The latest heritage tramway to confirm their reopening plans for the 2021 season is Blackpool’s Heritage Tram Tours with the first public heritage trams scheduled to run on Saturday 29th May and then on selected dates for the rest of the year. The familiar pattern seen in 2020 of pre-booked tours will be in operation again with dates announced for Promenade Tours, Coastal Tours and Illumination Tours.
As with 2020, social distancing will still be in place on board the trams which means each tour will have strictly limited availability and pre-booking will be required to secure your place on the tour – booking is now open for all dates in 2021. The Blackpool Heritage Tram Tours website gives full details of what dates tours will be running and then on each day what type of tour is running, what time and what type of tram (Vintage, Open Top Single decker, Double decker etc.). Tours don’t run on every day from 29th May although there should be plenty of dates available to suit your trip to Blackpool (there isn’t the room to list every single date tours do run here so please check the official website – link at the bottom of the article).
The different types of tours which will run are:
- Promenade Tour
North Pier & Tower-Little Bispham-Pleasure Beach-North Pier & Tower
Adults: £4, Children: £2
- Coastal Tour
North Pier & Tower-Fleetwood-Pleasure Beach-North Pier & Tower
Adult: £6, Children: £3
- Illumination Tour
Pleasure Beach-Little Bispham-Pleasure Beach
Monday to Thursday – Adult: £8, Children: £4, Family ticket: £20
Friday to Sunday – Adult: £10, Children: £5, Family ticket: £25
With the restricted availability on board and each passenger being shown to their seats by the conductor these will not be hop on-hop off tours with boarding only available at the starting point of the tour. There won’t be the option of Travelcards this year, but a Tour Pass can be purchased for £15 which allows you to book any four individual Coastal or Promenade tours during the year.
Details of special tours – such as The Ghost Tram and some new favourites – will follow in due course.
Its been written many a time on this website and elsewhere but 2021 will continue to be a different year for our heritage tramways and this pre-booked model was successful in Blackpool last year and with the continued restrictions in place (and even as part of the roadmap we can’t see there not being social distancing measures and things such as face coverings required for some time yet) will be the way ahead for a while yet.
- To see which tours are running on which day and to book your place on any tour during 2021 visit the Blackpool Heritage Tram Tours website at https://blackpoolheritage.com/