After a hugely successful 2015, the Blackpool Heritage Tram Tours team have already planned for an even more ambitious operating schedule next year! After a few years of cutbacks and a general air of uncertainty, 2015 has been a massive turning point for the retained heritage trams and they are set to operate even more frequently in 2016, with an increased number of special ‘gold’ event days and, remarkably, winter running!
The past year has seen three main timetables operate: a blue service with two trams mainly running between Pleasure Beach and North Pier with additional trips to Cabin; a green service with four trams running from Pleasure Beach to Little Bispham; and finally the gold service which has seen six or more heritage trams operating with several journeys to Fleetwood and a good selection of other shorter workings as well. Next year will see the popular blue and gold timetables return and run on a greater number of days, but the green service has been axed completely – most of the former green days have now been further enhanced, becoming gold which will mean at least two more trams running!
To reflect regional variation in school holidays, the heritage tours will operate on more weekdays than they did this year. Perhaps most welcome of all is the introduction of some ‘Winter Gold Weekends’ which will allow the traditional trams to run every month next year – something that, Centenary cars excepted, was a rarity in the recent past before the upgrade, so that will certainly be something to savour. Other special events include another expanded package for the tramway’s anniversary in September, which will presumably be similar to that witnessed for the 130th anniversary in 2015.
No confirmed details have been announced regarding which trams are likely to run in 2016, although most cars which ran this year should remain active, with the notable exception of ‘Princess Alice’ 706 which is of course now withdrawn and awaiting overhaul. This loss should be compensated for with some more trams being reactivated, although it is not yet known which ones they will be – but naturally this will be announced on this website as soon as anything official gets announced! It has also been hinted that depot tours may become a more regular attraction in the future, so hopefully there will be more opportunities to see behind the scenes following the huge interest in the tours which took place a few months ago.
The heritage tram tours are scheduled to operate every Saturday and Sunday from 5th March to 6th November 2016 – and daily from 7th to 11th March, 4th to 22nd April, 30th May to 3rd June, 1st July to 1st September, and from 17th October to 4th November. On the majority of these dates the blue timetable will operate, however the planned gold running days are detailed below:
30th & 31st January WINTER GOLD
27th & 28th February WINTER GOLD & MODELS AT THE LYRIC HOTEL
26th, 27th & 28th March EASTER
30th April, 1st & 2nd May MAY DAY BANK HOLIDAY
28th, 29th & 30th May SPRING BANK HOLIDAY
18th & 19th June STARR GATE RUNNING WEEKEND
16th & 17th July FLEETWOOD TRAM SUNDAY WEEKEND
27th, 28th & 29th August AUGUST BANK HOLIDAY
24th & 25th September TRAMWAY ANNIVERSARY SPECTACULAR
26th & 27th November WINTER GOLD
Illumination tours will also run nightly from 3rd September to 6th November inclusive using the famous illuminated feature cars plus other trams from the heritage fleet.
Naturally it is largely thanks to the dedication of volunteers that such an adventurous schedule can be planned, and this is certainly a far cry from the rather poor number of operating days witnessed in 2014. Hopefully the faith being placed in the heritage operation will be rewarded and 2016 will be the best year yet for this aspect of the tramway operations. A recruitment drive will be launched shortly to seek more volunteer tram conductors and drivers to join the existing team, and ensure that the workload is shared out between a good number of people.
Note also that the existing fare structure remains unchanged, with the popular day tickets covering all heritage trams, LRT trams and BTS buses still priced at £10 for adults, £6 for children and £20 for families.
Full up to date information on the heritage tram service will be posted on the regularly updated Facebook page – www.facebook.com/BlackpoolHeritageTramTours -as will any announcements regarding trams being restored, repainted or returned to use.
Two of the most heavily used heritage trams at Blackpool in 2015, Balloon cars 715 and 717, look set for another busy year thanks to today's announcement. Here they meet at Pleasure Beach on the last day of the season with Centenary car 642. (Photo by Andrew Waddington)
2015 was brilliant! 2016 sounds like Heaven!!! Thank you to all the volunteers for your hard work and time and thanks to Blackpool Transport for seeing the good in Heritage trams.
Blackpool continues to silence the critics and the heritage operation continues relentlessly towards establishing one of the leader heritage operations in Europe with them realising the museum the tramway deserves. Wonderful news.