On Wednesday 12th February, gale force winds reaching 90mph hit the Fylde coast, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake. Buildings such as Anchorsholme Library, the cage next to the wedding chapel at North Pier and even the famous Tower all sustained varying degrees of storm damage, and the Blackpool tramway did not escape unscathed either.
During the evening of February 12th, Fylde residents were advised to stay at home for safety reasons, and the tram service was suspended entirely – a rare event in the modern age, although commendably a full service was restored the following day. Once again, this highlights the durability of the Bombardier Flexity2 trams.
Considering that much of the tramway runs along the coastline, the system wasn’t too badly affected. The most noticeable victim of the severe storm was the southbound tram stop at Sandhurst Avenue. Here, the waiting shelter on the platform was badly damaged and looks as though it almost ended up on the promenade road! Perhaps surprisingly, a bus shelter sited at the rear of the Hilton Hotel on North Promenade suffered more, being completely destroyed. Perhaps the weather gods prefer trams to buses after all!?
This is the second time since the start of the LRV service that the shelter on this platform has been badly damaged with parts of it ending up in the roadway.