When it was announced last year that Blackpool Heritage Tram Tours would be taking a break once the Illuminations were over in January it was mentioned that things would start to run again from Easter and now full details have been announced of their operating plans for 2024.
If you’ve read any of the press releases which have come out from Heritage Tram Tours you will have realised that 2024 was likely to be a quieter year with operations based on Starr Gate rather than Rigby Road. This does mean that fewer trams will be available for service at any one time (due to capacity constraints at Starr Gate) and so there are set to be fewer tours being operated during the year (with Coastal Tours taking the biggest hit, which may not be a bad thing as it could make these more “special” and attract more passengers). Despite that there will still be plenty of operations to enjoy a heritage tram ride in Blackpool – including the return of “Event” and “Enhanced” weekends.
Event Weekends
To feature hop-on, hop-off timetable, bus tours, themed tours and Starr Gate Depot tours
- 25th to 27th May
- 24th to 26th August
Enhanced Weekends
Includes a hop-on, hop-off timetable
- 21st July
- 28th & 29th September
Promenade Tours
North Pier-Little Bispham-Pleasure Beach
Scheduled to run on the following dates:
- 29th-31st March
- 1st, 3rd, 6th, 7th, 13th, 14th 20th, 21st, 27th, 28th April
- 4th, 5th, 6th, 8th, 11th, 12th, 18th, 19th, 25th, 26th, 29th May
- 1st, 2nd, 8th, 9th, 15th, 16th, 22nd, 23rd, 29th, 30th June
- 6th, 7th, 13th, 14th, 20th, 21st, 27th, 28th July
- 1st, 3rd, 4th, 6th, 8th, 10th, 11th, 13th, 15th, 17th, 18th, 20th, 22nd, 24th, 25th, 27th, 31st August
- 1st, 7th, 8th, 14th, 15th, 21st, 22nd September
- 5th, 6th, 12th, 13th, 19th, 20th, 22nd, 24th, 26th, 27th, 29th, 31st October
- 2nd, 3rd, 9th, 10th, 16th, 17th, 23rd, 24th, 30th November
- 1st, 7th, 8th, 14th, 15th, 21st, 22nd, 28th, 29th December
Coastal Tours
North Pier-Fleetwood (break)-North Pier
Scheduled to run on the following dates:
- 30th, 31st March
- 1st, 3rd, 6th, 7th, 13th, 14th, 21st, 28th April
- 5th, 6th, 8th, 11th, 12th, 18th, 19th, 25th, 26th May
- 2nd, 9th, 15th, 23rd, 29th June
- 7th, 13th, 21st, 27th July
- 1st, 4th, 8th, 15th, 18th, 22nd, 22nd August
The Full System Tour
A tour taking you across the whole Blackpool Tramway network lasting around 4 hours
Due to run on two dates in 2024:
- 5th May (Balloon 723)
- 29th September (Balloon 717)
Ghost Tram Tour
Hear spooky stories as you travel on board a tram from North Pier to Fleetwood and back.
Scheduled to run:
- 25th May
- 22nd June
- 27th July
- 24th August
- 5th, 12th, 19th, 26th September
- 3rd, 10th, 17th, 31st October
- 7th, 14th November
Other themed tours and Illumination tours will be announced later in the year. Booking for all the tours above are now open on the Blackpool Heritage Tram Tours website at https://blackpoolheritage.com/. Details of the Promenade and Coastal Tours include the type of tram which is due to be allocated to each journey – either a Single Deck tram, Vintage Double Deck tram, Double Decker B (modified Balloon), Double Decker C (non-modified Ballon) or Open Top Single Deck Tram.
Maybe, with the trams being based at Starr Gate, with its state-of-the-art tram wash, the heritage fleet, such as it is in 2024, will actually look clean.
That, in itself, will be a major change for 2024.
The Flexity tram fleet may also get a look in through the tram wash too as it is filthy at the moment with pantograph grease all over the cantrails of every serviceable tram and many expired adverts. 001 is still carrying adverts for a venue that closed many years ago!
Here’s hoping!!
You’d think with the current need for as much cash as possible the highly lucrative previous promenade tours would return, with the hop on/off mini tours many more people were attracted to it and open trams were often full. But they would rather run empty Fleetwood tours with a ridiculous break.
