On The Bus

We shouldn't be too harsh on the designers and engineers behind this scheme. They initially told their political masters that the scheme would take 4 - 6 years. The politicians told them it 'had to be done' in 2 years. It began to fall apart when they forced 4 - 6 in to 2. The lack of detailed plans of what is actually under the Promenade further complicated things. The cherry on top was the insistence of the railways that the horse trams must run. All in all the perfect storm. The ultimate omnishambles. The greatest clusterfuck

The original scheme when David Cretney was DOT/DOI Minister was to do it block by block. Starting at the Sea Terminal. Hindsight shows that was clearly the best option. But it was pushed into the long grass when the rail protest groups started crying about the horse trams being made single track. Then Phil Gawne became Minister and the rest is history.

Which bit is that?

Wow, I didn't realise it was that long ago! So by the time the Prom is finished it will have been almost 10 years from start to finish to redo about 1.5m of road. Only in the Isle of Man!

Aren't they just now doing the bit that the tram campaigners stopped them doing the first time?

It now appears the existing gas main has been damaged/cocked up leading to their latest dig site being abandoned. If any visitor asks what's going on along the Prom this summer, I'm just telling them Tony Robinson and the Time Team are in town. https://www.facebook.com/2163403463905849/posts/2505913286321530/

They've stopped work on reinstating the road until they work out what to do about the cracking concrete. My money is on them having just used standard concrete but rails expand and contract in heat. The new train tracks have no expansion gaps and it's pushed up on the new concrete and hey presto CRACK! They should rip up all the track and concrete and just lay tarmac with no track.

WKRAP has a point. It's piss poor news coverage as usual from the Nation's [hospital radio] Station. You could send some journalists out to get to the bottom of the Douglas Promenade delays. You could do some factual reporting on proposals to privatise the airport. You could even investigate how two other commercial radio stations get by without costing the tax payer a million quid a year!

You don't like being shown to be wrong, do you? #LycraCunt

The Promenade is more than just Loch prom. Don't you notice that when you're holding all the traffic up?

A bit of research and I'm told there's no further work on the northern end of the Promenade until they work out why their crappy concrete is cracking up. So the long-suffering busineses have to endure an extended loss of parking.

No they won't. The time/disruption and chaos that the first little but of train track has caused has seen to it. Apparently they can use the same train track on the electric railway. It's great news if Loch Prom will finally be tram free! It's just a shame they built any new track at the other end. Could have saved millions and reduced the work by months! Still if it keeps a couple of sad anoraks happy then of course it's worth it!

The talk last week in the Queens was they are already 'substantially' over budget and the train tracks have been dropped from Loch Promenade/will now finish at the Villa Marina.

Don't tell anyone, but all the red concrete between the expensive train tracks outside the Queens is cracking up already.

You're suffering from hallucinations, your lycra must be too tight!

That would make sense. Have you seen the mental little stop/go board they've got at the moment too? It would be good if they just forgot to do the rest of the train tracks.

What's the deal with the Summerland end of the Promenade? It's all fenced off from the Castle Mona still but nobody has worked on it since TT. That's nearly a month. I was in the Queens last night and the 'man in the pub' said the workers haven't come back to the Island since they left.

Busiest day of the year. Shit happens.

I agree! Sadly any development attracts NIMBYs over here!

It wouldn't be an Isle of Man development proposal without at least one group of beaky NIMBY's objecting to it!