It seemed throughout 2020 and 2021 that the most regular type of article added to British Trams Online was in relation to timetable changes on UK tram systems – and 2022 is starting exactly the same as the very first news article of the year brings a new timetable in Blackpool whilst other tramways have been suffering from COVID related staff shortages leading to temporary changes there too.
Starting off as we so often do in Blackpool and Sunday 2nd January sees the start of the official Winter timetable. With the Illuminations being switched off after Monday 3rd January – and with tram timetables in Blackpool always changing on a Sunday – the enhanced evening frequency is no longer deemed necessary and so trams will run only every 30 minutes during the evening whilst the daytime frequency remains as it has for much of 2021 – every 15 minutes.
Operating hours of the service remains as before (first tram off Starr Gate at 0500, last tram back from Fleetwood at 0015 Monday-Friday, later start times at the weekend) and it is expected this service frequency will remain in operation until at least Easter (which is a late Easter this year in mid-April which hopefully gives Blackpool Transport the opportunity to train enough drivers to operate a more regular service for the summer season).
Head to the Blackpool Transport website at https://www.blackpooltransport.com/routes/BLAC/Tram?date=2022-01-02&direction=outbound to find out when trams will be running under this new timetable (you will need to alter direction of travel and date of travel to see the timetable for each day as the link to a PDF timetable currently takes you to the timetable introduced in August 2021).
Elsewhere in the UK and previously announced services have had to be reduced on various systems because of staff shortages. Nottingham Express Transit had to run a Sunday timetable on Wednesday 28th and Thursday 29th December and again from Saturday 1st January until Sunday 9th January whilst on Manchester Metrolink New Year’s Eve saw no trams run on the Airport, Ashton-under-Lyne or Eccles lines after 1700. Stagecoach Supertram have also seen a few cancellations over the festive period because of staff shortages.