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ROAD or RAIL

in "The Island"? 12 THE Isle of Man is about 331 miles long and 12 miles wide at its maximum, with an, area of 227 sq, miles, so that it is about half as large again as the Isle of Wight. its population; however, is about 50,000,as compared with 80,000 in the Isle of Wight, and it is miieh more mountainous, the only extensive stretch of level country being in the extreme north. The island finds it *possible to make ends meet without tourist. traffic, , as there is . practically no indigenous industry. The lead mines, which were formerly a source of wealth,are now worked out. There is some agriculture, but meat and flour haVe to be inaported. Swedes and kippers are almost the only exports. Similarly, although bricks are made, locally, almost all building. material has to be brought in by sea.

Douglas, on the south-east coast, has a permanent population of about 20,000, and the only other towns are Ramsey, 18 miles north-east of Douglas (4,200), Peel, on the west coast (2,500), and Castletown (1,700), Port St. Mary and Port Erin in the south.

Narrow-gauge Railways Steam railways date from the 1870s and are singletrack on the 3-ft. gauge, with a route-mileage of about 46. The island is crossed by a line from Douglas to Peel, whence (at St. John's) the long branch to Ramsey (formerly the Manx Northern Railway) goes off, skirting the west coast for some way. South from St. John's runs .a short branch (now almost disused) to Foxdale, where mines were formerly worked. The other route runs south from Douglas to Castletown, Port St. Mary and Port Erin.

Rolling stock consists of 16 tank locomotives, 115 passenger coaches (seating 42-50 people) and 175 freight vehicles, with 21 lorries for collection and delivery. The locomotives, although originally purchased many years ago, have been well maintained and, for their size, are powerful machines The railway carries about 1,500,000 passengers annually Its freight 'traffic, which was 52,005 tons in 1938, fell to 15,142 tons in 1945 (the last c12 year for which figures were published). This was almost entirely due to the closing of Glenfaba brickworks on the Peel line.

A horse tramway (authorized in 1876) still works in summer along Douglas Promenade from Victoria Pier to Derby Castle (ii miles), and is extremely popular.

• In 1935 the cars were fitted with roller bearings and four new ones were pachased, bringing the stock up to 46. In 1896 a cable tramway was opened to Upper Douglas, but it has been replaced by buses.

In 1893 an electric line, with tramway-type cars, was opened by the Manx Electric Railway from Derby Castle to Laxey and thence, in 1897, to Ramsey. Rolling stock numbers 24 48-seater motorcars and 24 44-seater trailers. There are also some baggage cars and goods trucks, two coaches and two lorries. From the point of View of the through _passenger, it is a 'pity that Douglas Corporation'S line has never been electrified, so that a few through cars could have been run in connection with the boats. (Here it may be remarked that it is about a quarter of a mile from the sea end of the pier to the Isle of Man Road Service bus station and half a mile uphill from the pier to Douglas railway station.) From Laxey, the Snaefell.mountain line on 3-ft. 6-in. gauge (open only in summer) climbs continuously on a 1-in-12 gradient for five miles; rolling stock comprise six 48-seater cars. Another pleasure tine in existence before the war, but now abandoned, was run by the Douglas Southern Tramway,. which owned four miles Qf private road from • Douglas Head -to Port Soderick and used the only double-deck toastrack cars in the world. Also suspended is the Groudle Glen Railway— two miles of 1-ft. i 1i-in.-gauge line.

Douglas Corporation started a horse-bus service in 1907 and purchased its first Motorbus in 1914. At the time of writing the fleet stands at 41, comprising two.; Vulcan toast-racks (20 years old); six Leyland and two Bedfords for one-man working; 10 A.E.C. Regent double-deckers (petrol); 18 Regent Mark III doubledeckers (oil), and three Daimler double-deckers. Eight T.S. petrol-electrics have only just been scrapped. The corporation is in a particularly favourable position, in that it has the unfettered right to run anywhere within the borough and pays no lieenee duty for its vehicles. Other stage-carriage operators have to obtain a road service licence from the Island Highway and Transport Board and pay vehicle taxes similar to those in force on the mainland. Double-deck buses have run in Douglas since 1932.

At present, 12 services are operated over a total route

mileage of 32. They do not begin before 1 alt. and finish before IL p.m., at least in the winter. Douglas is exceptional among British undertakings in working on a flat fare Of 21{1. on the buses and 3d on the trams. Fares in the island as a whole are not cheap.

