As reported earlier this week on British Trams Online, Blackpool Transport resumed operation of its heritage tram coastal tours on Wednesday 1st August, following a four-day absence due to defective points at Pleasure Beach. Unfortunately, since then the service operated has been very poor with numerous cancelled journeys which have done little to enhace the reputation of this business venture.
Wednesday 1st August was a fairly unremarkable day on the tramway with Brush car 631 and Balloon 717 on heritage tour duty, although an ITV crew were spotted filming on board 717 for a future TV programme. Improved weather led to Open Boat 230 and ‘Princess Alice’ 706 being utilised on Tuesday 2nd August, but this day turned out to be eventful for all the wrong reasons. A fault with 230 saw this tram swapped over for sister car 600, until it too ran in as its crew were needed for a private charter for ITV involving Standard 147. Unfortunately this co-incided with 706 also becoming defective, and the tram required fitters’ attention at Pleasure Beach, meaning that there were no tours for around one hour.
Things went from bad to worse on Friday 3rd August, when the tours were unexpectedy cancelled altogether during the morning, leaving some very puzzled would-be passengers waiting at Pleasure Beach for a tram which never turned up! Eventually, Boat cars 230 and 600 made a belated appearance at lunchtime and then operated succesfully throughout the afternoon. The official reason given for the lack of vintage trams during the morning was a vague one of “operational difficulties” – which is understood to be Blackpool Transport’s top secret code for a shortage of tram crews. As was the case during July, it seems to be company policy to cancel the heritage tours if not enough crews are available, with the heritage tram crews being allocated to Flexities instead. Athough it is unerstandable that BTS want to prioritise the core service over pleasure trips, these tours are advertised to run, and leaving passengers waiting at stops with no explanation that they are not operating is quite simply disgusting. It is also highly unfair on anyone who purchases a heritage day ticket for £10 early in the morning before the tours are due to start, only to find that a restricted service is in place, giving them poor value for money.
A similar situation arose yet again on Saturday 4th August, when Boat car 230 returned to the depot early so that its crew could be transferred onto a Flexity tram. This left just Standard 147 out, meaning that the frequency of tours was cut by half from what is advertised to run. It was particularly disapointing that this happened on a Saturday afternoon during the school summer holidays, which should be a lucrative time for the tramway.
As has often been stated on this website and elsewhere, it is essential that the heritage operation is well supported to ensure the continued use of traditional trams in Blackpool, and we have always encouraged our readers to support the tours. Unfortunately, by operating such a half-hearted service, some of their supporters are now starting to lose patience and this is an extremely worrying trend which needs to be reversed as a matter of urgency. There is no doubting that Bryan Lindop, who has been put in charge of the heritage tram fleet, has gone to great lengths to make the tours successful, listening to feedback from customers by introducing ‘single tour’ tickets and ensuring that a more varied selection of trams are made available. Enthusiasts owe Bryan a great deal for arranging for trams such as Brush Railcoah 631 and Centenary car 648 to be used, and soon Twin Set 672+682 will add further interest to the fleet. Sadly, it would seem that not everyone at Blackpool Transport is so keen to make the heritage tram tours succesful, and recent actions could give the impression that senior managers consider them to be a nuisance rather than a serious aspect of their business. This is a great shame, as there is certainly potential to make the tours profitable if an attractive package is offered – which unfortunately has not been the case in recent weeks. Perhaps daily operation was asking too much, especially if the weekend service begins to suffer.
Hopefully, this situation will improve considerably in time for the illuminations season, when up to six ‘trams of interest’ are due to operate at weekends. If this ambtious level of service does indeed come to fruition, then a day pass will offer fantastic value for money, and this will be a crucial time for the company. Let’s hope that BTS will start to take their heritage angle a bit more seriously and realise the potential to make money out of the wonderful old vehicles they are so fortunate to own.
I have not visited Blackpool to travel on the heritage trams since the Flexity launch. Two a day is just not sufficient to justify the journey.
