Trapped passengers rescued from Scarborough's Central Tramway Company after fault found

The 142-year-old funicular railway on St Nicholas Cliff developed a fault and experienced disruption to its service when a carriage stopped on the tram lines at 4pm on Sunday February 19.

Several passengers were left briefly trapped in the tram when it stopped mid-journey and were later rescued when the carriages were returned to the stations by the recovery system.

Central Tramway said passengers experienced a “slight delay” and that the cliff lift was closed at the end of the day to allow systems to be checked.

North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service was not required, they added.

It follows a similar incident in August last year when 27 passengers were left trapped and rescued by firefighters after the safety control system detected a failure.

Now, following an investigation, Scarborough’s famous cliff lift company has reassured passengers that the tramway is safe and revealed the cause of the incident.

Central Tramway told The Scarborough News that the carriage came to a halt mid-journey after the safety control system detected an electrical fault with the on-board battery and that there was never any risk to passengers.

Colin Powell, Central Tramway’s General Manager, said: “This issue has been addressed by our specialist engineers and we apologise to those passengers who were affected at the time and by the short disruption to the service afterwards.”

Mr Powell was appointed as the company’s new General Manager in January, ahead of the 2023 season.