Corporation Restricted to Borough

Fcir some time the corporation has been pressing for powers to run outside the borough to serve new housing estates, and in 1947 it tried to obtain authority to run anywhere within two miles of the borough boundaries under the same conditions as inside. It did not succeed, as the island government held that the corporation mtist apply for licences in the same way as any other operator if it wished to run services external to the borough. The corporation is now trying to obtain licences to serve new housing estates at Willaston (to the north) and Spring Vale (to the west). Last year, despite municipal opposition, Isle of Man Road Services, Ltd., obtained a licence to start a Douglas-Onchan service via the Promenade. '

For something like 40 years the Manx Electric Railway has run " charas " in connection with its trams, but the general development of bus services dates only from the mid-1920s, and particularly from the action of Cumberland Motor Services, Ltd., in registering Manxland Bus Service in May, 1927, when 15 Guy 28seaters were put on the road. To meet this competition, the Isle of Man Railway Co. combined with some local coach owners to fours Manx Motors, the railway taking £6,000 of the £16,000 share capital. The railway soon sold its shares and put 22 buses of its own on the road.

In February, 1929, it purchased both Manxland Bus Services and Manx Motors, and in 1930 formed Isle of Man Road Services, Ltd. This concern (and, through it, the railway) now operates all the stage services in the island outside Douglas, except. for that worked by Mr. Broadbent between Ramsey and Kirkmiehael with two buses.

Mr. Broadbent's application to extend from Kirktrachael to Peel was granted by the Highway and Transport Board, but I.M.R.S. appealed in July, 1948, to the Lieutenant-Governor. This was the first appeal under the island's Road Traffic Act, 1939, and,a special court was convened to deal with the case. The +decision was in favour of I.M.R.S.

At the outbreak of war, that company owned 82 buses, but only 75 are at present licensed, and 58 are in regular use: On April. .1, 18 Leyland 8-ft.-wide double-deckers went into service, making 30 doubledeckers working. In addition to .these . vehicles, the

company has also taken delivery since the war of four Tiger 35-seaters and seven Bedford 31-seaters..

The map shows the company's routes, which run over about 125 miles of roads (including Saturday-only services).

In addition to the stage-service vehicles, there are in the island 123 coaches and 256 taxis, most of them employed only in the summer. Coaches do not need road service licences from the Highway Board, but local town authorities may licence them if they wish.

There are 721 lorries in the island, nearly all of them belonged to ancillary users. There is nothing analogous to the Road and Rail Traffic Act in force, so that exact statistics are unobtainable, but apart from the railway lorries already mentioned, there is no fleet of more than about 10 vehicles. The Isle of Man Steam Packet Co. owns eight lorries and four horsed vehicles.

.Three General Carriers

There 'appear. to be only three general carriers handling split deliveries. Mr. Shaw (Moha Motors) has one Commer and three Morris-Commercial vehicles of 21-41-ton capacity and handles about 3,000 packages a week. He Covers the whole island, but is unable to fix set days for his journeys, as his traffic depends largely on the incoming boats. The other carriers are Mr. Belcher, who operates to Port Erin, and Mr. Smith (to Peel).

Among what would be termed in England B or C licensees, Transport, Ltd. (a subsidiary of the Ramsey Coal Co.) is promirent with nine 5-ton tippers engaged mainly in the haulage of building materials.

Having now considered fairly fully the internal transport of the island; it is necessary to turn to the sea connections. With the exception of coal boats (putting into Ramsey as well as Douglas) and a certain amount of air traffic, the trade of the island is almost entirely in the hands of the Isle of Man Steam Packet Co., which operates all the year round between Douglas and Liverpool. The company's fleet in 1939 numbered 13 passenger and two cargo vessels; now the two cargo steamers (gross registered tonnage 798 and 411 respectively) are assisted by a chartered vessel (716 tons), and the passenger fleet numbers nine, of which five are new. The nine vessels have a total carrying capacity of 19,000 passengers. •

585,484 Visitors by Sea

The daily winter service between Douglas and Liverpool carries about 150 passengers each way. In the summer there are two daily sailings each way, with four on Saturdays. It is not unusual for some of these sail ings to be duplicated To and from Fleetwood in summer there are three Saturday sailings and one on other days; Ardrossan (twice Weekly) and Belfast are also served. During the 1948 season, inward traffic to the isLand numbered 302,183 passengers from Liverpool, 192,828 from Fleetwood, 27,125 from Ardrossan, and 40,696 from Belfast. The Government figure for all visitors entering by sea during this period was 585,484.

