You can now book for an Illumination Tour in Blackpool during September, with confirmation that throughout the month all tours will be in the hands of Balloon Cars with the Illuminated feature cars set not to be ready until later in the extended illumination period. As with the August Bank Holiday weekend, pre-booking is essential as there will be limited capacity on board the trams.
The tours can be booked on the Blackpool Heritage Tram Tours website with a revised fares schedule having now been introduced for 2020:
Monday to Thursday tours will cost Adults £8 and children £4 (a family ticket is £20 – 2 adults and 2 children or 1 adult and 3 children)
Friday to Sunday fares are £10 adult and £5 child (family ticket £25)
Tours start from Pleasure Beach once the lights are switched on each evening (with switch on time changing each week as the nights start to draw in) with the first tours due to run on Friday 4th September and then every night except Saturday 5th September for the rest of September – all these dates are now on sale. When booking you can choose either the lower or upper deck with the tram having a reduced capacity of 16 downstairs and 24 upstairs. As usual the tours run north to Little Bispham before turning south and back to Pleasure Beach. You can alight on the way back at any of the heritage stops at Bispham, Cabin, North Pier/Tower or Pleasure Beach but once you’re off, you’re off – there’s no re-boarding possible.
It is hoped that the Illuminated feature cars will return later in the illuminations but the work on the Western Train and Frigate has been delayed by the Coronavirus pandemic which means they aren’t ready to run just yet. The engineers at Rigby Road are now back after being furloughed with the aim of finishing the work as soon as possible.
At the same time as details of the Illumination Tours were announced further Promenade Tours have also been released for September weekends – Saturday 5th and Sunday 6th September, Saturday 12th and Sunday 13th September, Saturday 19th and Sunday 20th September. These tours will leave North Pier/Tower at 1600 running to Little Bispham and back, with the plan being that they will be operated by “vintage tram”, which will be either Bolton 66 or Standard 147. Booking of these tours can be made here. Tickets for these tours cost £4 for adults and £2 children.
And if all that wasn’t enough for you The Ghost Tram will also return, with tours due to run on Friday 30th October. Details of how to book this click here.
It seems to be a sensible and pragmatic approach to use Balloons and other double deck trams on these tours. Given the need for social distancing, trams such as open boats and the Trawler 737 would offer so few seats that using these would probably prove not to be economically viable. Most likely when the illuminated trams become available, really only the Western Train would offer sufficient capacity to be useful while limited loading is in place and maybe, at a push, the Frigate.