The weekend of Saturday 10th and Sunday 11th August saw visitors to Blackpool turn their heads skywards as it was the return of the Airshow. Due to the opened and closed by the Red Arrows everyone is encouraged to view the spectacular from the Promenade with the Tower Headland a particularly popular vantage point. This leads to very large crowds and means that for safety reasons the tramway runs a split service.
From 1230 until 1800 on both days the tramway was split into two. The description of the Blackpool Transport website stated that this split service was between Central Pier and North Pier which in effect meant trams from Starr Gate ran as far as Central Pier whilst those from Fleetwood Ferry ran to North Pier (with the North Station service also running).
This also impacted Blackpool Heritage Tram Tours who were only able to run Promenade Tours in the morning before the closure came into effect.
This was the second weekend in a row that tram services were affected. On Saturday 3rd August anti-immigration protests took place in the town which saw the tram tracks in Talbot Square and around North Pier blocked meaning it wasn’t possible for trams to run whilst the Police dealt with the situation.
With North Pier being as far as trams could go from the north spare trams were also stabled here. And it lead to this “money shot” as we have three Flexity2s in a row – with all three livery styles currently seen represented. On the loop line (most commonly used by Heritage Tram Tours) is 012 in its Blackpool Pleasure Beach advert, the centre line is occupied by 003 in the standard fleet livery and then 011 and its Coral Island advert completes the scene. (Photograph by Peter Dockerty, 10th August 2024)
Even though the service was advertised through to Central Pier, which could easily have been achieved, trams ran only as far as Manchester Square using the crossover at Foxhall to turn round.
Similarly, after all the hype of the new Blackpool North Station extension, why on earth did the northern section not run from Fleetwood to Blackpool North Station. It would have used the same stop northbound and Talbot Square southbound and picked up the usual heavy loadings from Blackpool North Station.
Have there been any North Station Loading figures published yet?
They can’t run through to Central Pier as it would require wrong line working back to the crossover. Once not an issue, now………….
Yes they can under normal single line working protocols, and indeed that’s what BTS intended to until instructed last minute not to by Council organisers. Likewise BTS had initially planned to run all northern section services to N Station as Michael suggests until the council instructed not to. I’m told the council actually wanted them to stop at Cabin.
The Council are twitchy for some reason at the moment.