The bulk of the mail is carried all the year round by the Packet Company's passenger vessels, as is most of the fruit and vegetables coming into the island and a large num_ber of cars. Outwards traffic includes 500 or 600 tons of kippers. The three cargo vessels maintain a thrice-weekly service between Liverpool and Douglas, and a three-monthly between Liverpool and Ramsey. The annual turnover of traffic is about 70,000 tons, 80 per cent. of which is inwards.

In addition to 2,000 containers of various sizes for furniture, bicycles, biscuits, bricks and house fittings, and a great quantity of general merchandise and building

c14 materials, the 1948 cargoes included 180 motorcars, 90 tractors, 155 vans, 157 lorries, 30 coaches, 205 cattle, 150 pigs, 210 sheep and 286 horses.

Last year, air passengers to the island from May to September inclusive numbered 36,426.

Allowing for duplication, it will be seen that on ..a summer Saturday as many as 10 full loads of passengers may be landed and embarked at Douglas Pier—say 20,000 people in each direction within about 16 hours. The great majority of these will require some sort of transport, even if it be for only a short distance along the Promenade. In addition, facilities have to be provided for those visitors who are already in the island, so that a great increase over the internal winter services is necessary. The following comparison of the number of trains run per day by the Isle of Man kaitway brings out this point:—

The length of the trains is also much increased.

On the services from Douglas to Port Erin, Peel and Ramsey, the winter headway of 50 minutes is increased to 30 minutes in summer. From Douglas to Baldwin and Union Mills there are six to eight services a day in winter, and eight to 11 a day in summer. The Ramsey-Peel service is increased from 10-11 timings a day in winter to 60 in summer.

Fivefold Summer Increase Douglas Corporation's services are increased fivefold, and in the peak week ended July 30, 1948, 560,000 passengers were carried, • compared with a winter weekly average of 95,000.

Whereas in winter the Manx Electric Railway runs 10 to 11 one-car trains a day, in summer, a three-minute service is worked with three-car trains between 10 a.m. and 11.30 a.m. and 2 p.m. and 3.30 p.m.

Now what do these services mean in terms of seats? We can ignore the corporation in this connection, as with its short routes, it can have all available vehicles shuttling continuously to and fro. Let us consider in detail the railway summer service. It has been mentioned that the railway coaches seat 42-50 passengers. It is claimed that a train can carry 1,000 passengers, but having regard to the layout of the system (single track with loops) and the severe gradients, such a performante must be regarded as exceptional. The running of mixed goods and passenger trains (which is inevitable) makes timekeeping difficult and has been the cause of many complaints.

The Glenfaba Brickworks has been re-opened since the end of the war, but it is unlikely that the total prewar figures for goods and mineral traffic will be exceeded, or even reached. The situation is entirely different from that described in a recent article as existing in the Isle of Wight, where the whole of the island's coal traflic is handled by rail. In Man, on the contrary, practically all the coal imported goes direct from the ports by lorry.

Whilst admitting that the carriage of 1,000 passengers on one train is possible on special occasions hy careful time-tabling, a figure of 350 passengers per train would seem to be more reasonable for the purposes of comparison with road transport. On the Ramsey line the summer service by rail provides on Saturdays (when .the maximum number of trains is run) nine departures from Douglas, the first at 9 a.m. and the last at 9 p.m. The best train takes 65 minutes for the 25 miles and the other 75-80 minutes. If a through bus service were worked over the parallel road, the journey time for the round trip would probibly be 180 minutes, including lay-over.

The same aggregate seating capacity as on the railway could be given by a bus service every 13 minutes liroughout the day, which would require 14 buses. There would be little difference in the journey time and :he intermediate districts would be much better served_ By the direct route via Laxey, which is only 18 miles, he buses take 65 minutes for the single journey, but he route is more difficult. Actually there would be no 'faint in putting on a 13-minute service to Ramsey, via it. John's, as most of the summer travellers for whom he increased service is run want to go to Ramsey itself nd should be taken there by as direct a route as )ossible. Moreover, most of them want to travel at :ertain peak periods.

The Manx Electric Railway's direct service gives 17 ()Limeys each day in summer, but as the track is double

hroughout and most of the cars used in the summer are past-racks (which give maximum speed in loading and inloading), it is possible to run at a three-minute headmay. The position of the company, however, is not nviable. The bus service from Douglas to Laxey and tamsey has a shorter journey time and the great advanage of starting at the end of Douglas nearest the pier, /hence it traverses most of the town. Travel on the lectrie line is certainly more comfortable than on the uses, but it is not likely that this will count against le drawback of the out-of-the-way terminus at Derby :astle.

