Ah, Blackpool and its short extension up Talbot Road to a new terminus close to Blackpool North Railway Station. Its provided us with plenty of column inches over the past several years as we see some progress and then frustration as outside factors keep delaying the start of tramway services. With no sign of when trams may be able to start running – delays in the construction of the hotel look set to delay this until sometime next year – this latest pictorial article takes a look at things around the new tram terminus.
Once you’ve got off the train at Blackpool North and make your way towards the tramstop one of the first things you will see is a subway leading to the island platform stop. Or at least it will eventually. For now work is underway on the construction of this subway and there are some glazed side panels now in place. (Photograph by Peter Dockerty, 24th August 2023)
A couple of weeks later and progress has been made with the concreting of the pedestrian footpath above the subway now complete. The side wall tiling is also now completed. (Photograph by Peter Dockerty, 5th September 2023)
Looking through the fences at the Dickson Road end of the building site towards the tram terminus. Trams have run on these tracks but its now over 12 months since they did and since then the construction works on the hotel have meant any progress with the tramway has well and truly stalled. The new Holiday Inn now dominates the site on the right and looks as if externally at least it is nearing completion. The scissors crossover allowing trams to access either side of the island platform are in the foreground. (Photograph by Mark Cufflin, 28th August 2023)
Rather sceptical this extension is going to have the number of passengers that it is hoped for.
Any reason why Blackpool Tramway now runs the full summer service at 4 trams per hour?This is a 33% cut in services from the original 6 per hour!Despite numerous emails to both Blackpool Council/Transport nobody is available to supply this information!It cannot be shortage of Tram drivers due to the extra drivers already being employed/training for the new promised extension.
THE TRAMS ARE ALMOST PERMANENTLY FULL WHEREVER YOU TRY TO GET ON!THERE HARDLY ANY FARES BEING COLLECTED AS IT IMPOSSIBLE FOR CONDUCTORS TO GET THROUGH!
Numerous emails about almost anything to do with the tramway are totally ignored and I am NOT talking about an office clerk but VERY senior individuals at both the Council?Transport.This extension was always due to fail for numerous reasons which the Council have been aware of since 2010 !YES 2010!
Have they recruited any more drivers for the extension yet? I was under the impression that Blackpool Transport were always short of tram crews – its probably just as well the opening of the extension has been delayed actually, as just imagine how much worse the service to Fleetwood would be then! I’m sure that when the tramway upgrade happened, a year-round, 10 minute end-to-end service was promised (the plan was at one time to supplement it with B Fleet cars running to Cleveleys but that’s another story entirely!), yet now they cannot even provide that at the busiest times of the year. Unlike some people, I maintain that the upgrade absolutely had to happen, but it is sad to see the tramway still being run in such a pathetic manner. You can have the best trams and infrastructure in the world but without sufficient staff and good management decisions it will ultimately fail.
The problem of no fares being collected but trams being full is one that also happens in Sheffield and has happened with bus services in the past. And it’s al the fault of the electronic ticket machines!
Ticket machines are so clever these days, they can give a minute my minute report of how many fares have been taken and designs even have GPS so the report from the machine can say where the tram or bus is at the time. However the one thing they can’t do is actually SEE people. So here’s what happens… Tram gets full (eg school home time), conductor can’t get through the tram so although there might be over 100 passengeres, only 20 fares are collected. When the machine is interrogated by the depot reader at the end of the day, the Einsteins in the office think ‘there were only 20 people on that tram. That’s not busy! No need to increase the frequency or send a dupe there.’
Of course the conductor could say something about the overcrowding. But when they are only paid a few minutes for cashing in at the end of a long shift are they really going to take the time to report it to a depot inspector (indeed is there one there any more?) Of course they’re not. They just chuck the cash down the counting machine and get off home as fast as possible!
Now in the good old days in Blackpool (before the downgrade – it can only have been an upgrade if it made things better) there were a team of inspectors out and about, all in radio contact with each other, keeping an eye on crowds and moving the tram fleet around accordingly. Also, way back nearly 100 years ago, then manager Walter Luff completely understood the problems of fare collection on busy vehicles, which is why he made it his mission to replace the fleet (especially the huge capacity Dreadnoughts) with new centre-entrance vehicles, so the conductor never had more than about half a dozen rows of seats to move from his normal position to take every fare on the tram!
I’ve worked a Blackpool Balloon on the prom on a busy day, and I’ve even done it without the aid of a ‘top guard’ covering upstairs. No putting a silly board across the stairs to shut the top deck off (mainly because they were often missing). With a mechanical Almex machine and a proper leather cash bag, it was more than possible to do. I had left by the time the electronic machines came in for tram conductors, but when I visited I noted how cumbersome they were to use (requiring both hands) and how slow they were to actually issue a ticket! With this terrible kit I don’t think a modern day conductor would have a chance!
So here’s the challenge to BT… Give me a Balloon with an old school driver and an almex machine and send us out for a day shadowing a Flexcity with a modern equiped crew and lets see who takes more money? Then we’ll see if the so-called upgrade was worth it.
I go for an April 1st tramway opening date. Not sure what year though……?
Public transport is the latest platform for the unique British sense of humour. I look forward to seeing this collosal project open in 2037.
Daveid76
Did you read my letter?Even 2037 is OPTIMISTIC!
I really don’t understand why so many of the ‘experts’ commenting here about the delays to the completion of this project seem to totally ignore the real reason behind this delay. As far as I can make out it is totally outside the influence of either Blackpool Council or Blackpool Transport Services. The construction of a hotel by a private developer is something Blackpool Council cannot control, they and their transport company are victims of the problems of a third party
The crucial mistake Blackpool Council made was signing off a design plan of a terminus slap bang next to a hotel yet to be constructed. The terminus should have been planned as a stop on Talbot Rd opposite the Sainsbury store. If this had happened trams would have been operating on the extension before the old Wilkos was demolished.
The real reason behind the delay is that Blackpool Council and Blackpool Transport Services put the terminus in the wrong place. Unless those organisations are composed entirely of fools they must have known what was going to happen and how long it would take to complete. In my opinion the terminus should have been placed in New Larkhill Street, a partially pedestrianised street with no through traffic along the side of Sainsburys. Only a single track terminal stub would have been necessary as the service is never going to have more than one tram operating it. This mistake is nothing new. The depot for the new trams was put in the wrong place. It should have been opposite the transport offices.
Are we any clearer yet how will the service will be operated? My fear is that they will take the easy way out and just send every tram round via North Station, adding say 6-8 minutes to every journey. I hope I am proved wrong .
Two things. One: How close is this terminus to the railway station? If it is not REALLY close then its purpose is defeated….people would go by tram if they then were deposited CLOSE to the trains. Across the road doesn’t count. (I think of various places where the trams even penetrate the station buildings….as indeed used to happen at a Belfast railway station. With luggage one does not want to have to struggle across roadways etc! Two: I fear that this whole project has suffered from a total lack of long-term planning. We shall see when, if ever, the whole project opens. Jphn Gilbert
25 yards, from getting off the tram to the railway station entrance via the underpass. Even the morbidly obese or lazy can manage that. It’s a shorter walk than you would do getting off a Zurich,Vienna or Prague tram and going to the main station.