Douglas Borough Council has partnered with Isle of Man Transport’s Explorer ticket product to integrate its horse tram ticketing operation into the Island’s public transport Ticketer web-based management system.

Regeneration and community committee chairman Councillor John Skinner said: ‘Our previous system was very traditional and although our tram service is the oldest in the world, the time had come to update our ticketing system to one which provided detailed management information. Ticketer fits that brief and gives us immediate online access to all passenger data.’

On board the horse trams a Ticketer hand-held unit connects with the island-wide contactless Go Cards and individual tickets can also be purchased.

Councillor Skinner continued: ‘With Ticketer linking the horse tram service to the wider public transport system a new feature has been added to our ticketing process which I am sure will appeal to passengers. Now when they buy a ticket on board, the Ticketer printout will tell them which one of the horses is pulling their tram, as names such as “Rocky”, “Mark”, “Douglas”, “Teddy” and “Victor” appear on the ticket…and we can even track our horses with a specially created horse icon.’

Ticketer’s managing director John Clarfelt said: ‘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.’

2015 marks the 139th year of the Douglas horse tram service which departs daily from the Strathallan terminal from 9am to 5.20pm until Sunday September 13th.