Volunteers keep heritage tram tours running

“Staff shortage” – probably the two most dreaded words to impact upon the Blackpool tramway in the last couple of years. Understandably, whenever these two words rear their collective ugly head, the heritage tours have often suffered as Blackpool Transport quite rightly focus their resources on providing a good quality of service to its core customers who use their trams and buses as a means of transportation. Sadly, just a few days into the 2015 operating season, the heritage service has already been affected although on the plus side tours have still run on every day it was advertised to do so.

After a very successful start over the weekend, the heritage tours faced their first real challenge of the season on Monday 30th March. On this day it had been planned that one tram would be crewed by volunteers and another by paid staff, but due to a shortage of staff – no doubt a situation made worse by the provision of an enhanced service on the Flexity trams for the Easter school holidays – no crew could be spared. Therefore, with just two volunteers available for duty, Balloon 717 ran solo for the whole of the day. With yet more dismal weather, this probably wasn’t noticed by too many people as Blackpool was largely devoid of visitors on this cold and miserable day.

Things did not improve the next day either, with even more wind and rain battering the Fylde coast. For the second day running no paid staff were available to man the heritage tours so it was left to volunteers to run the show, with Balloon 700 chosen this time to run alone between Pleasure Beach and North Pier. The use of this tram on such a limited heritage service was perhaps a questionable choice as, being part of the modernised ‘B Fleet’, it is not technically classed as a heritage tram. Despite this, there were still a few hardy souls who braved the weather to enjoy a trip along the windswept seafront aboard 700. Further issues were also experienced with the points at Manchester Square, resulting in the tram having to be stabled at Starr Gate at the end of its duty – the second time in a week that 700 had visited the southern end of the tramway.

Thankfully normal service was restored on Wednesday 1st April, with Centenary car 648 and Balloon 719 in action – the latter again a slightly controversial choice, but one that was welcomed by crew and passengers due to it having heaters fitted! It is hoped that the previous two days were a fluke and that the cancellation of tours will not become commonplace as the season wears on, as this was one of the various factors which crippled the tours in 2012. For the heritage operation to succeed, it is imperative that an attractive offer is available to customers whenever it is advertised to run, to ensure that regular customers and those with a  casual interest in the traditional trams are persuaded to part with their cash. Hopefully the Easter weekend will be a much better time for the tramway and, with as many as six heritage trams scheduled to appear on both Sunday 5th and Monday 6th April, there is great potential for a fantastic weekend. Let’s just hope that the weather will finally improve soon!

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15 Responses to Volunteers keep heritage tram tours running

  1. John says:

    Am I allowed to play devils advocate and say that I think it could be a little confusing to the general public having B Fleet on Heritage? They were out on Flyers in February and now Heritage. Then if they are back on Flyers at October half term. Much as I love to see these cars out I’d hate to see any confusion to the customers which could cause negative PR.

    • Andrew Waddington says:

      To be honest John I agree with you – personally I’m happy they’re being used and hope they get to Fleetwood a few times this season, but part of me thinks its a dud move. I guess time will tell – and to be fair everything else that’s happening with the heritage service is really positive, so overall its looking like a great season ahead!

      • Paul Turner says:

        Will anyone notice? To most the b fleet is a vintage tram.

        • Paul D says:

          True Paul, and there is the problem with their use. It is as John says confusing to the average non-enthusiast that these trams will stop at the platforms when in “normal” service, but don’t and only serve the Heritage platforms when on Heritage service…

          • Paul says:

            I think you’ve missed my point. Given that only two have run this year in “normal” service the scope for confusion is minimal. I think the problem is overstated

        • Ken Walker says:

          I would say that a ‘B’ fleet balloon car is still very much a vintage tram, it still dates from the 1930s and the conversion doesn’t alter that. Did people stop regarding the likes of 701 and 711 as vintage when they were fitted with flush windows, or the likes of 626 and 631 when they lost their traditional fenders and original windows? Having said that I wouldn’t want to see Sunday’s or Monday’s heritage operation being covered by 6 members of the ‘B’ fleet!

  2. Peter Watts says:

    I believe that three of the “B” fleet, these being 700, 711 and 719, have been loaned to the Heritage operations for the 2015 season. This allows a larger choice of trams to be made available for the Heritage tours, and also allows the enthusiast community to be able to sample the B fleet out on the road.

