Transport chiefs still have not come up with a proposal for a bus and electric tram interchange in Ramsey - more than two and a half years after saying they were working on it.

Previous proposals for a bus and MER tram interchange in Ramsey were put on the backburner after a planning application was turned down in 2015.

The Department of Infrastructure said in early 2017 it would work on a ’more modest’ scheme and bring it to Tynwald.

In 2018 it said proposals were being ’drafted’.

Lawrie Hooper (LibVan, Ramsey) hit out after Infrastructure Minister Ray Harmer told him last week they were still working on the plans.

’I am really disappointed to hear that we are nearly three years further down the line and the minister is still considering a broad range of options,’ he said, after raising the issue in Tynwald.

Mr Harmer’s attempt to mollify Mr Hooper did not appear successful.

The Minister said: ’We are narrowing it down to a very small number of options for something, as I said back in February 2017.

’Progress has not been as quick as I would like but we are coming to a conclusion on a more modest scheme to provide facilities for Ramsey and to provide an interchange for Ramsey.’

He insisted the department was ’coming to a conclusion in the next few months’.

Crucial in the ’small number’ of options being considered were a solution that ’provides best value but meets the critical safety and operational requirements’, Mr Harmer said.

Proposals submitted by the DoI in 2015 included clearing the existing MER station and creating a combined tram and bus terminus, car park and bus parking, refuelling and washing facilities.

But the planning inspector recommended refusal, saying that it would be ’industrial’ in character and of ’utilitarian appearance’.

MER services currently stop short of the old terminus due to concerns about the safety of the track.