Railway Depends on Seasonal Traffic Even if Douglas Corporation were willing to electrify s Promenade tracks, the 'expense . would hardly be sistilled to deal with a seasonal traffic; yet it is on that .affic that the M.E.R. must rely if it is to continue.

When, trains ran in Hastings they Worked along the :.ont by batteries, and it might be possible for the I.E.R. to adopt this idea if it could secure running owers over the Douglas Corporation lines. The fact tat the electric cars would have to travel slowly behind ie horsed cars would be no great drawback. The dvantage offered by a direct service from Victoria Pier vuld more than counterbalance the slowness of the uirney along the Promenade. Another possibility

• ould be to draw the electric cars along the Promenade y motor tractors.

The summer timetable of buses on the Douglas.amsey service provides for only a 30-minute headway and with the hours of operation extending from 7.20 a.m. to 11.10 p.m., this provides 1,848 seats. The rail service via St. John's already referred to provides a total of about 3,150 seats on a Saturday (assuming 350 per train), so that a reduction in the bus headway to 15 minutes would take care of nearly two-thirds of the rail potential. It is not too much, to think that the extension of the M.E.R. to Victoria Pier could deal with the rest of the through passengers. Alternatively, a 10-minute bus service would more than absohb the present rail users without bringing the M.E.R. into it.

Transport for Luggage A difficulty might arise in regard to luggage if the railway line to Ramsey were scrapped, but this could be handled in two ways. Whether the M.E.R. were extended to the pier or not, an arrangement could be made for it to carry baggage for the parallel bus route in its special baggage cars. Luggage has to be taken by motor now from the pier to the railway station, and the extra distance to Derby Castle would not be a serious matter. Alternatively, a service of motorvans running in connection with the boats could be arranged.

As for passengers to Kirk Michael and other places

on the railway line beyond St. John's, the addition of one vehicle to work on the Douglas-Kirk Michael route (now served irregularly) and of one other to work on the Peel-Ramsey service (now hourly) should provide for them. Rail passengers from Douglas to Peel are also given nine departures on summer Saturdays, but in all except two cases these are by portions detached from the Ramsey trains at St. John's. The parallel bus service gives 31 departures, and if the 30-minute headway were reduced to 20 minutes (involving the employment of two more buses), it should cater for the present rail passengers.

The railway management, in defending its undertaking against attacks made on it in the island, points • out that peak movement is not necessarily at boat times, nor is the traffic spread evenly throughout the week. This is particularly true of the Port Erin line, where, too, the railway has the advantage of speed. The cornpany's problem is the internal tourist traffic, which moves in the greatest volume on Mondays to Thursdays inclusive, the peak being from 9.45 a.m. to 10.45 a.m. and 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. outward from Douglas, with a return peak about 5 p.m. As a rule, at the morning peak about 2,000 people leave Douglas by train. in the summer timetable these peaks are covered by trains from Douglas to Port Erin at 10.10 a.m., 10.40 a.m., 2.15 p.m. and 3 p.m., from Douglas to Ramsey at 10.5 a.m., from Douglas to Ramsey and Peel at 10.35 a.m. and 2.15 p.m., from Port Erin to Douglas at 4 p.m. and 4.25 p.m., from Ramsey to Douglas at 4.10 p.m., and from Peel to Douglas at 4.30 p.m. It is at these times that the railway company claims that it can handle 1,000 passengers on a single train.

The railway directors and management have been courageous enough to develop their bus services independently of the railway and certainly cannot be accused of subordinating one to the other. In contrast to the views held in England, they say that a railway should be able to operate more cheaply than road services and in most cases rail fares are a little cheaper than those by bus. •

To the unbiased observer, the position seems to be that the railways perform a useful service and, in respect of the Port Erin traffic, an essential one during the summer period, so that as long as they pay their way it is pointless to press for their abandonment or even for a change of -motive power. It has been sugg6sted. that they might shut down on weekdays during the winter (as they do on Sundays), but to do so would mean the dispersion, of trained staff and consequent great difficulty in re-opening with efficiency. The Ramsey line does seem to be of doubtful value and if all island transport were under one authority, it is reasonable to suppose it would be abandoned. It failed to make both ends meet as a separate railway and it is unlikely that it can do so to-day in the face of bus competition.