Before services were suspended last night, a union leader had called for services on the Snaefell Mountain Railway to be suspended while checks are made on the whole fleet.

Eric Holmes, regional industrial organiser for Unite which represents staff on the heritage railways, described the response of public transport director Ian Longworth to Friday’s incident as ’blasé’.

He told the Manx Independent: ’We should not be putting holidaymakers’ lives at risk.

’Services should be halted for a week while they do checks on the braking system. They should be able to produce maintenance records. The checks should not take too long.’

His call was backed by passenger Graham Long, who was on board the vintage tram with his 95-year-old father when it lost control as it left the summit and careered across the road at the Bungalow, while the motorman, guard and a passenger desperately tried to apply the manual fell brake.

Mr Long said from his home in York: ’There was nearly a catastrophic accident. In my view there needs to be a full investigation and the service should be suspended until the full circumstances of the incident are clear.’

Services on the Snaefell Railway were halted last night by the Health and Safety at Work Inspectorate for failing to comply with a reduced 8mph speed limit.

But they are now back operating again after trials.

Mr Holmes said he had had concerns about health and safety on the heritage railways in the past and was ’extremely concerned’ at the way in which Mr Longworth had ’downplayed’ the incident.

’I was extremely surprised at how it was dealt with in such a blasé way,’ he said.

He pointed out there had been a series of incidents including last year’s runaway tram and an MER trailer that overturned at Laxey and would be waiting with ’bated breath’ for the report from the Health and Safety at Work Inspectorate.

But he added: ’I’ve always had concerns about health and safety on the heritage railways. Issues have been investigated but nothing too untoward has been found.

’Do we have to wait until someone is killed before someone in the Health and Safety Executive starts to take stock?’

Mr Longworth has reportedly commented that the tram had a ’momentary’ loss of power and only travelled six pole lengths - about 200m - before coming to a halt and such incidents ’aren’t really out of the ordinary’.

He told Isle of Man Newspapers that the loss of the main rheostatic brakes meant the crew had to use the emergency fell brake. Approaching the Bungalow there is no fell rail due to the road crossing but once across, the fell brake was reapplied and the car was stopped.

But passengers insist that the tram started picking up speed and become out of control half way between the summit and Bungalow, long before where the fell rail stops for the crossing on the road.

Isle of Man Newspapers has passed details of all passengers who have contacted us - with their permission - on to the Health and Safety at Work Inspectorate, which is carrying out the investigation.