The intention is to come up once the illuminations start in the hope that an enhanced service will also be one of interest.
Does up to six cars per weekend mean three a day? or six?
I know and respect Bryan greatly, but if his superiors still don’t understand and can’t separate tourism from transport, then what’s the point? Blackpool only exists because of tourism. pour cold water over what’s left and the last remnants will dwindle even further.
Does this incident give credibility after all to the sceptical view held by some over BTS’s decision to cancel the heritage tours when the Pleasure Beach points failed ? I’m still not convinced that the heritage tours are so tightly regulated that there is no short-term contingency plan allowed for any failures, although as previously stated some modified balloons were turned out. Anyone travelling any distance to Blackpool for the heritage tours who has this sort of experience on arrival is not likely to make a second journey, especially if they have bought their £10 ticket beford finding out the tours are cancelled for a part or whole day, and if the tours get a reputation for regular cancellation their customer base is going to end up being very small indeed. And I’m sure that if Network Rail took 4 days to fix a points failure and forced operators to cancel advertised train services during that period there would be an outcry and fines from the regulator. I fully agree with the sentiments expressed in the last paragraph of Frank’s comment
Although “up to six trams of interest” are due to operate at weekends during the illuminations, I understand there is no daytime service, the heritage cars being used for lights tours starting and finishing at Pleasure Beach. Also it has not been made clear if the £10 rover ticket will be available or just the £5 round trip on these tours.
I was one of those disappointed customers last weekend, having booked a hotel two months previously and been looking forward to my first visit of the season. Even if the heritage “licence” restricts operation to Pleasure Beach – Little Bispham, surely there was no reason they couldn’t have run empty to Starr Gate to cross over.
I think you are correct that there are many at BTS who see the heritage operation as an inconvenience and would be more than happy to see it fail. How can you give Bryan a mandate to “break even” as a stand alone operation and then keep pinching half his crews?
I have been informed by a reliable source that the £10 multi-ride tickets will be the same as now during the illuminations, the only difference being that the vinatge and illuminated trams will run in evenings rather than the daytime. The plan is also supposed to be to use six different trams on Saturday nights, and then six again on Sunday night: these could be the same six, but some may be different. Understandably the three feature cars are likely to run each night (subject to availability of course!), but hopefully the others will be varied. That said, plans can and do change and I wouldn’t be that surprised if the planned level of service is scaled back, particularly in view of the present situation.
A more radical approach to heritage operation, should the current format prove unsuccessful, would be to pass this on to the LTT who would be required to pay access fees to BTS for running these tours.
It’s certainly an idea, but judging purely on the apparent amount of love lost between BTS and LTT just at the moment, ably abetted by LTT running against the trams and the No.1 service and shortly to take them on, on another route, sadly I think the words. “cold day in hell” come to mind.
Whilst firstly reminding everyone that Blackpool is the only LRV system in the UK that allows heritage cars to operate upon it, so we should be perhaps grateful for that at least, I do have to admit, that it isn’t very good when BTS sacrifice these services in order to maintain the core Flexity service.
That said, it probably isn’t massively surprising as, much against what I had both hoped and predicted, the new cars are very, if not amazingly, popular and accordingly, usually very full.
As a profit making organisation and sadly, not any longer, a public service organisation as they used to be, they will obviously have to make a conscious decision between staffing a service that, certainly from my observations, is carrying 5’s and 10’s at best, at £10 a throw, with just 4 stops to load extra on, or putting their reportedly sadly, scarce human resources, on to a 220 capacity car that’s usually heaving, at £2-3 a throw, with 30 odd stops to add even more fares, it doesn’t really take Einstein to work out where they might lean towards if push comes to shove!!
Equally, that in no way should be taken as my support for them bailing on the heritage service. It certainly is not. I’m simply showing where they will fall towards when they’ve “done the maths”. I am sure if staffing was sufficient, they would do both, that just doesn’t seem to be the case sadly.
