Track talk

Steam loco Number 10 at Glen Whyllin viaduct with a single coach in the early 60s and the same engine that helped me avoid the TT traffic yesterday (double click photo to see detail).

Yesterday I had my first trip on the steam railway for a few years as I took the official advice to use public transport. I took the bus to work as the first train would have seen me arrive at 10.50 but I left a few minutes early to catch the 16.50 from Ballasalla to Douglas.

I love all the nostalgia of steam trains, particularly the Manx ones. But like most people who say such things, I rarely support them with my wallet.

I guess that having had a father and a brother who made careers out of public transport management I am bound to be influenced by them. In fact, as I write this an email has just arrived from Mike who I asked to comment on what I wrote earlier and he said:

"Your point about not using services reminds me of a complaint about one of our bus services being withdrawn because his son would have no way to get to work if his car broke down!"

So earlier tonight (you could say that I was lettting off steam!) I submitted this little piece for the iomtoday comment:

It would be interesting to have a few facts before we hail the commuter trains too much of a success. How many people who used the trains would otherwise have used a bus or a coach? How many people contributed nothing extra towards the cost by using their resident tickets? How many extra cars were there on the roads compared to last year? How much did the whole service cost?

Similar questions should have been asked before the government spent so much extra money on the Manx Electric Railway last year. How many people travel on the trams to Ramsey? What percentage is this of the people travelling from Douglas? Would people still visit Ramsey without the MER? Could the track be converted to single track?

Few people seem to realise that the taxpayer pays £4 towards the cost of the heritage railways for every £1 paid by the passenger. The 2009/10 budget provides for a government subsidy of £3.7 million for heritage railways and a further £6.1 million for buses. These figures exclude any share of an additional cost of more than £2 million per year for “Corporate Services” and “Service Delivery Directorate Management” within the Department of Tourism & Leisure.

Thanks to the investment by the taxpayer, the track, the trains and most of the stations are in much better condition than for most of the days when the railways were an essential part of the economy, moving people to school and work, moving livestock and every type of freight at no cost to the taxpayer. But not many people think about what is realistic to provide only about what they like to see. Preserved railways in the UK rely largely on voluntary labour to survive. We really are lucky to have such a wonderful service so heavily subsidised but if the recession reaches the Isle of Man we’ll be even luckier if all these services survive.

I paid £3.80 to travel on the train from Ballasalla to Douglas yesterday evening. My £15 of government subsidy ensured I missed the traffic jams but the majority of people would still use their cars even if public transport was free.