Blackpool Heritage Tram Tour’s second Vintage Weekend of 2022 takes place from Saturday 30th April until Monday 2nd May and the tram allocations for the hop-on, hop-off tours have now been announced. The trams chosen are mostly as you would expect although Sunday should see a fairly rare outing for the illuminated Trawler.
The allocations (with all the usual availability/weather caveats) are as follows:
Saturday 30th April
A – Brush 631
B – Boat 227
C – Frigate 736
D – Centenary 648
E – Balloon 715
F – Bolton 66
Sunday 1st May
A – Balloon 700
B – Centenary 648
C – Trawler 737
D – Boat 600
E – Brush 621
F – Rebuilt Balloon 707
Monday 2nd May
A – Brush 631
B – Boat 227
C – Centenary 648
D – Bolton 66
E – Balloon 717
F – Balloon 715
The trams will be allocated to timetabled services as shown on this timetable: https://blackpoolheritage.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/event-timetable-may-22-page-001-1-scaled.jpg, All you have to do is match the letter to the tram to work out where your chosen tram will be!
As well as the hop-on, hop-off tours, the weekend will also see depot tours, bus tours, evening tours:
Saturday 30th April
1030 – Depot Tour at Rigby Road
1110 – Promenade Tour
1140 – Coastal Tour
1245 – Depot Tour at Rigby Road
1410 – Promenade Tour
1440 – Coastal Tour
1640 – Promenade Tour
1700 – Bus Tour to Fleetwood
1915 – Ghost Tram
Sunday 1st May
1030 – Depot Tour at Rigby Road
1100 – Bus Tour to Lytham
1110 – Promenade Tour
1140 – Coastal Tour
1245 – Depot Tour at Rigby Road
1410 – Promenade Tour
1440 – Coastal Tour
1810 – Starr Gate Special Evening Tour
Monday 2nd May
1030 – Depot Tour at Rigby Road
1100 – Bus Tour to Fleetwood
1110 – Promenade Tour
1140 – Coastal Tour
1245 – Depot Tour at Rigby Road
1410 – Promenade Tour
1440 – Coastal Tour
1800 – Fleetwood Special Evening Tour
Tickets for all the above and the hop-on, hop-off tours can either be booked on the day or in advance. The pricing structure remains the same as February’s Vintage Weekend:
Hop-on, hop-off unlimited travel – Adults: £18, Child: £9
1 Day Event Pass – £30 (includes hop-on, hop-off ticket, an evening tour (depending on the day as to whether this is the Ghost Tram, Starr Gate Special or Fleetwood Special), depot tour and bus tour)
2 Day Event Pass – £50 (includes hop-on, hop-off ticket, 2 evening tours, depot tour and 2 bus tours)
Weekend Event Pass – £60 (hop-on, hop-off ticket, 3 evening tours, depot tour and 3 bus tours)
- Full details of the event, including links to book, can be found at https://blackpoolheritage.com/tours/may-vintage-weekend/
Watching safely from afar enjoying my Bank Holiday elsewhere hard to avoid seeing images of largely empty trams trundling around plastered across social media. Is the headline prices of £60 for the event putting folk off? Is the lack of variety & quality within the fleet catching up on them? Are they struggling to get message out “Vintage Weekends” are hop on hope off to wider public given restricted booked circular format remains in operation rest of the time?
I would say ‘yes’ to all of the above – and there are probably a few other issues as well. However, what we’re seeing is horribly depressing for me, and what’s probably worse is there seems to be no real effort being made to address the situation. When unique and attractive trams like Bolton 66 and the Frigate are running empty to Fleetwood multiple times on a sunny Bank Holiday weekend, something has clearly gone very badly wrong!
I actually thought that this weekend was one of the better efforts for heritage events of late; the use of all three serviceable illuminated trams to Fleetwood being a notable highlight which I’d have been quite excited about a few years ago. However, I don’t want to spend my time riding around on filthy dirty trams on my own. I think back to 2013 (my favourite year for the heritage operation, despite its obvious flaws) and the happy times of well-filled trams filled with friendly people, when even time stood at North Pier waiting for the morning trip to Fleetwood was enjoyable thanks to the banter and the sense of community, that we were all part of something bigger, and we were all on the same page. What went wrong? I don’t know, but it increasingly feels to me like the Blackpool tramway I loved is gone, maybe for good. I hope things can get better again and with trams like 143, 279, 304 and 634 (all FTT cars of course!) potentially on the way, we could well be in line for another golden era. But will people still be around to see them, I wonder, or have the supporters of the past all been driven away and found other things to do?
The Heritage Team at Blackpool appear to be stuck between a rock and a hard place. Obviously a good revenue stream is vital for the operation now and going forward, but getting the balance right between catering for the enthusiast and the general public must be a headache. As an enthusiast I have to say that I am not surprised at the low patronage as personally I have ridden on every tram currently available at least twice and so have no real desire to repeat the experience, enjoyable as it was the first few times. And I suspect that is the same for most except the most ardent supporter of the operation. And I certainly wouldn’t want to fork out £60 for a three day pass. If, like me, you’ve been on a depot tour, why would you want to go again?
