutting back of the line has been done unconstitutionally and against the will of the Court of Tynwald and without any approval for such a fundamental variation in the plans.

’An inevitable consequence is that this will damage the island’s reputation as a unique vintage transport destination. A further consequence is that the MER will lose the artery of passenger supply bringing traffic from the Sea Terminal and beyond, threatening the very survival of the coastal tramway.’

In the sitting, Garff MHK Daphne Caine asked whether the Department of Infrastructure had purposefully sabotaged the project.

The society said: ’While the line has been closed there has been an unhappy catalogue of events which have led a MHK to conclude reflected "sabotage" and a hidden agenda appears to be in operation in which certain elements have sought to prevent the reconstruction of the horse tramway along the full length of the promenades.

’We have now heard that the completion of this project has effectively been stripped of its funding and kicked into the long grass. If this is permitted to occur future Manx generations will be denied their pride in this charming and timeless asset.’