. But I would suggest that this is nothing new. They have always, it seems, sacrificed tourist services for “Bread & Butter” ones. Between a 14 running and a No. 1, , as far as I can work out, there’s always simply been no contest. And, yes, I too think that the heritage service is looked on as an imposition, thrust on them as a vote catcher from the councillors, to whom, being the majority shareholders of BTS, they have to pay lip service.
Therefore, apart from that possible mind set, this perhaps stems from a systemic failing of staffing levels than perhaps anything else, I would respectfully suggest.
I think I get a “pulse” of morale levels there generally and I have to say, I feel that it’s not too good. I also feel that this stems from BTS’s overall attitude to their staff.
I was once talking to some staff there and I stated that I thought it must be a bit like being treated as “guilty till proven innocent”. I was corrected.. ” Oh No.. its not like that at all “, they said, ” its more like Guilty till PROVEN Guilty” And that wasn’t an isolated incident sadly.
In my humble opinion, until BTS treat their staff as their finest asset, which they are, as against people to mistrust almost by default and then throw away at will, then they will always have a chronic staff shortage that affects far more than the heritage service, but also all their core services. Daily, there are any number of stacked buses/ trams in the town centre or depot for lack of driver or crew, which ultimately makes Joe Public less trustful of the service and eats away at the possibility of there ever being a “Quality Partnership”, that BTS should be ever striving towards. I firmly believe that if you give people a fast, quality, clean, safe, affordable, RELIABLE service, that the public like and the staff like to operate, heritage or otherwise then, “they will come”.. and until that falters, they will stay with it. (Their “Lost Mileage” returns to the Traffic Commissioner, must look like a Greek Finance Minister’s Annual Report!!)
Sadly, that, in my humble opinion, just isn’t happening. They even still mostly refer to their staff by a number. Oft is heard…”7826… Depot Office” Nice!!
Christ, I’m told that even Category 1 prisoners are called by their name nowadays!!.
Sadly, it just points towards the contempt they certainly seem, on the surface, to hold their staff in, which manifests itself in staff shortages and then makes them fail in being able to operate everything that they could and should, which now, all too often includes the heritage services. More’s the pity.
Or, how about this…As previously mentioned, it may well be looked upon as an imposition, so are they then taking a page out of the BR Book of Railways?… Is it service withdrawal by stealth? They have said.. “Use it or lose it” Well, yes, we’d LOVE to use it, but can you at least make sure that it’s there to use when timetabled then please?. I’m not saying that is the case here, but, admittedly, it would get rid of the “problem” . But I have to say, it certainly worked for BR alright 50 years ago..They’d show just how few people were using it and that would be their case for closure. What they didn’t say, was how they’d “rigged” the services so that they were virtually unusable. Just see Dr. Beeching for details!! Just a thought!! Ding Ding!
PS. I should just add that I also fully support all of Bryan’s efforts. I think he is simply “piggy in the middle” here.
And to rigging train services as to be unusable we must add carrying out census of passenger numbers during school holidays when patronage was at its lowest. I agree 100% with Deckerman’s comments and sympathy for the position Bryan finds himself in.
Many thanks Ken. And yes, you are right about the dirty tricks they used back then.
I hope that just isn’t the case here.
I made a special trip from York to Blackpool on Saturday (4th) to try the Flexities and travel on the heritage service. Having parted willingly with my tenner, I was less than impressed to find roughly only half the heritage service running – I don’t belive that either of the first 2 morning departures from Pleasure Beach ran, with the cars coming late off Rigby Road – I think 230 must have gone straight off to Little Bispham. I seemed to spend large parts of the day standing at the Cabin heritage stop waiting for trams which didn’t turn up. I ended up doing three part-circuits on 147, which whilst very pleasant, wasn’t quite what I was expecting for my tenner.
Basics need to meet with the heritage service they need to run the 2 trams every day on time and then build on that. i have always said that it’s too pricey to ride on these trams and maybe the price structure should be changed especially if you can’t get a full day or full output of trams for the money what you have payed for.
