Isle of Man's heritage railways to face efficiency review

The Manx Electric Railway celebrates its 130th anniversary in 2023

A review of the Manx heritage railways will establish if aspects can be "done differently", a minister has said.

The government said an independent review will update the 2017/18 report by engineering consultants SYSTRA.

A representative said it will determine if governance, organisation and operations are performing "optimally" and "make recommendations for change".

Infrastructure Minister Chris Thomas said it will help officials "decide rationally" about funding.

The review will consider all aspects of the island's 150-year-old network, which includes the Isle of Man Railway, the Manx Electric Railway, the Snaefell Mountain Railway and the Douglas Bay Horse Tramway.

The horse trams recently returned to action for the first time since 2019

Mr Thomas said the previous SYSTRA findings showed the railways cost £4.87m to operate but had a direct revenue of £1.66m.

He said that meant every part of the railway "operates at a loss", though there was a lot of "indirect benefit to the island, because tourists spend".

He added that the visitor economy generated from the network may outweigh the individual losses.

"I believe in the heritage rail, I believe it's a valuable part of our culture, but money is hard-pressed," he said.

"We've got to make sure that we decide rationally whether £10 is better spent at the airport or on our heritage rail or on our bus routes."

The review's findings will be presented to the Council of Ministers at a later date.