As for the general public, running an illuminated tram during the day seems a bit pointless, except possibly a few kids wanting to ride on the train. Although subject to weather patterns, open toppers come into their own when the sun comes out but there are only two operational boats at present. With summer coming, the third boat and ‘Alice’ should be prioritised. These trams are always popular, but it seems that money is being thrown at getting yet another totally enclosed balloon operational. Why? For the enthusiasts we have LTT 143 and 279 to look forward to, and I believe 304 is progressing well. What’s happening with the twin cars? I really do want the Heritage operation to be a success, but there needs to be a change of emphasis for both enthusiasts and the general public.
Got to say things like the Western Train operating yesterdays evening tour (in daylight) including a trip to Starr Gate looked well patronised as did some of the Trawlers workings. Reality is currently Illuminated Fleet best chance they have of scraping together some money in current set up. The current price structure (and lack of beach-tower ticket) has all but killed boats ability to make meaningful money.
I don’t subscribe to the view that its reasonable to expect “something new” each time to justify going again. Indeed its the “something new” culture that has seen projects like 723 & 631… I want quality not quantity.
Some fair points here but realistically no heritage tramway can offer ‘new’ trams on a regular basis and Blackpool is no exception. If you’ve ridden on all of the fleet twice and that’s enough, then to be honest its going to be difficult to regain your interest by the sound of it. That said, I do believe that you can utilise what you’ve got in more interesting ways – the welcome return of trams being posed side by side at Fleetwood Ferry last weekend is an example. Moving forwards I’d rather have less journeys to Fleetwood – many of which run virtually empty and just rob the more lucrative promenade section of some of the most popular cars in the fleet for a couple of hours – and a return to a few tours on special days with duplicated runs to Fleetwood. Things like 143 & 227, 304 & 621, 600 & 700, 736 & 737 posed at the Ferry would all be lovely to see and create great photo opportunities as well as a long tram ride. There have been some encouraging signs of innovation this year, but the high prices and filthy dirty trams let the rest down!
To clarify I said ‘at least’ a couple of times. This has given the impression that I’m easily bored! No chance. I have ridden many of the heritage fleet numerous times! But my best experience has to be when 621 was held up by a busy Flexity loading between Rosall and Cleveleys (can’t remember the exact location). The volunteer driving decided to pause to give the Flexity headroom, but shortly afterwards another Flexity was approaching from the rear. So as not to sabotage the regular service schedule, he ‘opened up the throttle’ (so to speak) and gave the best ever ride towards Cleveleys, completely bringing back fond memories of me riding the trams as a kid, on the reserved track, at speed, rocking from side to side. I will never forget that. I just want something to look forward to, something that makes me WANT to visit again.
There are many unresolved issues with the current heritage operation which, currently, doesn’t seem to be appealing to either of its target markets. enthusiasts and general public. Enthusiasts are tired of the lack of variety, the unloved appearance of the fleet and the astronomical price rises. Similarly the pre booking and extortionate costs are putting off the general public and resulting in the low passenger levels seen over the weekend. In pre covid times a Boat would arrive at North Pier with maybe 15-20 enthusiasts on board and then fill with perhaps another 20-30 members of the general public willing to pay £3.50 for a novelty ride to Pleasure Beach. These same people will.not pay £6 or £18 for a family of 4. They also don’t want to be whisked away to the wilds of Little Bispham. The target audience is, and always will be, the stretch from North Pier to Pleasure Beach. This was always milked in the past and lead to good loadings and lots of money on a nice day. Now that has been lost. The heritage operation was heading in the right direction around 2016 and just needed tweaking to remain fresh and novel. Now it appears to be heading down the wrong path and with no apparent will to fix the glaringly obvious problems.
Agree with large amount of what you say. Don’t think all was well in 2016 mind. Felt like cracks were started to appear I certainly felt less and less comfortable as a passenger as year went on. The 272/T2 warning signs (failure after failure and then well that day in September) & the Derailments in quick succession the same week and it becoming increasingly obvious the promised quick return for Alice amongst other pledges would fall by wayside. The engineer deficiencies have always been there if we been honest. The random waste has been feature since upgrade (random repaints, random hybrids, random projects)
The decision to focus on longer journeys really baffles me, in the past I’ve heard volunteer crews state they’ve taken £1000 in a day on a Boat car just by running between Pleasure Beach and North Pier all day. Running tours to Fleetwood with half a dozen enthusiasts on board isn’t the answer! As boring as some enthusiasts may find it, I strongly believe that the heritage operation should focus on the Pleasure Beach to North Pier section (illumination tours aside obviously), with longer trips offered on Bank Holidays and a few other peak days in addition, plus various themed tours such as the ghost tram, fish & chips specials etc. I think this would be a real winner with the right mix of trams available!
I completely agree with the points made above. I can’t understand how it has been worked out that it would be more profitable to operate 1 coastal tour and 2 promenade tour per day utilising 1 car, therefore only operating 3 journeys across the course of the day. In the previous operating method, it must have been more profitable even with just 1 car to run a Boat shuttling between North Pier and Pleasure Beach where numerous journeys can be made.