Talbot Square junction which has to already cope with the normal tram services will now have the addition of numerous trams per hour crisscrossing the A584(Promenade) to and from North Station with the advent of the new tramway extension all of which will severely affect the A584 traffic flow both North to south and reverse journey!
Might it just be possible that hundreds of Heritage tours will add to the confusion,
congestion and utter chaos that this absurd Extension will bring to Blackpool!!!!!!
Despite attempts going back a few years asking Blackpool Council/Transport “How is it all going to work?”Not one single reply from very senior people have actually stated I am wrong in any of my comments over all these years!
I believe our present tram system has the potential to be the best in the country but the extension may well prove to be a VERY BAD IDEA!
And not one single reply from very senior people have actually stated you are right either….!
The current traffic lights at Talbot Square are on red for as long as it will take a tram to cross already when the pedestrian crossing sequence is activated. Get rid of the large zebra crossings in front of the Tower and revert to a road with light controlled pedestrian crossings and lose the “shared space” and the main cause of the delays on the road will disappear.
Trams passing by on the Prom on Heritage tours will have 0 impact on the junction. Its not exactly Metrolink’s Piccadilly delta! A few Trams an hour crossing are the only extras added into the mix – Heritage trams have been running through here for 12 years now. Any problems will be caused by motorists blocking the yellow box – 100% NOT the Trams fault.
Numerous extra tram journeys per hour? I look forward to seeing the timetables covering the extension route… a tram every 5 mins in each direction ? … no chance of that, one every 15 mins more likely so I would not describe that as excessive.
Three trams per hour from Bispham to Pleasure Beach via North Station.
Three trams per hour from Pleasure Beach to Bispham via NorthStation.
Those are the plans for High Season.
Each Tram journey will cross the A584 twice!(There and back!)Three times two equals six plus three times two equals six.This equates to twelve journeys per hour crisscrossing The A584!Thus a tram every five minutes will cross the promenade at the Talbot Square junction.Actual proposed time is One Hour and two minutes but I’ve not worked to seconds!Note:All tram journeys take priority over all other traffic except emergencies,
thus traffic on the A584 will be subject to numerous tram movements which were previously non existent adding to an already accepted major traffic issue in Blackpool.
When will people come to accept that in some circumstances there may not be ANY answers for the simple reason that there is too much traffic on roads which were not designed to carry the amount of traffic now prevalent!I don’t have any answers but what you do NOT do is come up with schemes which actually make the issues worse!
If you believe that twelve tram movements per hour crossing the A584 is excessive I would respectfully suggest you compare it with the 35 tram movements per hour in each direction that cross Oxford Street and Princess Street in Manchester City Centre. That comes out at a possible maximum of 70 movements and hour although obviously some crossing moves might involve simultaneous crossings in each direction reducing the actual crossings to something between 50 and 60 per hour. In the case of Princess Street the highway is one of the busy cross city bus routes. All this seems to be achieved without any problem day in day out.
Just to clarify, Trams (and rail bound vehicles in general) have priority over ALL road vehicles including blue light vehicles. This is because its easier and safer for an emergency vehicle to momentarily slow down than a Tram or train to come to a stop.
Also where have you got your proposed times and service pattern from, nothing has been published yet and won’t be until Ghost running.
The crossings will take seconds so won’t cause that much of a delay, the biggest problem will be cars not clearing the box junction and especially on an illuminations Saturday!
I think that it is very likely that the trams will be delayed by vehicles blocking the tram lines through the junction, especially during the illuminations.
Peter,
It is more than likely the other way round as trams have priority.Trams will be crossing the promenade continuously thus having a massive detrimental effect on all promenade traffic both North to South/South to North.
Jack, have you seen the junction? Its always full of cars ignoring the yellow box junction!
Just to clarify one recurring point made in a number of comments. The issue of priority at junctions isn’t quite as clear as some would have it. Priority is allocated at each junction on the basis of need. Trams do not gain absolute priority at all junctions. At some key busy junctions trams may need to wait their turn just like other traffic. At some junctions degrees of priority may change at different times of day in line with the direction of peak traffic flows.