Blackpool Council have confirmed that in the first two months of operation, the Blackpool North Railway Station extension of the tramway has seen over 80,000 journeys which have either started or ended at the newest terminus on the 139 year old tramway.
The passenger numbers were revealed in a wider press release from the Council which was celebrating the first 100 days of the Holiday Inn (located as part of the Talbot Gateway development as well). In that time over 14,000 guests have stayed at the hotel with 8,000 rooms sold, 5,000 meals at Marco’s New York Italian Restaurant and 12,000 breakfasts sold.
Phase three of the Talbot Gateway development will include a new seven storey 215,000 square foot sustainable office building due to bring in 3,000 civil service workers to the area when opening in 2025. Land is also being acquired for phase four which will see a £65 million Multiversity educational campus created due to attract another 3,000 staff and students to the area.
The short extension of the Blackpool Tramway finally opened June after the completion of all work surrounding the terminus. So far, it has been served by a dedicated service from both Starr Gate and Fleetwood Ferry with each service running every 30 minutes. This will change as from Saturday 31st August however, when a new timetable will be introduced which will see the majority of daytime services run Starr Gate-Fleetwood Ferry via North Station. The frequency will be every 15 minutes. Evenings will see the extension not served by trams.
80,000? Hmmm!
Do the figures not make sense to you? What is your issue with them?
Hmmm?
What does Hmmm! actually mean? Perhaps you might explain?
sounds reasonable, thats around 1333 passengers a day, which is about 100 passengers an hour. 4 trams to the station, 4 from the station an hour gives a dozen passengers for each journey. Quite reasonable, it will no doubt grow
A quick calculation using the 80000 passengers figure compared to the latest ORR footfall figures of 1.9 million for Blackpool North Station which are for the year 2022/23 would seem to indicate something like 25% of station users have used the trams. That seems quite reasonable to me.
When I have a spare day it has been my intention to spend it at North Station Tram Stop with a clicker, and actually count passengers on and off. I am sure my figures will of course tally with those provided.
A dozen passengers on each journey means there is room for another 210 on each tram!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.Ian’s figures not mine!Still looking on the bright side at least there’s plenty of room for luggage etc!
The winter figures should make interesting reading!
Jack.
See, I told you the extension would be a WUNDERBAR success!
So I experienced the compulsory drag in and out of North Station yesterday. Surprisingly I’ve not seen anyone majorly whinge about it yet – perhaps they are just grateful of a more frequent service! I did think it could have the dwell time tightened though. When I’ve been in and out on other Tramways it only waits for the time needed to change ends (add a minute or two for people dithering in Blackpool).
It appears that everyone who embarks or disembarks on a T2 or T3 tram is being counted as automatically using North Station!The majority will no doubt be using the extension trams on the existing tramway(NOT North Station) to supplement the withdrawal of 33% of this service over the last year!
I’m local ,only around 10 minutes walk from North Station and still looking for a tram anywhere near 15% occupancy(222×15% =33 passengers!)85% empty!
There’s an old adage which reads”You can make numbers appear what you want them to be”
I wonder if the Council will comment!
So going by your metric, you think that every tram that goes to North Station should be leaving there at full capacity with no room for anyone else to get on?
Is that correct?
NO!
Fairly simple to understand I would have thought but obviously not to everyone.In simple terms each tram wherever it goes to or comes from should on average not be run at a massive loss!
If the Council declares the network is viable despite lack of passengers would anyone believe them?
That’s everything wrong with public transport in the UK – it should NEVER be run as a profit venture. Look in a lot of places abroad, mostly subsidised and a good service, therefore it gets used, therefore it turns a profit by default.
You do know that statistically the number of people going to or from a terminus is low compared to the number who use it in between? So the numbers on/off there are probably quite good. Go to Sheffield or Nottingham, hardly anyone on at the terminus so should it be abandoned there?
Exactly. And going by Jack’s metric, Starr Gate and Fleetwood stops should be abandoned too, and the network should only run between the Pleasure Beach, and Cleveleys
Trams will be rammed with civil servants and students, when the building projects are completed. It will probably be run as a commuter tram line extension, with the no trams to North Station after 7pm current timetable made permanent when the Lights finish.
Why will commuters and students coming by train use the tram? The college and office are less than 5 minutes walk.
They will commute by tram….if I lived less than 10 mins walk from the tramway I would get the tram to the office or college. Try to think outside the box…????
The station is right by the development – there is NO Tram stop between North Station and the development, arriving by Train you would walk up the stairs and past Sainsburys! Living elsewhere in the Blackpool area you would Tram it but not when coming in by Train!