First thing to say about all this is Covid 19 hasn’t gone away. With the current unavailability of testing and not even any more vaccine for most people, I (and a good number of others) won’t be using any form of public transport for a long time yet, which unfortunately includes Blackpool’s trams.
But the real killer for the heritage operation, in my opinion, is the lack of variety of vehicles, high prices and limited hours of operation. My favourite blackpool tram journeys were always late night (almost midnight) trips to fleetwood on a balloon on a freezing cold night in the middle of winter with the rain lashing down outside! No enthusiasts to be seen, just huddled people dashing to or from their night shifts, steaming up all the windows. With the sanitized operation of the current heritage department, all that atmosphere has gone.
So here’s what they should do… Make the price to travel on ALL Blackpool’s trams (and buses) the same. Bring back the old travelcards and make them valid on anything at any time, just like they used to be. They should forget about heritage tram tours and concentrate on running a regular ALL DAY service, available to all, unless they come up with something like Melbourne’s dining trams, which does NOT mean stopping for somebody to bring out fish and chips in a tatty bit of paper that you have to eat on your knee! I don’t think a proper heritage service with a proper fare structure will ever happen though because they know damn the modern trams would not be able to compete and would be running entirely empty, especially if Alice was returned to service, more series 1 balloons were restored (and I mean restored not just repainted) to their original open top condition and efforts were made to return as many of the boats to service as possible.
Finally, before anyone starts on about accessibility and european directives on wheelchair access, please remember we are not in europe any more. Plus other historically significant operations (Lisbon being an example) seem to manage to stay exempt from intrusive modern legislation.
With volunteer crews and the extremely low running costs of a traditional tram, a £1 flat fare for a single journey between Bispham and Pleasure Beach should be easily achievable.
I think half the problem its the “extremely low running costs” narrative fails to capture the eye watering hidden costs associated with operating vintage vehicles in 2022. The reality is genuine restorations (as opposed re-paints and minor attention) are going to cost £300k upwards moving forward. Do you really want a £300k+ restored vehicle out at midnight in lashing rain..? not from a business (and certainly not from a conservation perspective) as makes no sense.
As for £1 flat fares seems ludicrously cheap. Was honestly nothing wrong with the £3>£4 Promenade Tickets as was reasonably priced. I don’t think anything particularly wrong in principle with offering pre-booked tours on top of hop on hop off the issue currently is just do not have the operational fleet capable justifying model (eg. 59, 143, 304, Box Car 40, Lytham 43, Hover Tram, Rocket)
Apart from a few weekends in 2002 Balloons have never operated winter service to Fleetwood so.not sure what journeys you are remembering here.
Thw whole point is you CANNOT offer single journey on a TOUR service. It has to be a round trip. You can, of course, pay for a rounder and get off, which many used to do. Why would they charge £1 on Heritage when the LRT fare is £2.60?
Its NOT a European directive on accessibility, it is UK LAW, which is why European tram systems still have step entrance vehicles.
Where do you get low running costs? There are engineers,cleaners etc to pay for and its hardly cheap sourcing parts for 50 – 120 year old vehicles – why do you think so many are out of service!!
Whose paying for the restoration of your fleet of series 1 balloons? And whose doing it?
The modern trams would not run empty as the majority do not care what they get on and the thousands of elderly, disabled etc and those withbheavy shopping are quite happy with a Flexity.
Time to take the rose tinted specs off and smell the coffee.
The heritage tours seemed to work when a normal day was a Pleasure Beach – North Pier shuttle, usually worked by boats in the summer which would be carrying healthy loads throughout the day. Isn’t it glaringly obvious the average punter would be far more interested in spending under a fiver on a 30 minute round trip up and down the prom, rather than near on a tenner for a 90 minute round trip out of Blackpool to Fleetwood? Yes, the tours need to cater for the general public and the enthusiast, but that’s what the gold weekends were for – that’s for the enthusiasts, the rest of the time it should be primarily an appealing tourist attraction.
IMO the ideal standard heritage operation would be a two car Pleasure Beach – North Pier shuttle, with maybe two trips a day up to Bispham for a ride along the cliffs, and perhaps a service that, during the summer, runs later into the evening to take advantage of crowds emptying out of places like the Tower and the Pleasure Beach when they close for the day. Im sure it’d be easy to fill up a boat car on a summer day for a quick ride up the prom for a few quid.
It’s frustrating because there’s an absolute gold mine of a heritage tram fleet sitting there – yet it doesn’t reach its full potential, and here we are giving 723 a repaint (why? Why was a tram with a decent coat of paint covered in vinyls for a few weeks, knowing full well precious funds and resources would have to be spent on repainting it after?). When will the work on 706 start? Are we close to seeing 230 and Set 5 back in action? Is getting 147 back in service a priority (and if it isn’t, it really should be)?
Hopefully the upcoming returns of 143, 279, 304 and 634 should give the fleet the boost it so desperately needs.