John Sisk has been awarded the lucrative contract to construct the greatly anticipated extension of the Blackpool tramway up Talbot Road to serve North Station. This is the latest positive news to suggest that this development is very much a live project, with press releases indicating that construction work is expected to start in early 2018.
Sisk will be responsible for making the planned 550 metre, double-track extension into a reality with a scheduled opening date of April 2019 reportedly set. Local transport authorities have already offered more than £16 million of funding to enable the project to go ahead, with Blackpool Council expected to top up this amount in order to complete the work. Trams are expected to alternate with the existing Starr Gate to Fleetwood service still operating, alongside an intermediate service with trams running both north and south from the new North Station stop. Two new Flexity trams are on order from Bombardier although it is not known when these will arrive in Blackpool, with delivery having previously been mooted for late summer this year.
I work for a utility company and I’ve attended meetings with Blackpool’s tramway project team to discuss engineering design and construction co-ordination issues. I believe that orders have been placed now for all the utility diversions and it’s intended that utility construction works will start later this month as part of Blackpool’s phased road closure programme. It requires some complex traffic management to re-route the traffic. No doubt the locals will make their feelings known through the media! Not long to wait to see visible progress on site. I would think tramway construction will start sometime around April 2018. It’s a big undertaking for the Council, but if it goes well it hopefully strengthens the case for future tramway investment.
Good news. That pointwork makes for interesting photographs, but it will be good when trams finally use them and go to North Station once more.
Interestingly Trams never approached North Station as the new extension will. The closest is the old Layton route which went down the side, so this new extension is a reopening and slight diversion of Layton! I just think its a shame that it will be difficult to add an extension due to the terminus arrangement and they should go right to the door not make youw alk through an underpass!