Apart from the departure of several redundant trams for pastures new, there hasn’t been a great deal of interest on the Blackpool tramway so far in 2012, with work to upgrade the system to modern standards now nearing completion. Vehicle interest has usually been confined to the new Flexity2 trams, which have become an increasingly common sight on the tramway between Starr Gate and Bispham as the training of drivers on the new rolling stock steps up.
Two of the modern supertrams are used on most weekdays, with cars 001 and 002 being the most commonly sighted of late. Sadly, as has been reported elsewhere, both of these trams have acquired very bad wheel flats which spoil the otherwise almost silent running of the cars. Hopefully this will be attended to before the trams are launched into passenger service in the spring as such issues will not do the tramway’s public image any favours at a time when locals and holidaymakers alike need to be encouraged to use them as a method of transportation.
More interesting however, was the first appearance this year of traditional trams when rebuilt Balloon cars 718 and 723 were both out and about on Thursday 26th January. Both cars reportedly ran to Little Bispham, probably to test new overhead wires as this section has been out of bounds to the Flexities recently. 723‘s appearance was particularly welcome as this car is not expected to have its entrance doors modified, and was widely assumed to have already run its last journey in Blackpool. It will be interesting to see
whether this outing will be a one-off, or whether the tram remains in the active fleet for 2012.