Blackpool’s heritage trams need at least £150,000 of funding if they are to run again in 2025 according to reports in the media (including the BBC). Having been suspended since November 2024 following a full review of their operation by Blackpool Transport Managing Director, Jane Cole, it had been hoped that they may return to the rails this year, but there is currently no funding in place to allow this to happens with warnings that if it isn’t found soon they will miss the complete year from the Prom.
Blackpool Transport’s Head of Heritage, Bryan Lindop, is quoted on the BBC News website: “At this moment we can’t run any trams, we’ve got no income, and we need some money. We need at least £150,000 to spend on various people who can do all the work that we need.”
Any heritage service would again have to be based out of Starr Gate Depot, which is said to add to the complexity of the operation as this facility would need to be shared with the modern trams and also leads to increased out of service running for the trams.
Funding would also be needed to ensure the long-time survival of the heritage trams.
A spokesperson for Blackpool Council said: “We are working with Blackpool Transport Services on a solution that would aim to see the heritage trams return as a feature during the Lightpool festival. In order for the trams to operate solely from Starr Gate depot, complex operational issues need to be overcome.”
The Lightpool Festival runs between 15th October and 1st November 2025.
Unless I have completely lost the plot when this news was originally reported on the BBC it mentioned at least £25,000 being needed but just a couple of days later and the sum has increased to £150,000 – and that probably isn’t a big increase in inflation in two days!
Whilst the operation of the heritage trams remains an unknown at the moment, Tramtown reopened on Good Friday. The attraction is based in the former Fitting Shop and has seen new displays added with a selection of trams (including Boat 600, the Trawler and Bolton 66) on view, and for the first time is not just open for guided tours. It is open every Monday and Saturday until further notice from 1000-1400 with guided tours also available between 1400 and 1500.
The figure of £150,000 came from Mr. Lindop. The figure of £25,000 was attributed by the BBC to ‘council-owned Blackpool Transport this week’ in the Blackpool Gazette earlied this week and, if I recall correctly, by BBC Lancashire.
You’re not going mad, Brian quoted £150,000 in a online interview but the media seem to be saying it is £25,000????♂️
I wonder whether the Heritage Lottery funding application came to anything. Nowadays such funding tends to find its way to somewhat more ‘woke’ projects rather than to what many consider to be irrelevant relics of the past. However, as the Blackpool Heritage Trams are still considered by many to be iconic, hope still exists. Of course the funding may primarily be required for the upkeep of Rigby Road Depot, so that at very least the priceless fleet there can be held safe from inclement weather, vandals and other hazards.
I should imagine that £150k can easily by raised by an appeal for donations. After all, so many have expressed dismay at the withdrawal of the service that it would not be unreasonable of a good many of those to contirbute financially to the return of the heritage service. Every little will help.
I think you will find that a lot of people who complained about the withdrawal of the heritage service would NOT contribute to an appeal for funds. For starters, lets be honest here, a lot of the people moaning probably never even rode on the trams, they just like seeing them trunding along the prom and expect them to run on hot air without any maintenance or staffing costs. Some people probably enjoy moaning about the service not running more than they enjoyed seeing the trams! Us Brits are very good at moaning!
Also, a lot of tram fans have gone very weary of the false promises and raised hopes of the Blackpool heritage operation. If they raise the £150k (or whatever amount it is today!) they’ll no doubt have the begging bucket out again before long as some new unforseen challenge that is too complicated to explain to us mere mortals has come along. Its not unreasonable that people should be given some idea of what their money will be spent on, and ‘complex operational issues’ just doesn’t cut it as an explanation of what’s wrong!
Plenty of money has been given to aid the heritage operation for causes such as restoring cars 663, 704 and 706, and the repairs to Rigby Road depot roof. None of it has achieved anything visible. So where’s the incentive to keep digging into our pockets?
If a child asked their parent for £50, it would be reasonable for the parent to ask what they want it for… and if they then came back and asked for another £100, then again, I’d expect it to be questioned. Eventually patience will run out, and I suspect for many tram enthusiasts, Blackpool have now reached that point. I want the heritage trams to continue, but unless the way they are managed changes significantly, I won’t support it and honestly can’t see any way for it to succeed until some key people step aside and give someone else a chance to make it work.
Just a minor correction, if I may. ‘Complex operational issues’ is the latest (non) explanation wheeled out by Blackpool Transport Services, not by anyone from the Heritage side, to the best of my knowledge.
This one seems to have been thought up at short notice, after the original implication in the first statement, that safety issues were involved, had been dismissed by the Office of Rail and Road after a local newspaper had approached them for comment.
I suppose that ‘complex operational issues’ is nice and nebulous, and clearly, at least, perhaps, in the minds of those composing these statements, far too complex for ordinary mortals to be able to grasp!
But why should enthusiasts be expected to give money to prop up what is supposed to be a commercial operation? How much money (not to mention time and effort by volunteers and supporting organizations) has already been handed over and vanished into the void? The fund for the overhaul of Princess Alice being an example that springs to mind? If BTS had got along with one less Flexcity that would have more than covered the overhaul plus this magic £150,000 they are now begging for. Actually had Alice been overhauled promptly and sent back out on the prom, she would probably have brought in a 150,000 profit by now on her own. Back in 1997 a tram out on specials brought in well over £500 in cash every day. I know because I was one of the guards chucking it down the Rigby Road coin counter!
