The ‘Festival of Motorcycling’ – the rebranded Manx Grand Prix and associated events – brought a record-breaking number of motorcycles to the island for its two-week period, official figures from the Steam Packet have shown.

Figures show the Steam Packet carried 3,324 motorcycles, the highest number on record for this period and 15 per cent up on the 2012 figure. With the increased emphasis on classic racing, it is expected many machines may have been transported in vans, meaning the number of motorcycles actually carried may have been even higher.

Total passenger numbers increased 4 per cent to 28,360 – the highest for five years – and the number of cars and vans carried was also at a five-year high of 5,547, up 1.1 per cent on 2012.



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