After all the talk of delays (and let’s be honest there have been a lot!) the night of Wednesday 16th March 2022 will go do in the history books as the very first trams ran along the Blackpool Tramway Talbot Road extension all the way up to the former Wilko’s site. This marks the first tentative steps towards public services starting – although we still wait for confirmation of just when that may be.
The historic evening saw Flexity2 trams 012 and 017 allocated to testing with both being used to complete the initial gauging tests. As we have seen elsewhere in the UK these first tests are crucial to make sure that the infrastructure is all as it should be with the trams running at near walking pace along with an army of staff checking that there were no problems.
This is only the very start of testing and commissioning of the new line and its unlikely we are suddenly going to see trams along the extension night and day as the officials will now go back and look at the results of the test before further activity takes place. But despite that the historic nature of the evening should not be ignored as it is a big step in the right direction and before too long there will finally be a passenger service to Blackpool North Railway Station! Which after all the travails of the project is something to be celebrated!
Now let the debate commence about what service they can run on the line, particularly when there remain two Flexity2s out of service long-term.
What’s this barriers removed from the entrance to the line in Talbot Square?
Looks like something is about to happen! More barriers being removed!
017 and 012 sit in Talbot Square as testing gets underway.
Another shot the two trams with the Premier Inn building in the background.
With work still ongoing on the old Wilko’s site photography of the terminus remains a challenge but this view across shows the two trams with plenty of officials taking a close look. (All Photographs by Darren Bloxham, 16th March 2022)
From the videos I saw they need to do some major track cleaning with the amount of sparks between the wheels and tracks.
Good news for a change! If the Flexities are not available, then the celebrated and legendary ‘B’ fleet will be ready to return double deckers to Talbot Road after over sixty years.
That would be good to see. Hopefully the double decker doors will line up exactly with the platform stops.
Running B fleet won’t work due to non accessibility. It must be Flexity run. You’d also need to alter them as they ate designed to lock out the offside door so couldn’t use the island platform easily without having to set the reverse switches before unloading!
Just to add a bit of detail to Nigel’s comment, its just less than sixty years since a double decker crossed Talbot Square for the last time, but much longer for Talbot Road.
1963 Talbot Square and 1936 Talbot Rd ?
I’d agree with that. Unless there were any movements along Talbot Road after closure of the Layton route to/from Dickson Road.
Blackpool Transport spokesman quoted this week as saying trams will be running ” towards the end of the year or early next year.” That long to wait ?
The hotel construction has to be finished first and that was last rumoured to be November.
Any chance of getting a webcam portal set up on here to stream live images of the new extension when it opens ? Find a shop/ business on Talbot Rd willing to have a webcam installed on the outside of their premises. Crowdfunding for donations for the cost. It would be a fantastic boost for this site. You could stream it on You aTube live also.
Crack on then if you want it so much. Personally I can’t think of anything more tedious than a webcam on Talbot Road to catch the occasional Tram.
Yeah right Mr. Grumpy crack on being miserable.?
I expect that a Heritage tram could run to the North Station as a special event and would require a temporary stop such as that in use at Fisherman’s Walk on Tram Sunday or near Manchester Square for events involving Rigby Road Depot. Clearly, only the Flexity Cars would be able to use an island platform but it may be that 143 would be suited to such an event as such cars would originally have served the Layton Route. Of course, a Balloon wold hold more passengers and given that a premium fare could be charged for such an event, this would bring a good deal of much needed revenue to Heritage Trams. This would certainly be the case were such a trip to be either a one-off event or at most very rare (say, the Anniversary Weekend only).
Knowing Blackpool trolley poles habit of leaping off when least expected I wouldn’t take anything other than Pan fitted down there! And you can’t expect cars to be walked across the junctions! Heritage could offload at the platform with a correct risk assessment – its not like they haven’t used platforms before! (one Tram Sunday when the boats offloaded at Fishermans Walk platform springs to mind), though I think you will be able to get on and off on the other side to the island?
Therefore, a Balloon would be perfect and were 700 to be chosen, then it could even call at one side of the platform as long as it was arranged so as to enable the correct door to function, possibly the driver changing ends before any passengers could alight. Although 700 is B fleet, I believe its traditional livery would make it acceptable for such a tour.