“Emails between the DoI and the company contracted to conduct a review into the island’s railways show it was asked to ‘adjust’ its narrative around the potential closure of part of a railway.
We have previously reported that the Laxey to Ramsey section of the MER is at risk from at least partial closure.
DoI CO Emily Curphey wrote to the company in November to criticise the initial report and also asked the company to name everyone it spoke to while conducting research for the report.
While the first draft of the report was finished in October, the final version has yet to be published, despite a spokesperson previously telling Gef that the report was due to be finalised in November.
However, emails released under FoI revealed Ms Curphey wrote to SYSTRA on November 22 2023 to criticise several parts of the report and outlining parts that needed to be redone.
A second part of the documents released included an email, on December 6, from Emma Mills, a senior consultant at SYTRA, confirming a list of actions that arose from a meeting held between the two parties.
One of those actions include: ‘Closure assumptions need to reflect possible decisions. SYSTRA to adjust section closure narrative to:
- include a cycle path replacement
- be explicit that there is no assessment of the net effect of leisure spend from loss of passenger spend vs increase in cyclist spend.’
That email also outlined that SYSTRA agreed to ‘provide additional narrative around track renewal to highlight the likely reduction in spend profile in the in medium-term’.
The release of the emails will do little to quell suggestions from supporters of the island’s railways and at least one local authority chairman, that the report has been designed to close down sections of the surviving parts of the network.
In her email, Ms Curphey outlines 15 issues that the DoI wanted to see SYSTRA resolve, which included providing more information for assumptions made by SYSTRA, including one which said that ‘15% of all tourists would reduce their stay on the island by one night, should the rail service be withdrawn’.
Ms Curphey explained: ‘This significant statement appears to be based upon data from the Visit Isle of Man survey and the online survey undertaken as part of the study. We have concerns in particular that, from a statistical perspective, the survey could have major shortcomings in terms of positive bias in favour of the railways. For example, people who have no interest in railways probably had no interest in completing the survey.’
She also wanted to see more detail on costs for any potential commuter services, said SYSTRA had failed to fully comply with the terms of reference and, in one section, asking whether proper consideration was given to an active travel route if a section of a railway was closed.”
You can see the FoI response in full at the links below: