With Blackpool’s Illuminations started to shine once more from Friday 3rd September a new timetable will be introduced on the tramway to allow resources to be more concentrated in the busier evening period. As usual on the Blackpool Tramway the new timetables will be introduced slightly ahead of the illuminations with the first operation being on Sunday 29th August.
The main change to the current timetable is that the daytime intermediate service from Starr Gate to Little Bispham will no longer run with a 15 minute frequency running all the way from Starr Gate to Fleetwood Ferry throughout the day. Looking at the timetables provided on the Blackpool Transport website it appears there is no differentiation between days of the week on the frequency (just the start times with first trams Monday to Friday being 0500, Saturday 0600 and Sunday 0700) with trams running every 15 minutes until around 1700 every day of the week.
Then from 1700 trams will run every 7-8 minutes with every other tram only running as far as Little Bispham. There appears to be no difference in end time for the service with the final Starr Gate-Fleetwood being at 2315 seven days a week and the last Starr Gate-Little Bispham at 2330 (both of which then obviously return to Starr Gate).
In addition to the standard clockface timetable there is also an additional service which leaves Starr Gate at 1405 and runs only as far as Fisherman’ Walk and then returns at 1500. This is presumably a school special but is currently listed to run seven days a week.
It could be that the timetable hasn’t been updated correctly of course but that is how things are currently planned from Sunday 29th August.
Unfortunately, with it starting from 29th August it does mean that the Bank Holiday weekend has two days where the reduced frequency will operate during the day. Let’s hope there are a few specials to help cater for prospective visitors to the town.
Blackpool Transport have reminded passengers to leave plenty of time to travel as there my be occasions when the tram is too full and you have to wait for the next one. There will remain teams at selected busier stops to help with the boarding and alighting of trams.
- The new timetables can be views at https://www.blackpooltransport.com/routes/BLAC/Tram?date=2021-08-30&direction=outbound (you need to change direction of travel and date to see the required timetable)