I’d suggest that if an extra Flexity hadn’t been bought that money would never have been available to any heritage tram.
Was a lottery application ever put in? And they wouldn’t find a start up anyway.
Everyone seems to have missed the fact that what this article has revealed is that it clearly states it was Cole who stopped the heritage trams from running last year, just before they would have made some big money from the special Christmas events involving the Western Train. They also had to hand back some case for a lucrative wedding private hire.
Now can someone tell me what kind of transport manager pulls their own vehicles off the road for no apparent reason, just before they are about to make a load of money?
What are these complex operational issues? Does someone think we’re too stupid to understand a technical explanation? And as BTS is owned by the council, so by definition also by the people of Blackpool, I think a good explanation to those people is well overdue!
Cole appears to be completely unable fulfill the role for which she was employed. Never has the helm. What would Walter Luff, Joe Franklyn and even Tony Depledge think if they could see what a mess their successor has made! Joe particularly well understood the showmanship needed to be a success in Blackpool and what a great asset the old trams were. Cole is not fit to shine their shoes, let alone walk in them! The council should remove her with immediate effect!
It was stated fairly early on (after the rushed intial statement) that the decision was made by Blackpool Transport, so its hardly a sudden development that its being stated. At the end of the day decisions are made that others may not like and only history will tell us eventually if they were correct. Most people (non-enthusiasts) would consider that for a transport operator a heritage operation is never going to be their priority – whether certain people like it or not that’s is probably how it should be.
I understand that the Western Train specials were fully booked. Assuming, for the sake of example, that 90 seats were occupied, at a cost of £20 per seat, each trip would have generated revenue of £1800.
One wonders what happened between the specials being advertised, and the sudden cancellation, less than a week later.
I haven’t seen any clarification of what the £150,000 is for – is it for repairing the Rigby Road building, is it for fitting safety devices to the trams, or general maintenance on the trams, or adapting Starr Gate depot, or something else?
And when he says the heritage operation has no income… well, it did have one! I still haven’t seen any real answer as to why operations were suddenly cancelled, including the sold-out Western Train Christmas event. (Strictly speaking, they do still have a little income from the Tramtown tour fees anyway.)
Can I ask a question arising from the previous Blackpool article but comments were closed? Someone mentioned the need to “walk” trolley cars through pointwork. When and why did this come in? The post-2011 overhead was designed to accommodate both trolleys and pantographs…?
Trolleys have been walked through on and off since the upgrade. They realigning for the Flexities is not kind to fixed head trolleys and is best compromise, hence some of the frogs need to have trolleys walked through (this is a precaution as much as anything to avoid the 1 in 100 times one might pop off). The new frogs at North Pier are also in the wrong place (but no one wants to admit this).
The easiest and quickest way to raise money would be to operate the heritage trams and thus let them earn their keep, as first begun on 29/09/1885. Oh no, they are not allowed out, for reasons best known to those in charge. How about less meaningless platitudes and a fuller explanation of where the real problems lie? Most of us have the intelligence to understand H&S rules and will feel more inclined to donate money if not patronised via social media.
Alas, when I read the mixture of corporatespeak and wordsalad in the second statement, I rather feared for the future of Heritage operations.
Ms. Cole began that statement with ‘I would like to reach out to everyone who has expressed their concerns about the future of Heritage Tram operation.’ Frankly, I don’t want her to ‘reach out’ to me.
I simply want her to have the good grace to be frank with everyone!
They can’t run them to raise money because the money is needed to get them back into service.
Interestingly the last statement/interview didn’t mention any operational issues (other than the now removed statement about moving equipment to starr gate)
Yet regular Heritage services were being operated out of Starr Gate for most of 2024 without any problems. I travelled on several of them. Indeed, a number of special Christmas services using the Western Train had been advertised, and had apparently been heavily booked.
Until, of course, the plug was suddenly pulled by BTS in early December.
I would assume anything required for more than a basic service is what needs to be moved. I wonder if Tramtown is taking up residence then the workshops will be totally out of bounds as workshops, hence items need moving.
I could pick it apart dissecting every word and reflect on the ten+ years of abject failure and illustrate damage it has done to preservation efforts right across the UK in the process but at this points it is so obvious to anyone with there eyes open seems little point… It is what it is..
But surely that should not dissuade interested people from questioning the series of doubtful and, frankly, contradictory, statements issued by Blackpool Transport Services? Why should we simply sit back and accept it?
No, of course we must not sit back and accept it. Either Blackpool Transport is hiding the true reasons, or they don’t know what they are doing. Since Covid they have made no real effort to reinvigorate the heritage service, running it down with no proper workshop facilities or paint shop, and seemingly blaming it all on H&S restrictions, while making no real efforts to redress the situation.
Has this all been authorised by the Council’s Transport Committee – or is it just management policy? Does anyone actually know?
I have still not heard a sensible explanation for the sudden cancellation of all heritage last December.