    The use of volunteers this season is a major step forward, and will ensure that there is always a heritage tram out on service this season. The interest from the general public during the training day for the volunteers (when the sun was out….!) was amazing, and I am sure that once the weather improves, this part of the business will pick up. At the same time, I hope the heritage service will be well patronised by the enthusiast community, and not just during special running days.

    Although it has been mentioned many times before over the past few weeks, the developments at Blackpool show what a positive atitude there is towards the Heritage operation, a real change from a few years ago. But it must be supported to ensure its continuity.

    • Ken Walker says:

      It must be supported, but on the other side of the coin it must be ensured that the staff shortage does not happen again. I wonder how they will guarantee a gold 6 car service when they couldn’t crew 2 cars earlier this week? Hopefully it is just start of season teething problems, but if people are to attend in sufficient numbers to make the operation a success they need to know that their journey to Blackpool will not be wasted. Having said that, 1 or even 2 cars missing out of 6 would presumably be less noticeable than 1 out of 2. Please note this is NOT a criticism, merely an observation!

  3. Franklyn says:

    So if they couldn’t provide staff because of extra vehicles running the modern service, but used a b-fleet balloon on reduced heritage service with volunteers, why didn’t they leave that extra flex in the shed, let the volunteers take a proper heritage fleet member and use the extra flex crew on a b-fleet balloon running in normal service? That way two old trams would have been out, the core service would have been increased and enthusiasts would have been able to enjoy a top deck ride to Fleetwood. Everyone would have won all round.

    If the b-fleet are going to be used on heritage work, then some thought needs to be given to un-modifying them. I always thought the widening was a sledgehammer to crack a nut anyway. Why did they alter the doors when all they needed to do was fit a foldable step to bridge the small gap between the tram and the platforms? It could easily be done with a manual linkage so the step deploys when the conductor opens the door. No electrics and no major ugly modifications involved. I’m happy to show anyone at BT the modifications required if they need the detailed design idea.

    • Gareth Prior says:

      Except the extra Flexity journeys are timetabled as part of the core service – a special service is in operation at the moment. Why would you use a B fleet Balloon instead of a Flexity with their much lower capacity? And how do you know the extra Flexity crew have actually been trained to use a B fleet tram?

      • Ken Walker says:

        If the ‘extra’ flexities are part of the core timetabled service they aint extras! On a serious note, could they not have had an extra volunteer crew on standby for such a contingency?

        • Andrew Waddington says:

          But the service has been increased for the school holidays, so they are extra trams running to a timetable! And as for an extra volunteer crew, I can’t imagine there would be a queue of people offering to be on standby to volunteer just in case they were needed – people have lives after all. BTS have done well to get as many volunteers to offer their services as they have, but they can’t force people into volunteering (a contradiction if ever there was one!) whenever they want more people.

      • Franklyn says:

        I haven’t counted the seats on a Flex thing (I never go anywhere near one and certainly never make a journey on one as a matter of principal) but With aprox 98 comfortable seats on a balloon (varies depending on the exact example), I’d wager there are more passenger seats on a balloon than on anything else, with the exception of a traditional twin car.

        So why run something with no heritage, no style and not enough seats, forcing Blackpool’s long-suffering passengers to stand all the way to Fleetwood?

        If BT have drivers who haven’t been fully familiarised with all the vehicles in the fleet then that is a serious shortcoming with their training and management reigeme which they need to address.

        • Andrew Waddington says:

          “So why run something with no heritage, no style and not enough seats, forcing Blackpool’s long-suffering passengers to stand all the way to Fleetwood?” – Probably because people with mobility issues can actually get on them, and also standing on a comfortable modern tram is surely preferable to most people over standing at a tram stop. People who care about heritage are now well catered for and many others probably couldn’t care less.

          Face the facts, the Blackpool tramway is in rude health at the moment, and keeps going from strength to strength regardless of what a few people who are stuck in the past might think.

  4. John says:

    My point about confusion arises due to the livery. Purple = service. Lots of bus companies brand services with slogans, liveries etc so a Tram in a Flexity livery must be in service to most people and no one ever reads the destination! Again, though they are getting run which is the main thing. And as long as the staff are friendly and helpful in explaining the customer will be happy. we had confusion on 711 yesterday but all the customers were happy in the end (and had a double deck ride to boot!)

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