As for Deckerman’s comment i totally agree.
‘I have always said that it’s too pricey’! What a ridiculous statement. The cost is an absolute bargain. £10 for a whole days travel on heritage trams, flexities and buses. Compared to a museum entry price the heritage tours in Blackpool are excellent value for money and offer much more in terms of distance and speed. In addition, the illumination tours are actually cheaper this year. Consider last season, many people bought a £3.50 travelcard and then paid £6 for a tour. Now you can have a tour for £5 or unlimited travel, including as many tours as you want, for only £10. It is the bargain of the century. Anyone who thinks the heritage tours are too expensive is living in an absolute dream world – these trams cost money to staff, maintain and overhaul. Where else is the money going to come from? Constructive criticism is one thing but statements like this belong under the heading of fantasy
I can’t argue with that. With the basic day ticket for just the Flexities and buses costing £4.50 “on the door” then a single tour on a heritage car for an extra 50 PENCE is a bargain as you say. Even if you manage to find somewhere to buy the ordinary day ticket for £3.50 (a bit of a challenge for a visitor) then you’re still getting a heritage tour for £1.50! Whether the £10 one is such good value on the days when BTS make proper use of it difficult by failing to run the full heritage service is more questionable. It’s probably good value if the whole service is run. What hours are the heritage services booked to run by the way, as I haven’t been able to get to Blackpool since Easter. With the daily service I’m hoping to get there before the heritage trips become evening only
I also think it would be a good thing ( although unlikely ) for the LTT to take over the heritage service, it’s also a great shame that the soon to be opened museum in Fleetwood isn’t able to gain permission to connect to the main line. I’m not knowledgable on the reason why but I’m assuming that the reason is that BTS won’t allow it or there would be to much red tape involved. This is a shame as it would enhance the heritage service and I’m sure the people running the museum would be dedicated to making it a success – a service for enthusiasts run by enthusiasts. I think Fleetwood owned jubilee car 761 deserves to run again, seeing as this class are the last new double declare built in Britain, I know 762 will run at Crich but one of these two cars should remain running at Blackpool , I think it would prove a popular car to ride on in the long term. Incidentally I’ve never forgotten my first visit to blackpool as an 8 year old back in august 1989, the trams were what I loved best even more than the pleasure beach, we stayed in Bispham so I had a nice ride to and from the easier beach each evening, our hotel room overlooked the little Bispham turning loop and I’d spend all afternoon being fascinated by the trams wondering which one we’d end up catching later that evening – I never caught one of the jubilee trams ! However I have a blown up sized photo of balloon 710 taken by my mum just after we alighted from it at pleasure beach, and if I’m correct this became the Alan Bradley death tram a few months later ! Other memories are riding balloon 718 in a McDonalds all over advert, riding an unidentified balloon with seats in a poor condition, falling asleep at around 10 at night on brush 623 in it’s viking hotel livery whilst being taken back by my parents to the hotel ( way past my bedtime I should add ) and of wanting to but never actually catching brush 626 in it’s mighty white all over advert. I so distinctly remember loving the weeeee ! noise the centenary cars made when they move off. I’m now 30 years old yet these memories have never left me, which goes to show how much of an impression the tramway made on me as an 8 year old, and how much I wish to see a successful heritage service so that 8 year olds of today and the future can enjoy the magic of the tramway as I did and grow up to be enthusiasts of tomorrow. I’ve only been back to Blackpool once since when I was about 15 ( no tram rides just fairground rides ) however I aim to visit next year and have relive my memories, this will include a ride on the flexities they must be sampled however I’m hoping for balloon 717 and brush 631 although a ride on standard 147 would be nice as I’ve never been on this class of tram……..only one thing thats a shame, unlike in 1989 I’ll have to pay adult price fare this time !
Trams in the Copse Road museum would have to cross a main road in order to join the tramway, no doubt involving traffic lights and a lot of expense. That might also have some bearing on the situation