Some blog posts are inconsequential or frivolous, but this one is serious.

For 140 years horse trams have been clip-clopping up and down Douglas front.  They are unique.  No-one else in the world has such a survival - even the stables are original and the only working tramway stables left in the world.  And you can't find transport which is much more 'green'.  They've taken visitors and luggage to hotels, kiddies for rides, passengers from the MER at Derby Castle to the shops in town.

Now they can't.

Despite a Tynwald resolution that they should continue the full length of the promenade, the track still starts at Derby Castle but has been truncated at the bottom of Broadway (about half-way along).  At one stroke, the horse trams have stopped being a useful connexion between distant points - travelling from the north of the island we used them all the time - and become merely a plaything.

The powers-that-be seem reluctant to put in place what Tynwald voted for, so the junior partner of Loaghtan Books will present a Petition for Redress to Tynwald Hill tomorrow (5 July).  The petition does not, as you might think, ask that the horse trams be reinstated to their full length.  The petition points out the constitutional risks of NOT reinstating the horse trams and asks that:

'Tynwald shall avoid setting the precedent of permitting unelected persons and/or individual Members to overturn or unreasonably delay any decision made by the democratically-elected government of the Isle of Man, by reinstating the Horse Tram to run along the whole length (i.e. from Derby Castle to the Sea Terminal) of the Promenades at Douglas.'

Watch this space.



The Horse’s reply

 

‘Promenade’ is French for ‘walkway’

Four legs or two unsaid,

But, impatient, hurried, stressed, alone

You prefer your car instead.

 

What happened to Manx friendliness?

What price is traa dy liooar?

After fourteen decades service

Don’t you want me anymore?

 

What about your children’s children?

And the tourists who have fun?

Will they be pleased you stopped the trams?

Will they still want to come?

 

You complain I slow the traffic.

But the problem’s lots of cars –

And visitors who ride with me

Spend cash in shops and bars.

 

If you make the horses homeless

Tourists may stay away,

As tram-less, boring, car-filled towns

They can get in the UK.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
Tholt y Will Glen (above) is the closest photograph we have of a rainforest, and much too beautiful to represent Amazon. Those of you who like Amazon should stop reading now because I fear that this is going to be a rant. We have been selling books through Amazon for nearly twenty years, since before we set up Loaghtan Books in fact.  We didn't like dealing with Amazon because we thought they were greedy; it's completely reasonable to charge commission but they take too much.  For example, our A Brief History of the Isle of Man retails at £12.95.  Amazon charges the customer £15.75 explaining that the additional £2.80 is for postage.  Not that we get anything for postage, Amazon keeps that.  Amazon credits us with £10.75 out of which we still have to take the postage, currently £4.16.   Briefly, the customer pays £15.75, Amazon gets £5.00, the postage is £4.16, we get £6.59.  Nevertheless we put up with getting only pennies more than half of the p...
Read more
Image
 Above is Dreemskerry Quarry in the snow.  It's just up the road from the office.  It's actually quite small but looks almost alpine here. No longer a working quarry it is occasionally used for motorbike trials and is also home to a colony of feral cockerels.  Their previous owner kept the hens, as they provide eggs, but the cockerels were non productive (no comments please, ladies) so were 'freed' (aka dumped) in the quarry.  The Isle of Man has no foxes so the birds seem to be doing quite well.  They do appear to have the occasional rowdy party, however, as we can sometimes hear crowing from the office.  Local residents are less than happy at the occasional wake-up call at five in the morning. The island gets very little snow as a rule, but, like most of the north of Britain, had its share today.  The office is sheltered from all but an east wind, but, as that's what it was, we came to work to find the windows plastered with stuck-on snow. ...
Read more