Just when Ticketer thought that the company had every form of public transport covered by its system (buses, trams, trains, hovercraft, aircraft) a request came in from Isle of Man Transport to include horse trams.
The horse trams operate a seasonal service along the promenade in Douglas. Operated by Douglas Borough Council, it has this year joined the Ticketer scheme for interoperable ticketing with the rest of the island’s transport system.
Sue Harrison from Douglas Borough Council, comments: “We have now partnered with the Explorer ticket and because of the Ticketer system we now have proper access to all our passenger data. Our previous system was very traditional and although our tram service is the oldest in the world, we felt that it was appropriate to update our ticketing and provide us with better management information.”
She adds: “Ticketer have been great to work with and in linking us up to the island’s public transport hub they added in a new feature to our ticketing – now when you buy your ticket on-board the Ticketer printout tells you which one of our Clydesdale horses is pulling your tram. So names like ‘Rocky’, ‘Mark’, ‘Douglas’, ‘Teddy’ and ‘Victor’ will appear on your ticket, and we can even track all our horses with a specially created horse icon!”
The trams operate using the Ticketer handheld unit, which has all the functionality of the company’s fixed unit. It links with the island-wide ITSO contactless Go Cards and individual tickets can also be purchased on-board.
Ticketer won the tender to supply Isle of Man Transport with electronic ticketing machines for its unique fleet of buses, trams and steam trains last year. Ticketer has supplied 70 ETMs fitted to vehicles, as well as fourteen units for the main stations and the two central information points in the Welcome Centre in Douglas and the airport.
John Clarfelt, Managing Director of Ticketer, comments: “It is exciting working with unique customers like Douglas Borough Council and Isle of Man Transport, running such a wide range of traditional and heritage forms of public transport. Now that we have added the horse trams to the Ticketer system, we believe that we cover the widest range of public transport systems of any ticketing supplier.”
For further information please contact:
Mercedes Llewellyn
mercedes.llewellyn@ticketer.co.uk