The five trams set to run on each day of the Enhanced Weekend of heritage tram operation in Blackpool over the forthcoming May Day Bank Holiday weekend have been confirmed. With a new timetable in operation for the weekend only five trams will be needed on each day instead of the previous six but there will still be plenty of trams out for you to enjoy.
The trams due to run are as follows:
Saturday 29th April
A – Balloon 717
B – Brush 621
C – Rebuilt Balloon 707
D – Bolton 66
E – Boat 227
Evening Tour – Frigate
Sunday 30th April
A – Balloon 700
B – Railcoach 680
C – Balloon 723
D – Boat 600
E – Bolton 66
Monday 1st May
A – Boat 227
B – Balloon 700
C – Brush 631
D – Bolton 66
E – Balloon 713
Evening Tour – Boat 227
On the Saturday and Sunday with a Model Tram Exhibition taking place at the Solaris Centre heritage trams will be running on New South Promenade to Starr Gate including a temporary stop to give you direct access to the exhibition. The Monday sees trams only running as far south as Pleasure Beach.
As mentioned in the first paragraph this is a new enhanced weekend timetable which will run as its reduced the output from six to five trams. This is down to the removal of the hourly Cleveleys/Thornton Gate trips which were often little used and so they will be concentrating on having more journeys on the Prom with the Boat Cars sure to be popular on these tours.
The weekend also sees Evening Tours on both the Saturday and Monday evenings. The Frigate’s tour on Saturday includes a trip down to Starr Gate.
- Full details of what is planned over the weekend plus ticket prices available on the Blackpool Heritage Tram Tours website at https://blackpoolheritage.com/enhanced-weekends-2023/
Good to finally see some much needed pragmatism. The reduced output perhaps could be reduced further say 2 Promenade 2 Coastal Tours + 1 Mini Tour (weather dependent) in the future as well. I note that they have also removed the shop opting to be inside the Solaris Centre taking a stand at the Model event. That means one less tram having to be prepared Saturday/Sunday as well.
Getting back to around four trams (with swaps and/or additional evening premium/themed tours) has seemed almost inevitable for some time. In recent years have had the almost commical situation where the number of heritage trams have nearly matched number of service cars with the service overwhelmed and the heritage tours like the mary celeste rolling past the packed LRT stops.
I know there’s little that can be done without extra financial resources, but it’s a shame to see the number of operational trams in the heritage fleet dwindling.
Some variety would be welcome. Reactivating 304 is a good start but it would be lovely to see 143, 147, 706 and the twin car sets back on the prom.
I seem to recall public appeals to overhaul 706 and OMO 8- what happened?