Out of the more than 900 bus stops in the island, only around 80 have so far had work done on them to make them more accessible for people with disabilities.

The numbers emerged in a sitting of the House of Keys after Douglas North MHK David Ashford had asked the infrastructure minister what was being done to ensure bus services are accessible.

Answering on behalf of minister Chris Thomas as political member of the Department of Infrastructure, Arbory, Castletown and Malew MHK Tim Glover said that ‘a limited programme of works’ had been undertaken on the bus stops. He added that an audit of all stops is required to identify the level of accessibility across all the stops, and that this would have to be followed by a ‘targeted remedial programme [of works]’.

Mr Glover said that in addition to level boarding (where the boarding platform is the same level as the bus floor), accessibility features would need to include: sufficient width of the footway (minimum two metres, ideally 2.7) to provide space for boarding ramps to be dropped, footway surfacing, and dropped kerbs.

‘While a number of stops have been made accessible in response to individual requests, the priority of the work undertaken to date has been for those stops which have been made accessible as part of Highways maintenance programming,’ he said.

Mr Glover said that £150,000 had been allocated to improve accessibility on the highways, with an estimated £10,000 required for the remedial work on each stop, meaning work could be carried out on around 15 stops.

He added that the department was also committed to improving accessibility on buses themselves, such as by providing seating with extra legroom to accommodate passengers with arthritis, and ensuring the proper placement of handrails.

Mr Ashford said that at a rate of £150,000 for 15 stops [per year] ‘we’ll all be long gone by the time the DoI has completed all of the [over 900] stops’.

He then asked what had happened to a commitment made in April 2021 to increase the department’s budget and improve 50 stops per year. Mr Glover responded that he did not know, having only been provided with the 15 stops-per-year figure, and would seek to find out.

Onchan MHK Rob Callister then asked whether, in addition to the planned audit of stops, any consideration had been given to adding new stops. ‘I know in my own constituency of Onchan [blind charity] Sight Matters has been requesting a stop outside their facility [on Heywood Avenue]’, said Mr Callister.

Mr Glover told him that a priority list existed for planned stops, and that this may be changed by recommendations from the accessibility steering group, with Mr Callister’s recommendation from Sight Matters also to be passed on by himself.